Race Discrimination Still An Issue in Ontario: Second Largest Ground of Complaint
by S. Pieters, B.A.
Race discrimination is still a fact of life for many in Ontario says Keith Norton, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In a press release to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Norton stated, "The Ontario Human Rights Code was enacted 36 years ago to promote equality. We continue to receive more than 400 discrimination complaints a year on the ground of race and on similar grounds, mainly in the area of employment". According to the Chief Commissioner race complaints form the second highest ground of complaints to the Commission. Last year the Commission received 404 complaints, comprising 21% of all its new cases on the grounds of race, colour and ancestry. Another 71 complaints (4%) were on the ground of ethnic origin.
"Employers and landlords who are reluctant to hire certain individuals or rent property to persons because of race, colour, ancestry or ethnic origin, should be reminded that they are violating the Ontario Human Rights Code and denying those persons rights that are theirs by law", Mr. Norton said.
At the Ontario Black Anti-Racist Research Institute we have always been concern about the increase in racist activities and behavior in Ontario. In particular we are concerned about the dysfunction at the Ontario Human Rights Commission - the body which the legislature created to combat racism and other forms of discrimination.
I noted in an article entitled, "Ontario Human Rights Commission perpetrates Human Rights Abuses" that:
The high staff turnover, racial infighting at the Ontario Human Rights Commission, its failure to fulfil its statutory mandate in combatting prohibited forms of discrimination and harassment, and the excessive delay, poor service and the denial of justice to complainants who turn to this organization as a last resort speak volumes about the disregard the Government of Ontario have for the human rights, dignity, worth and well-being of insular and discrete minority groups in its society.In 1993 the Ombudsperson of Ontario, Roberta Jamieson, released a report into the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She expressed concerns about the lengthy delay complainants face in having their complaints investigated, the poor client service and the failure of the Commission to properly exercise its statutory mandate. Little has been done to remedy this situation. The Special Report of the Ombudsman Ontario following her investigation into the Ontario Human Rights Commission made several recommendations none of which are accounted for by the Commission thus far. This has led to further criticism of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, this time by the U.S Department of State in its report, Canada Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996 [See Section 5 of Report under subtitle "Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability, Language, or Social Status."]
The difficulties faced by complainants led to a complaint against the Commission by Monica Simms. She alleged that she was treated poorly by OHRC staff and was subjected to racism by Commission staff. An investigation was conducted which resulted in the "Simms/Justason Report". This only served to exacerbate an already poisoned work environment for Black OHRC staff members.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission launched an investigation into the break and enter of its Black staff members offices where complainants files were removed. The investigation report called the "Vinglis report" caused several resignations at the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Further to that the OHRC commissioned another investigation and report known as the "Francis Henry Report" to look into the issues of racial tensions and associated problems at its field offices in the Greater Toronto Area. Dr. Henry conducted her investigation and produced a report recommending ways in which the Ontario Human Rights Commission can foster Equal Opportunities for its staff members.
Then came the Minors Report which followed yet another investigation conducted by Arnold Minors, an anti-racism consultant. He was hired to review, report on, and make recommendations about the Commission's policies, practices and procedures, with respect to employment, in order to assist the commission in eliminating racism at its offices.
The Donna Young Report and the report entitled Dysfunction in the Ontario Human Rights Commission pointed out numerous instances where race based complaints are mishandle, and dismissed by the Ontario Human Rights Commission due to poor investigative practices, misapplication of the law, a lack of will on the part of the Human Rights Commission to enforce the Code and a lack of knowledge on the part of staff and Commissioners on critical race based theories, law and analysis. These reports made recommendations to improve the handling of race based complaints from Intake, Investigation to Board of Inquiry stages of the process.
All of the reports above recognised racism in the internal mechanisms of the OHRC, and made recommendations to eliminate the adverse conditions under which Black Staff members work and black clients are served. However, the Ontario Human Rights Commission failed to implement the recommendations, and when it did, refused to follow through with their full implementation.
In Ontario, less that 3% of complaints filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission proceed to a an actual hearing before a Board of Inquiry.
As noted recently in an editorial on the
First, the Commissioners and staff should be screened the same way jurors are screened for probability of being racist. Since this public institution has no way of knowing whether its Commissioners or staff are indeed racially biased against sending race cases to Boards of Inquiries, this may account for the ommission of Race Cases from the 25 cases that were sent to a board of Inquiry for hearing. If the Commission continues to treat race discrimination complaints and complainants in a racist manner causing complainants to face the same racism they turn to the Commission to eliminate then we shall wage the next struggle which will be to have the Ontario Human Rights Commission dismantled. As a citizen, I am insulted by the fact that I and other complainants cannot take our complaints straight to the courts like complainants do in the US. In the US complainants can have their cases hashed out in court while in Ontario Canada, race cases are at the whims of staff and commissioners at the Ontario Human Rights Commission who practice the same forms of racism that they were appointed to eliminate. Since my complaint against Eatons is still at the Commission, I shall be watching what this Commission does with my race based complaint against Eatons.
In our view education and strict enforcement of the Ontario Human Rights Code by the Commission is a sure step to eliminate racial discrimination in Ontario.
The Employers, and Service Providors who discriminate on the basis of race have all realized that the Ontario Human Rights Commission has no teeth. They realize the prolong delays, and the reluctance of the Human Rights Commission to appoint Boards of Inquiry works in their favor. In such cases even if perpatrators of racial harassment and discrimination are reported to the Human Rights Commission there is no justice for complainants.
Under section 34(1)(a) of the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Ontario Human Rights Commission may decide to dismiss a human rights complaint prior to investigating it where it decides that the subject matter of the complaint could have or should be more appropriately dealt with under some other provincial statute.
Anthony Weekes a Correctional Officer (as he then was)employed by the Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services and Helen Lee, an employees of Toronto Hydro also had to file a judicial review applications because the Ontario Human Rights Commission declined to deal with their complaints on the theory that the grievance and arbitration processes are better suited to dealing with race based complaints involving unionized racial minority employees. This rationale was also used to dismiss complaints filed by Audra Fernandes a Correctional Officer (as she then was) employed by the Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services at the Toronto Jail. Margaret Chan an employee of Ontario Hydro.
The Ontario Nurses Association also recently filed a judicial review application because of the practice of dismissing race based complaints of nurses on the theory put forth by Chief Commissioner Keith Norton that the grievance and arbitration processes are better suited to dealing with race based complaints involving unionized racial minority employees.
This case was dismissed by the Divisional Court on the basis that the Commission's decision was not patently unreasonable.
We at the Ontario Black Anti-Racist Research Institute continues to urge the Government of Ontario to provide enough funding to the Ontario Human Rights Commission so that it can perform its statutory mandated function to redress cases of racial discrimination. As well, we urge the Ontario Human Rights Commission to rigorously enforce the Ontario Human Rights Code aganist organizations and individuals who are serial racist. In addition and on this point we also urge the Ontario Human Rights Commission to provide proper training to its employees and weed out those employees of the Commission who are themselves racist, as was noted in the Report of the Organizational Review of the Toronto West Region of the Ontario Human Rights Commisison which the Commission itself commissioned.
Ultimately, the quality of a country's democracy depends on the ability of its public institutions to serve the public well. In Ontario Canada, employees who file race discrimination complaints to the public institution set up to investigate and remedy racism in the workplace face the cold shoulder. The Ontario Human Rights Commission still continues to treat race discrimination complaints and the complainants with utter
disregard, even as the Ontario Human Rights Commission admits in a... press release dated March 20, 1998 that
Comments to: obarri@oocities.com
© Copyright 1996 - 1998. All Rights Reserved.