Time to reform Human Rights Commissions

Part 3 in the series Human Rights Commissions

SIDEBAR

December 9, 2010

Dec. 9, 2010/ Troy Media/ – Legal issues involving human rights can be complex, according to Bill Black, professor emeritus at the UBC’s faculty of law.But it’s often the complex cases that get all the press.

The longest and most complex case has been a 19-year marathon, David-and-Goliath story involving Delorie Walsh and Mobil/Exxon in Alberta

In the early 1990s Walsh worked for Canadian Superior Oil and decided to become the first female landsman.

Feeling she was ill-treated and underpaid, Walsh complained to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission. In what she believes was retaliation, Canadian Superior fired her in 1995.

Going around in circles

The case of gender equality has been going round in circles, from court to court, ever since.

“Sometimes cases go off the rails, and this seems to be such a case,” Black says. There seem to have been a number of causes. In one sense, this case demonstrates that the human rights process has built-in safeguards, albeit ones that can take a very long time to work through. The investigator and director and the initial human rights panel seem to have determined that the case should not go forward. But the chief commissioner at one point, and the courts later, stepped in to remedy those errors,” Black says.

Black also believes that Mobil’s decision to play hardball caused further delays.

Asked about the complexity of this particular case, Black says: “Human rights law can be complex, but the basic issues in this case were not unduly complex. Part of the problem here was that the human rights panel and the courts disagreed about how to apply the law.”

Alberta cases are handled on average within approximately one year.

Delay complaints

Black admits there have been complaints of delays in other jurisdictions as well, generally about shorter delays.

“I think that Ms. Walsh is right to feel that the human rights process has served her badly and that she should not have had to endure such an agonizing process,” Black says. Luckily, however, this is not typical of most cases. In Ms. Walsh’s “almost everything went wrong that could go wrong . . . a series of causes that, added together, led to an unacceptable process.”

Black believes that now is a good time for people to do some critical research to look at the different human rights systems and decide which ones are working and which aren’t and then make the necessary reforms.

Human Rights Commissions