A hospital in Quebec's Laurentides region, Hospital of Saint-Eustache, reportedly sent 10 emails to employment agencies to recruit female orderly candidates with "white skin" only, according to La Presse.
La Presse reported that each message indicated similar selection criteria, including: "a white [hospital attendant]," "WHITE WOMAN ONLY," "MUST BE A WHITE WOMAN," "the [attendant] MUST BE WHITE SKINNED."
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The 10 messages, which La Presse said spanned 18 days throughout November 2020, were reportedly signed by four different human resources employees at the CISSS des Laurentides.
In emails obtained by La Presse, the CISSS human resources department explained that the requirement was motivated by a "difficult patient" who "only wanted a woman of white skin colour."
The Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, an organization dedicated to promoting and upholding Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, has released a statement in response to this story.
"Discrimination and racist practices are prohibited in job postings and [...] they cannot exclude people on the basis of the 14 grounds listed in the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, including colour and sex," it said.
According to CTV News, the CISSS Laurentides has launched an investigation.
