The Metropolitan Police Department has been sued for discriminating over race and sexual orientation. As far as LL knows, though, the department has never been sued for discriminating against a Canadian. Until now!

In a lawsuit filed last week, former MPD personnel staffer Laurie J. Samuel, a Canadian who has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years, says her supervisor discriminated against her because of her Canadian background.

Among the supervisor’s alleged offenses against Samuel’s heritage, according to the lawsuit: sabotaging her application for a work permit, telling MPD Chief Cathy Lanier that Samuel was in the country illegally, accusing Samuel of “talking white,” and condescendingly explaining the American concept of “play cousins”.

In fact, there was apparently a lot of explaining going on—-Samuels says her supervisor would often begin sentences with “Here in America…”

Samuel’s lawyer didn’t respond to a request for comment, while a spokesman for the District’s Office of the Attorney General declined to comment.

[documentcloud url=”https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2173077-mpd-canada.html”]

Photo by Darrow Montgomery