Canadian Human Rights Commission was established under Parliament to protect human rights. Image credit: cmh2315fl, Flickr.
A Senate committee has found evidence of systemic discrimination within the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights conducted a short study after there were multiple allegations of discrimination within the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC).
Nine employees filed a grievance through their unions in October 2020, claiming that “Black and racialised employees at the CHRC face systemic anti-Black racism, sexism and systemic discrimination”.
Earlier this year, a central agency of the Canadian Government confirmed that the CHRC had breached anti-discrimination clauses.
The committee released its latest report on Monday, revealing the existence of systemic discrimination throughout the federal public service.
The findings are “concerning” and “profound”, according to the committee.
“Black Canadians from coast to coast to coast have lost trust in the commission, which is worse than not having a human rights commission at all because they are discriminating against the very population they promised to protect,” said Deputy Chair Wanda Thomas Bernard.
Multiple employees expressed concerns over the way the commission handles race-based complaints.
“Pre-judging the outcome of a complaint is sadly normalised among all grounds, but the insidiousness of racism meant that almost every race-based complaint I saw was dismissed, irrespective of the evidence presented,” said CHRC employee Bernadeth Betchi.
Some witnesses believed that these issues could be addressed, while others said the human rights commission was “broken beyond repair”.
The standing committee made multiple recommendations in their report, including calling for the federal government to commission an independent review into the workplace conditions at the CHRC and appointing a Black Equity Commissioner.
They also recommended a review of Canada’s human rights legislation.
Communications Director of the CHRC, Véronique Robitaille, said, “We remain committed to doing what is necessary to ensure that everyone in Canada can trust in the commission to conduct its work with integrity and accountability.”
It is believed that the CHRC and the unions representing workers are in mediation to resolve the workplace grievances that led to the committee’s findings.
