Dispute over table behaviour circled globe

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

Last spring, The Chronicle was first to report allegations that swirled around the table manners of a 7-year-old Roxboro boy.

The report sparked international demonstrations and made headlines around the world.

On April 12, Luc Cagadoc said he was punished by a school lunch monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating with a fork and spoon. He learned the Filipino custom of using both utensils simultaneously from his Philippine-born parents.

Cagadoc told his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, he was reprimanded at least 10 times for eating with a spoon and a fork. As punishment, he was told to change tables to eat by himself.

The Grade 2 student said the monitor called his table habits “disgusting.�

Gallardo, who runs a day care out of her home, said she was shocked by the response of school employees when she questioned them about the disciplinary action.

According to Gallardo, Lalande principal Normand Bergeron told her, “Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat� and “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.�

Bergeron told The Chronicle it was Cagadoc’s behaviour that led to the punishment.

“Luc can be turbulent,� he said in April. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It’s normal, he’s a child. He is in a period of learning.�

“I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,� Bergeron said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with them. That’s all I ask.

“Personally, I don’t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.�

International reaction

Outrage over the incident spread as the story was re-broadcasted across the globe.

Demonstrators carrying giant cardboard spoons and forks marched in front of the Canadian Embassy in Manila. Protesters held signs that read “We eat with spoons and are proud of it� and “Respect cultural diversity.�

Discussions between the school board, Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB), and a Quebec human-rights group representing the family stalled last summer.

Today, Gallardo is still seeking a public apology from CSMB, however, Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) is asking for much more.

The case is in mediation before the Quebec Human Rights Commission and could be resolved before spring, said CRARR executive director Fo Niemi.

However, if the parties do not reach an agreement the case will be subject to a full investigation by Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal and could “drag on� for two more years, he said.

CRARR, which is providing guidance in two other ongoing Montreal-area cases against the CSMB, hopes to bring about “systemic remedies� at the board, Niemi said.

“It’s not often the individuals that are at fault but sometimes it’s the entire organization and its procedures and its policies that may be deficient that led to this situation,� he said. “The school-board policy dealing with equity and intercultural relations seems to be outdated.�

Niemi hopes the case will lead to “long-term beneficial consequences� for CSMB’s students, personnel and families.

Cagadoc, now 8, enrolled at Ecole Ste. Geneviève (in Ste. Geneviève) last fall. It takes Gallardo 20 minutes to drive her son to school, but the change was worth it,

she said.

“Luc is doing fine,� she said. “(He) is really happy in the new school and I’m happy about it, but of course, now (the case has become) a big issue. I would like for the school board to at least apologize. It’s good if they give disciplinary action against the (lunchroom) teacher and the principal, but I would accept a simple ‘Sorry.’

“If they would just simply have said ‘Sorry, it will never happen again’ . . . I would have never (told) anybody.�