Yukon ombudsman finds human rights commission responsible for 'unfairness'

The Yukon's ombudsman says despite trying to meet its mandate, the territory's Human Rights Commission has shown unfairness and bias, and created undue delays.

That's according to a reportreleased by the ombudsman that investigated three separatebut similar complaints.

One of the issues discussed in the report was the commission's over-reliance on settlement.

Complainants alleged they were pressuredor even harassed to settle, rather than the alternative of raising the issue to an investigation.

"There's a feeling of bias that without any kind of investigation, that the Human Rights Commission considered the complainant's side as factual," said Jason Pedlar, the Yukon ombudsman.

Karen Moir, director of the Human Rights Commission, saidtheassessment regarding the settlement process was "factually incorrect."

"The Yukon Human Rights Act obliges the commission to seek and settle. That's a function of our act, as well as acts across the country. It's recognized by the human rights practice and by the jurisprudence that early settlement is generally in the public interest," she said.

Moir also opposed the report's claim that the commission acted in a biased manner at any point. While she acknowledged that the commission walks a "fine line" when working with clients unrepresented by legal counsel, she maintained that the commission is impartial by nature.

"The commission by its very mandate is neutral. There's a really, really, really strong culture of neutrality here."

The ombudsman said the commission's preference for settlement stems from its small capacity. Formal investigations take significantly more money, time and resources than the alternative of a settlement.

Moir agreed the commission struggles with a lack of funding. Its 2024 operating budget was $913,000.

"A very small envelope to work with, considering the volume of complaints, the complexity of work, the expenses of things like hearings and legal counsel, travel and the security measures that we have."

Recommendations unlikely to be implemented in time

The ombudsman report provided five recommendations to the Human Rights Commission, all of which the commission accepted.

"We uphold the values of fairness and transparency and justice like the ombudsman does, and we have no interest in resisting any effort to improve our practices and better serve the public," Moir said.

Thoserecommendations include refining commission policies, clarifying job descriptions, acquiring new tracking software and working with justice partners to update the Yukon Human Rights Act.

The ombudsman provided the commission with a timeline ranging from six to 12 months to implement the recommendations. While the commission is willing to do so, Moirsaid she does "not expect" this to be possible with their current resources.

Moir said she looks forward to discussions with the Department of Justice, the commission's primary funder, about additional resources.

Pedlar said he sees "no reasons" to believe the recommendations won't be implemented in time. He said his office will follow up with the commission at the deadline.

"We will comment publicly one way or the other, whether they've been accepted and actually fulfilled, or whether or not there are any outstanding recommendations that still need to be completed."

There were also three recommendations directed towardthe Department of Justice, two of which were accepted.

The accepted recommendations were to increase the number of commission members and to work with the commission to address policy gaps.

The declined recommendation was to amend the Human Rights Act so the commission would be directly funded by the Legislative Assembly. This was not accepted, as the Department of Justice determined it was outside the department's jurisdiction.

Both Pedlar and Moir say the public should continue to hold trust in the commission.

"They do very important work and there was nothing in our investigation that showed ill will or that they weren't fulfilling their mandate," Pedlar said.