Mandate #3

'Tis the season for telling government officials what to do.  The Premier is distributing Mandate Letters to all departments. In that spirit, and so he doesn't feel left out, there are some chores for him too.  There are seven of them, and I will take each in turn.

First, I'd like to pay homage to Robert Devet, keeper of the Nova Scotia Advocate, friend of the people and foe of the tyrant.  He died this past week at a much too young age and in the fullness of his mission.  Tributes have poured in.  

Here's the Mandate:

#3  Stop relying on 'restorative justice' when adjudicating Human Rights 

cases.  

No one else has to endure such a poorly administered process to obtain Justice.  It is discriminatory.

In Canada, the federal Parliament is responsible for the enactment of criminal law, while the provinces and territories are responsible for the administration of justice. 

		Forum
		Court		Adjudicative Body
		Criminal	Civil
resolution	Verdict	X	X	X
	Settlement		X	X
	Restorative	X		?

There are two kinds of Court cases - Criminal and Civil.  A crime is considered to be an offence against society as a whole, so it is usually the state that starts a criminal prosecution.

And there are all kinds of Departments, Agencies, Boards and Commissions that have specific powers, like granting permits.

And there are three ways to resolve disputes.

• The Judge can render a verdict
• Parties can settle
• In Nova Scotia the Restorative Justice Program, can be used by those who have been affected by criminal harms (individuals and community).  They work with those responsible to consider the contexts, causes, circumstances, and impacts of an incident. and to develop plans for the future. 

On their webpage the Human Rights Commission says:

The way human rights complaints are resolved should deal with possible harm to relationships (for example, employer/employee, landlord/tenant, customer/retailer).  It is important that resolution helps restore those relationships.  The Commission is strongly committed to restorative approaches.

What is it about Human Rights complaints that requires the wringing of hands?  I don't want to be friends with people who abuse me, I just want them to stop.  There should be a process to verify 'complaints', an investigation, a finding, a penalty and a correction.

As it is now, people using the Human Rights Commission have access only to a very long, poorly articulated and uncertain path to justice.  The Human Rights Commission doesn't represent them (as the Crown does for criminal victims), so victims of discrimination (17 classes of people) have to endure that extra burden.

I thought the HRC was an avenue to access justice, but it's really a dead end street favouring abusers.