Quebec Human Rights Commission criticized for being too white, too French

The Quebec Human Rights Commission responsible for enforcing employment equity laws and investigating racial-profiling complaints is being criticized for its failure to diversify its own senior management team.

"There arealmost no managers from racial minority backgrounds; there areno anglophones, not enough ethnicdiversity," said Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Centerfor Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

"One has to practise what one preaches, starting inside and starting at the top," Niemitold CBC Thursday.

Niemiwroteto the acting presidentof the commission last week to raise CRARR's concerns. He saidthe commission hasn't responded to his letter.

12 of 15 senior managers are white francophones

According to CRARR, 12 of 15 senior management positions at the commission are occupied by white francophones.

The current president, Tamara Thermitus, is black, but she's been on sick leave since last fall.

One other senior management position is occupied by a visible minority.One position is vacant.

As part of its mission, thecommission is responsible for enforcing a Quebec law that requires Crown corporations and government agencies with 100 employees or more to implement employment equity for women, Indigenouspeople, ethnicminorities, visible minorities and people with disabilities.

"In the end, what is the human rights commission for, in terms of defending and promoting employment equity, when it can't practise that itself, inside?" Niemiasked.

Less than a handful of Anglos

Niemialso said that of about 150 total staff employed by the commission, he believes only two or three are anglophones.He said this is unacceptable, especially given the fact that the commission's head office is in Montreal.

"For Christ's sake!This is Montreal.We can't have an organization that has so few anglophones present," Niemisaid.

"We're going public very soon with a case in which the commission really did an awful, awful job in the case of an English-speaking black mother and her child," he said.

Commissionersmore diverse

The commissionissued a formal response to CRARR'scriticisms Friday.

"The Quebec Human Rights Commission wishes to reassure the public that it has bilingual staff in each of its branches in sufficient numbers to respond to the population in the English language," the statement sent to CBC read.

On Thursday, a spokesperson pointed out that while senior staff may be mostly white francophones, the 13 appointed members of the commission responsible for issuing decisions are frommore diverse backgrounds.

Of those 13, four are visible minorities, and one is anglophone.