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 A lawyer for breast cancer patient Elsa Torrejon says she will file an application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. (Sun Media/Stan Behal) |
TORONTO -- A breast cancer patient who says she was laid off after her diagnosis will file an application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, her lawyer said yesterday.
"Immediate reinstatement, lost wages, damages because she's experienced discrimination, and public interest remedies" will be included in the application, said Michelle Mulgrave, of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre.
After her diagnosis a few weeks ago, Elsa Torrejon, a leasing agent with Weston Property Management, told her employers she had been scheduled for surgery on Feb. 13. Pressed for plans in writing, Torrejon gave bosses Geri and Doug McDonald a letter indicating she would work until Feb. 12, then take time off for surgery and chemotherapy. She wrote another letter the next day saying she would work until a new surgery date was picked.
Doug McDonald replied by saying Torrejon was resigning from her position, which Torrejon says she never did.
Asked whether the company would reconsider, Geri McDonald said yesterday: "I don't even want to discuss that."
"No response, no comment," she said.
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"What they're doing for me is very unfair," said Torrejon, a single mother of two teens.
Virginia Yule, a breast cancer survivor and executive director of Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada, which publishes a free online booklet about coping with financial concerns, was sympathetic.
"Imagine having to deal with the emotional roller coaster and then also worrying about not being able to support or contribute to your family, not being able to afford the medication ..." she said.
"I have to pretend everything's okay because I don't want to make more problems for them," a tearful Torrejon said of her teens.