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Canadian tech company faces allegations of targeted hostility against Jewish employee
A Canadian global tech company is facing a workplace harassment probe over complaints of targeted hostility against an employee because she is Jewish.
In allegations filed with Quebec’s labour tribunal, Amanda Rafael said she faced a pattern of hostility and psychological harassment prior to wrongful termination while employed at Lightspeed Commerce Inc., a publicly traded e-commerce company that has been touted as a major Canadian success story.
Rafael, 34, who worked in sales, claimed that starting Oct. 7, 2023 — the day of terror attacks on Israel by Hamas — several co-workers turned against her. She said she began receiving antisemitic images, threatening and denigrating messages, and was frozen out of shared sales leads, while she said the company failed to intervene or protect her after she alerted supervisors.
“You kind of feel like you’re drowning,” Rafael said in an interview. “All the bad feels is what I felt: Lonely, confused, hurt, isolated. And ultimately it led me to have a really bad breakdown.
“I was confused how these people can be my friends one day and then the next day hate me with a capital H, having not gotten into any verbal arguments or anything like that previously.”
She said her disconnect from colleagues came immediately after the Hamas attacks. “They knew I was Jewish and they knew that I am a Zionist, that I lived in Israel before.
“It escalated to the point where I couldn’t do my job anymore, not because of the things I was feeling, but realistically, I wasn’t getting any calls, which we called leads, which are businesses that you get introduced to to sell your product to,” she alleged.
Rafael said she went to her doctor and was advised to take sick leave, which she did.
Her complaint was investigated by Quebec’s labour standards authority and forwarded to the province’s administrative labour tribunal for a hearing, as part of Quebec’s two-stage occupational complaints system.
Lightspeed is challenging her allegations at the tribunal.
In a response to questions from National Post, the company said it takes the allegations seriously and investigated them but won’t comment on cases with pending proceedings.
“Lightspeed is committed to providing a safe workplace environment and has a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence, harassment and discrimination, including hate speech and antisemitism,” the company said in its written response to the Post. “We expect all our employees to treat each other and every member of our communities with respect and integrity, and to foster a diverse and inclusive culture.”
Lightspeed is a point-of-sale and payments platform started in Montreal in 2005 and has since expanded to clients in more than 100 countries. When it went public in 2019 it was declared the most successful initial public offering by a Canadian tech company in almost a decade and touted as a “unicorn,” referring to the rarity of highly successful venture startups.
It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
During the province’s labour standards investigation of Rafael’s complaints, according to documents filed with the tribunal, a manager with Lightspeed told an investigator the company’s internal probe did not support a finding of psychological harassment.
The manager told the investigator the workplace atmosphere after the October 7 attacks was tense “on both sides,” but management ensured it remained safe, documents say. The manager said the memes and posts at issue were sent from employees’ private accounts. The manager denied the company failed to intervene.
Rafael started at Lightspeed in 2021. Her last day there was in February 2024, and her complaint was filed six months later.
Her complaint alleges, among other things, that a colleague posted a photograph of Adolf Hitler beside a quote saying: “Jews are not people, they are animals” four days after October 7. Other colleagues called her a “f–king Zionist,” shared social media posts expressing “kill all Zionists,” and said they didn’t want her in their presence.
Rafael alleges that while some colleagues added Palestinian flags to their online profiles, she was asked to remove Israel’s flag from hers. She said her request to be transferred away from these colleagues was refused.
She logged into the company’s internal sales team messaging system to find colleagues discussing a sales-call script informing her clients that she no longer worked there and introducing themselves as their new point of contact, she alleges in her claim.
“Is there something I don’t know about here?” she asked in the chat, according to documents filed with the tribunal.
Rather than her return to work after sick leave, the company planned her departure, she alleged.
“No one should be subjected to this kind of treatment at work for being Jewish,” Rafael said.
Montreal lawyer Michael Hollander, representing Rafael, declined to comment on the specifics of a pending case but praised his client for speaking up when others remain silent.
“It’s an honour for me to be able to represent somebody as courageous as Amanda, who’s willing to go to the extent that she’s willing to go to get satisfaction and enforce her rights,” Hollander said.
Her case is supported by the Lawfare Project, an international organization that uses legal action to support civil and human rights for the Jewish community.
“What Amanda alleges is not ordinary workplace friction or a mere political disagreement. It is targeted discrimination against a Jewish employee, coupled with an alleged failure by the employer to protect her dignity and safety,” said Benjamin Ryberg, Lawfare’s chief operating officer.
“Lightspeed is a global public company. Amanda’s experience raises serious questions,” Ryberg said.
The hearing for her case has not yet been scheduled.
• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys
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