Education workload infringing on Human Rights Commission caseload

The Prince Edward Island Human Rights Commission wants the province to fund a full-time education officer.

Executive director Brenda Picard said without the funding the lawyers who should be working on cases have had to take on some of the education projects.

Picard said it has an impact on the 125 cases the commission juggles annually.

"Sometimes it is just resource-based, in terms of how much time we have to put on the files," she said.

"Some files are very complex and take a lot of investigation. Some files it's really just a matter of trying to just prioritize and not let the new files get old."

The commission is able to apply for funding to pay the education officer for specific projects.

The Human Rights Commission did presentations for close to 1,400 people last year, and took about 300 phone calls from people thinking their rights had been infringed.

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