MLA calls for human rights commission

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 6, 2006


A proposal to reinstate the B.C. Human Rights Commission was introduced in the provincial legislature on Tuesday by Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Raj Chouhan.

"Human rights will not protect themselves," said Chouhan, the rookie NDP critic for human rights, multiculturalism and immigration. "We need a clear commitment to diversity and dignity and that has to be fulfilled if you want equality and freedom from discrimination."

The former Human Rights Commission was disbanded by the B.C. government in 2003, and left British Columbia as the only province in Canada without an independent body to protect the public interest on matters of discrimination, Chouhan said.

To back up his claims, Chouhan pointed to a report recently released by the International and Human Rights Law Association at the University of Victoria, that claims the elimination of the commission has resulted in less access to justice and a failure to comply with international human rights agreements.

"British Columbia has been chastised by the United Nations and human rights activists across Canada and other countries because this flouts our international legal obligations," Chouhan said. "Education, research and monitoring of human rights is no longer carried out effectively in this province."

Recent allegations of harassment levelled against the Richmond Fire Department are an indicator of what can happen when a province does not have a specific body set aside to conduct an overall review of the state of human rights in the province, he said.

"If we had a human rights commission, it would have the responsibility to educate the public, and a commissioner could have called a public hearing into the experiences of women working in male-dominated professions," Chouhan said.

But Burnaby's Liberal MLAs said the commission is no longer necessary because the remaining human rights tribunal - a separate body that investigates individual human rights complaints - has become more efficient.

"They're just rehashing the debate we had three years ago," said John Nuraney, MLA for Burnaby-Willingdon. "When we removed the human rights commission, there was a reason."

Nuraney said the commission was unnecessary because it simply acted as a "filter" on the tribunal and did little more than delay the investigation.

"The time it takes to hear complaints since the new process was put in place is much less than before," he said, noting that the process used to take up to two-and-a-half years and now can be completed in about seven months.

Nuraney also said that the education and advocacy roles of the commission are still being carried out, both by the tribunal and by employer groups and professional associations.

"Nothing has been taken away," Nuraney said.

"Advocacy and awareness of human rights still continues to be done, both by the tribunal and by the education of employers and their associations.

"Employers are aware of what the rights of their employees are, and that is more important than anything else," he said.

"Every individual today in our society understands their rights," Nuraney said. "I've yet to see a person who has been mistreated who doesn't understand that he has a right to appeal. I think the education is fairly deep in our society about what our rights are.

"And if there is a person who feels that he doesn't understand what his rights are, I'm sure he knows where he or she has to go to collect that information."

Nuraney also said that anyone who believe their rights have been infringed upon can also contact their MLA.

"That is our role," he said.

Richard Lee, the Liberal MLA for Burnaby North, also said the tribunal and other non-profit agencies have done a good job of replacing the commission.

"I don't see any evidence that the system is not improving," Lee said. "I believe the human rights tribunal now resolves about 70 per cent of its cases by settlement, and about a third of the cases are resolved within a year.

"Those are improvements," he said, adding that complaints used to take up to four years to be decided. "It was not acceptable that human rights complaints were waiting so long," he said.

But Chouhan is unconvinced and said the lack of a human rights commission leaves most complainants on their own, even if their cases are examples of 'systemic' problems.

"One complaint can also be an indicator of similar situations," Chouhan said.