Lack of transparency leaves human rights in the cold: Criminology chair

Dr. Paul Groarke. Endowed chair of criminology and criminal justice at St. Thomas University. Photo courtesy of STU faculty website.

Dr. Paul Groarke started the night off on a light note at his human rights lecture at St. Thomas University on Monday.

“The first thing I will do is remove my jacket which is something I never got to do in the courts,” says Groarke. “When I was on the tribunal they always insisted that the lawyers wear jackets. Now I get to indulge in the luxury of taking it off.”

Groarke is this year’s endowed chair for the criminology and criminal justice department at St. Thomas.  Prior to being appointed chair for the 2009 fall semester, Groarke taught at the university and served 11 years as a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Monday was the first time he spoke publicly about his experiences since making his final ruling in 2006, and he didn’t have many good things to say about the system.

“In my view at least, and I am very much speaking as an insider…I am very concerned about the direction the system is going,” says Groarke. “And that’s a very sincere comment from someone who’s very aware of where the system is going.”

Groarke pointed to three key problems with the human rights tribunal. He said he’s particularly concerned that the tribunal focuses too much on individuals and not enough on groups.  He also takes issue with how much human rights at the tribunal level is being dealt with behind closed doors. And lastly he feels the system is shutting down and not doing what it was set up to do.

Groarke also cited problems with Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which lets the human rights tribunal deal with complaints regarding the spread of  hate messages via telephone or Internet.

Section 13 is no stranger to discussion at St. Thomas. Last year, professor Richard Moon from the University of Windsor spoke at St. Thomas about Section 13. The lecture took place just before he released a report to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on the regulation of hate speech on the Internet.

In his report, Moon said punishing people for posting questionable material violates freedom of expression, regardless of how harmful the material is.

Groarke also noted this in his lecture.

Groarke also said the tribunal doesn’t have the authority to issue punishments, including fines, if Section 13 is breached.

Lydia MacDonell, a third year human rights major, attended the lecture and thinks human rights punishments shouldn’t be etched in stone.

Lydia MacDonell. Photo by Stew Corbett.

“I think at first you would have to look at the level of education that the persons’ involved have as to what their rights are and what rights they have to allow other people,” says MacDonell. “If there’s an employer who knows exactly the rights his employees are entitled to but infringes upon them repeatedly then some punitive measure has to be taken.”

MacDonell says jail-time for human rights violations should only be used in extreme cases of genocide, and monetary fines are not always necessary. But overall, MacDonell believes that in any circumstance people who have had their rights infringed upon should be entitled to compensation from the human rights violator.

MacDonell agreed with Groarke on his recommendations for the tribunal and the commission to improve on their processes and to bring public awareness to what’s happening at tribunals.

She believes more education and awareness on human rights in Canada will help groups have their voices heard, something Groarke says is missing in the human rights system in Canada.

“Something has changed such that the tribunal has now declined to enter into exactly the inquiry that it’s setup by law to take up,” says Groarke. “I’m a very private person…I started change as chair on the tribunal…but someone has to talk and speak up.”

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Posted by Stew Corbett on Nov 19, 2009. Filed under News, This Week's Edition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.