In response to the media coverage of the affair, a protest was held outside the Canadian embassy in Manila and the Philippine Ambassador to Canada, José Brillantes, described it as an "affront to Filipino culture.
[2] The boy, John Luke Joachim Gallardo Cagadoc (gallicized as Jean-Luc), was born in 1998 in Manila to Filipino parents from Pampanga and Palawan.
In April 2006, schoolteacher Martine Bertrand, who was assigned a role of school lunchroom monitor at École Lalande, sanctioned the then seven-year old Luc on ten separate occasions for what the school called "disgusting" and "piggish" eating habits: using a fork to push his food onto a spoon before eating it.
In a Chronicle article, Bergeron expanded on his comments, claiming that Luc was sometimes disruptive, which was the reason for his sanctions and not his fork and spoon habits: [In my conversation with (the mother)] I said, "Here, this is not the manner in which we eat."
A score of protestors outside the Canadian Embassy in Manila appealed for "respect for cultural diversity" and affirmed "we eat with a spoon and we're proud.
Fo Niemi, the Cagadocs' lawyer and the executive director for the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), had to actively discourage people from the Filipino community from protesting in front of the school board.
Theresa was reportedly considering an appeal to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body,[7][8] while members of the area's Filipino community wanted to take the case to court.
[7] In April 2010 the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal mandated that the school reimburse the Cagadocs CDN $17,000 in moral and punitive damages.