Report makes 25 recommendations for new B.C. Human Rights Commission

The BC NDP has released a report with 25 recommendations on the reinstatement, goals and powers of the B.C. Human Rights Commission.

One of the party’s first acts in office over the summer was to announce it was bringing the commission back, 15 years after it was scrapped by the BC Liberals.

B.C. currently has a Human Rights Tribunal, but a commission would be empowered to act proactively on issues of systemic discrimination.

MLA Ravi Kahlon said the government spent eight weeks consulting with the public about the new commission.

One of the most common themes he heard was the importance for a commissioner to report to the legislature instead of the attorney general, he said.

“And so there was a strong sense from the engagement process that people wanted some stability and they wanted some independence.”

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The report proposes that the new commission’s primary role should be “fostering social change” through education, both in the public and private sector, and that it hold the government accountable through research, investigation and recommendations.

Kahlon said a commitment to human rights education struck a chord with him after reading a submission from a school-aged girl.

The report also identified three key recommendations as early priorities for the new commission:

• To collaborate and consult with Indigenous groups to develop commission policies and practices that honour the principles set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP);
• To take on the study of gender as an identity requirement in public documents and make recommendations on its necessity or where it should be eliminated
• To examine the issue of foreign credentials and instances of discrimination against immigrants and other newcomers to the province.

The full report is available here.

The NDP government is expected to table legislation to officially form the B.C. Human Rights Commission in 2018.

The province has also declared Dec. 10 as B.C. Human Rights Day.