Divisional Court Dismissed Ministry of Correctional Services Application for Judicial Review March 20, 2001
TORONTO - The Ontario government is going to have to answer to a human rights adjudicator for accusations it has done nothing to implement changes ordered nearly three years ago.
A panel of three Superior Court judges has ruled that Michael McKinnon, a prison guard who first complained about racism at work 12 years ago, can take the province's Corrections Department back to the Human Rights Commission.
"It's been absolute hell," said McKinnon of his battles on the job since he won his original complaint. "I thought I'd be able to make a change. But the lack of support, the undermining, was very disconcerting."
In April 1998, the commission agreed that McKinnon was working in a poisoned environment in which he was abused verbally and had been denied promotions.
He was also harassed because he complained.
The province was ordered to pay McKinnon and his wife – also a prison guard – compensation, offer them promotions, and bring in programs aimed at ending racism in the prison system.
In December, McKinnon told the judges that instead of getting better, the situation since the ruling has become worse.
When McKinnon went back to the commission with his new complaints, the province argued that the adjudicator's job was done.
But the panel dismissed that argument last week, and said the original adjudicator can hold new hearings.
McKinnon's complaints aren't isolated. There are several reports documenting racism in Ontario's jails. Recently, seven guards at the Toronto East Detention Centre, where McKinnon works, were charged with severely beating a black inmate.
Courtesy of CBC News
March 26, 2001
Divisional Court Dismissed Ministry of Correctional Services Application for Judicial Review March 20, 2001
Divisional Court Dismissed Ministry of the Solicitor General and
Correctional Services Appeal of the McKinnon Decision by Selwyn Pieters, February 02, 2000
Ontario Ministry of Correctional Services wants human rights commission to back off March 20, 2001
Jail was `poisoned' by racism, panel says Toronto Star, May 07, 1998
YAHOO FULL COVERAGE CORRECTIONS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
GSB Decisions on Racism in the Ministry of Correctional Services
Back to Ontario Black Anti-Racist Research Institute Homepage