[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/jain_harish02.jpg” caption=”Harish Jain, a member of the Order of Canada. “]The men, taxi drivers who had immigrated to Hamilton from India, were looking for help. Their bosses were discriminating against them, giving them less valuable fares and calling them racist names. They came to Harish Jain who taught and studied human rights, human resources and labour relations at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. Together the drivers and Jain called the owner of the taxi company. Jain still remembers standing in his office listening to the woman as she talked to her employees.

“Hearing that woman on the phone – the way she spoke to these men. That's what made me a community activist,” says Jain.

Today, 20 years later, Jain was recognized for his work with racial minorities and immigrants when he was inducted as a member of the Order of Canada.

Jain is a professor emeritus at the DeGroote School of Business. His research and professional interests include diversity management, employment equity, affirmative action, human rights in employment, and multiculturalism. He is lead author of several books and monographs and has published more than 60 articles in academic and professional journals.

“It is important to me that the research that I'm doing is not esoteric, that it can be translated into action,” says Jain. “Studies that I have done for the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and Multicultural Canada (now Canadian Heritage) have made a difference for visible minorities.”

Through his more than 30 years at McMaster, he worked with a number of groups locally, nationally and internationally to advocate for racial and other minority rights. As a result of his work with the taxi drivers in Hamilton, Jain became a founding member and co-chair of the Hamilton Mayor's Race Relations Committee, a group that was model for other committees across the country.

“I am particularly proud of my work at the community level. I have been able to help people right here in Hamilton,” says Jain.

He has also worked with federal and provincial government departments and agencies such as Labour Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian, Quebec, and Nova Scotia Human Rights Commissions. In April 2005, he was appointed a commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Most recently, Jain has held the Donald Gordon Chair at the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business, a position that he still holds. While in South Africa, he assisted in the development of employment equity legislation brought in by former President Mandela's government and has been a policy advisor and consultant to the South African Department of Labour, assisting with the transition to de-segregation in all sectors of society.

“I have enjoyed a very interesting career,” says Jain. “I feel very humbled to be named to the Order of Canada. It also makes me very proud to be Canadian.”