Complaints of anti-Black racism at human rights commission to face Senate scrutiny

The Senate will launch a study next week probing complaints of racism at the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC).

Sen. Thomas Bernard, deputy chair of the Red Chamber's human rights committee, said that ever since CBC News first reported complaints of workplace discrimination made by Black and racialized employees of the CHRC, she's been hearing from people who have lost trust in the institution.

"Many people who've reached out to me to talk about this since the news broke have been saying things like, 'I've lost all confidence,'" she told CBC News.

In March, the federal government reported that the Canadian Human Rights Commission had discriminated against its Black and racialized employees. The government's human resources arm, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBCS), came to that conclusion after nine employees filed a grievance through their unions in October 2020.

Their grievance alleged that "Black and racialized employees at the CHRC face systemic anti-Black racism, sexism and systemic discrimination."

CBC News obtained the TBCS's March ruling, reviewed associated documents and spoke to a group of current and former commission employees.

They described what they called a hostile and racially charged workplace where Black and racialized employees are excluded from career and training opportunities and are shut out of formal and informal networks.

They claim the careers of Black and racialized employees remain stagnant while white colleagues advance and say the ranks of senior management remain predominantly white.

The current and former employees who spoke to CBC say their health has suffered as a result of workplace discrimination.

Employees also flagged the high dismissal rate for race-based complaints — an assertion the CHRC's own data backs up — and said all-white teams are typically assigned to investigate them.

Sen. Thomas Bernard, a social worker from Nova Scotia, said she has heard concerns about how the commission processes complaints for some time.

Those concerns echo complaints raised by the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers and the Canadian Bar Association. CBC obtained letters from each of the associations that were sent to Justice Minister David Lametti.

"The Senate human rights committee will be studying this because we feel it's really important. We feel that we need to unpack this a little bit more," Thomas Bernard said. "And then out of that, we will determine what should happen next."

'About time,' says former commission employee

One of the employees who went public with her experience at the commission said she welcomes the study.

"I want to say it is about time," said Bernadeth Betchi. She was a policy adviser at the commission before being seconded to another federal department.

"Finally, someone has heard our call for justice. I hope the commission is held accountable for its discriminatory actions against its own employees."

WATCH: A former employee shares her experience of working at the commission 

Human rights watchdog discriminated against its workers: report

2 years ago

Duration 2:03

The Canadian Human Rights Commission discriminated against the rights of its own Black and employees of colour, says an internal review obtained by CBC News. Current and former employees described the workplace as hostile and say their health suffered as a result.

Betchi urged senators to call for an independent workplace review of the CHRC focusing on anti-Black racism.

She and other former and current employees said such an investigation should be led by a reputable person with expertise in anti-Black racism, should examine CHRC's hiring, promotion and retention practices related to Black employees, and should make its final report public.

They also called on the federal government to eliminate the CHRC's gatekeeper role by allowing Canadians to file human rights complaints directly to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. That's already the practice with human rights commissions in certain provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia.

Sen. Thomas Bernard said that while she doesn't want to pre-judge the committee's work or the testimony of witnesses who appear before it, she has doubts about the commission's ability to deal with these complaints internally.

"If the commission was able to deal with this on their own, then those grievances that were filed would not have been necessary," she said. "That suggests to many African Canadians that the commission is not in the best position to deal with this."

In a media statement, the commission confirms its leadership will appear before the Senate committee on May 8.

"Both Interim Chief Commissioner Charlotte-Anne Malischewski and [executive director] Ian Fine will participate in the hearing," said Véronique Robitaille, the commission's acting communications director. "They look forward to discussing the actions the commission has and will continue to take to address the important concerns that have been raised."

The Senate committee on human rights is expected to hold two meetings on May 1 and 8. A formal notice and a list of witnesses are expected to be available on Thursday.