A B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint against Douglas College and an employee.

The complainant alleged that the college and her former colleague, Debbie Palmer, discriminated against her because of her race, sex, and family status in breach of the human rights code.

She was terminated from her job in 2018 before completing her probationary period.

According to her, Palmer “targeted her for bullying” because “I am an Asian woman”.

She also alleged that Palmer “believed that an older white male was more suited for my job”.

As well, the complainant claimed that Palmer had said that “there’s too many Asians in her building”.

Also, the complainant alleged that Palmer, “enlisted co‐bullies who are all white”.

“They made lunch plans and excluded me then waited till I left the room and they would sneak out. They said they hate Chinese food,” according to the complainant.

These were all recounted by tribunal member Paul Singh, who rendered a decision dated March 26, 2019 dismissing the complaint.

Singh noted that Palmer denied allegations made by the complainant.

According to Singh, the respondents have “advanced a credible, non‐discriminatory explanation for the termination to rebut any inference of discrimination”.

Singh wrote that the respondents claimed that the woman was fired because of "poor performance issues".

Singh also devoted a section in his ruling about the alleged comments of “too many Asians” and not liking Chinese food.

“These allegations are denied by Ms. Palmer,” Singh noted. “If the allegation were true, they would be inappropriate.”

Singh noted that even if true, "there is no reasonable prospect of the Complainant proving that an isolated incident of exclusion and some commentary about Asian cuisine and racial makeup of a residential building was so virulent or inherently damaging to the Complainant’s dignity so as to contravene the Code".