Today on the legislature we debated Bill 50: Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2018 at second reading. This bill re-establishes the British Columbia Human Rights Commission after it was disbanded by the BC Liberals in 2002. BC is in the only province in the country without a human rights commission.

Before 2002 BC had a Human Rights Commissioner which worked as the gatekeeper to the tribunal and did investigations directly. Instead of going back to that model, this Bill creates a ‘direct access’ model, which works well in other jurisdictions like Ontario. The Tribunal will continue to be responsible for all aspects of human rights applications (processing, mediation and adjudication), while the commission will look at broader patterns of systemic human rights issues, policy development and public education

This bill closely follows the 25 recommendations in the report compiled by Parliamentary Secretary for Sport and Multiculturalism Ravi Kahlon on establishing a new BC human rights commission. The report outlines recommendations in five categories, including the commission’s creation, purpose, functions, powers and early priorities.

Below I reproduce the text and video of my second reading speech.

Text of Speech

A. Weaver: I rise to take my place in this second reading debate on Bill 50, Human Rights Code Amendment Act. As I’ve mentioned, this bill re-establishes the British Columbia Human Rights Commission after it was disbanded by the B.C. Liberals in 2002. It does this by amending the human rights code to establish an independent Human Rights Commission office.

As I mentioned, this is another example of pendulum swings that have plagued our first-past-the-post system here in the province of British Columbia. When governments come in, we see broad policy sweeps — very costly at times — as, for example, the labour code and others where policies comes in and are taken back as governments switch with the different ideologies.

I’m looking forward to these kind of changes — more draconian pendulum swings no longer really taking place here in British Columbia — with a successful referendum on proportional representation. One of the things we know is that policies like this…. You don’t establish something, then tear it down and then re-establish it and tear it down.

That tends to get mitigated, and we wouldn’t have to be debating this today were we to have a government that was required to listen to broader elements of our society than, perhaps, was required in 2002, when there were but two NDP MLAs sitting in opposition and every other MLA was a member of the B.C. Liberal Party, despite just getting slightly over 50 percent of the vote.

The new office is going to be similar to other independent offices, like, for example, the Representative for Children and Youth. Obviously, I’m delighted that this is being introduced into this House. Both the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Greens campaigned on bringing back a human rights commission to actually look at human rights issues proactively instead of just reactively, as is done now.

This bill is finally bringing B.C. in line with other jurisdictions in the country. We are the only province that has not had a human rights commission these past 16 years. It’s yet another noteworthy aspect of British Columbia that we are not so proud of, not having a human rights commission for the last 16 years.

The new bill and the new provisions in the bill that will be enacted will not take us back to the pre-2002 model but will instead set up a similar model to what exists presently in Ontario. In that respect, it’s less of a pendulum swing than we might have otherwise have expected.

The bill follows the 25 recommendations that were outlined in the report brought forward by the Parliamentary Secretary for Sport and Multiculturalism. This report was based on eight weeks of public consultation on this subject. Of course, as well the UN Paris principles had been used as a guide for drafting of this bill.

This bill is needed for a number of reasons. It’s needed to fight systemic injustices across our province, to protect against patterns of discrimination proactively and to be able to champion education campaigns on human rights and inequality across the province, particularly in areas where there are systemic issues.

It’s important to allow the commissioner the power to create guidelines in education programs for other institutions in our province to use as well. This bill is, therefore, putting back the Human Rights Tribunal into the rightful place as the arbitrator of specific complaints regarding human right contraventions.

There’s many things in British Columbia affecting British Columbians that that need an office like this with a mandate like this to look into. The number one issue referred to the current Human Rights Tribunal is disability non-accommodation. I would anticipate that this this is an area that the new commissioner will work on proactively, as well, to explore systemic issues of disability and non-accommodation.

To give a bit of history in this, we’ve gone back and forth in B.C., as I mentioned, on having a human rights commissioner and commission. We had one, for example, that the Socred government eliminated in 1983. Then we didn’t have one, and then the B.C. NDP government of the 1990s brought it back in. And the B.C. Liberals, in 2002, brought it out, and now it’s coming back in again — a beautiful example of the pendulum swing that has mired B.C. politics for such a long time, where we’ve had dynasties of single-party domination, which, after many years, forget to actually remind itself that it is there to represent the people and not its vested interests or its donors.

Hopefully, this is the last time the pendulum will swing and that it will settle in the middle, along the lines of what every other province in our country has — a human rights commission that not only reacts to human rights issues that are brought to it but is proactive in terms of dealing with systemic issues of human rights contravention in our province.

We like to think that there are none, but we all know cases where there are. In 2002 — giving some more history here — the human rights commission was eliminated for political reasons, I would argue. It was forced to cut its budget, cut its staff, and to add insult to injury, the commissioner and the acting chief commissioner were fired in the morning before legislation to get rid of the commission was introduced.

Fired in the morning before the legislation was introduced to eliminate the commission. Somewhat spiteful, if you ask me, and not a type of signal, really, that we should be sending the province of British Columbia. It was widely condemned, this decision, by the human rights groups across the province.

One of the only MLAs that raised the voices of the human rights groups that were affronted by the B.C. Liberals removing this commission was Jenny Kwan, one of but two NDP MLAs serving in the B.C. Legislature in 2002.

She said that by abolishing the commission, B.C. will fail to meet the criteria of the Paris principles, which require that human rights agencies have “independence guaranteed by statute or constitution, autonomy from government, diverse membership, a broad mandate based on universal human rights standards, adequate powers of investigation and sufficient resources.”

Government shutdown the previous human rights commission to save $3.1 million, but at what cost? At what cost to broader society did this saving of $3.1 million lead? Perhaps the government knew that further cuts were coming when it did it. It was consistent with the government of the day, in essence, disadvantaging those who were already disadvantaged. Not raising rates — disability rates, welfare rates, housing assistance rates — for a decade. It was consistent with a kind of mean-spirited approach to government that prevailed at that time.

B.C. has not had a body that could look at systemic patterns of discrimination and recommended changes for almost two decades. That, of course, is all changing now with this legislation. The systemic discrimination facing Indigenous communities, women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities. It’s real, severe and completely unacceptable. The uphill battle faced by British Columbians who are at the intersection of more than one of these communities is even steeper.

Government had a hand in creating these discriminatory systems, so we need to dismantle them and rebuild a more fair and just province. This is what Bill 50, Human Rights Code Amendment Act, takes us on a journey and pathway towards creating.

I and my colleagues in the B.C. Green caucus are very supportive of this legislation and are delighted with the changes proposed — long overdue, long called for. I thank government for introducing them, and we’re proud to stand in support at second reading.

Video of Speech