NEW – Monthly Updates are Here!
Several women have come forward and contacted Dana and I and expressed interest in supporting this matter. For that we are extremely grateful and thankful. In accepting your help, we also understand that we have a responsibility to keep you informed as to how matters transpire.
This website is an increasingly important forum to sharing that information. It also provides us with a mechanism to safely reach you and clarify concerns which some of you have raised. We intend to do so monthly in this section of website to keep you informed.
For this first report, I will do my best to provide you with some information on the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) complaint process and your potential involvement if a CHRC investigator contacts you seeking an interview. Please peek at information provided in the link that follows.
Sincerely,
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ABC’S ABOUT THE COMPLAINT and WHAT HAPPENS IF A CHRC INVESTIGATOR CONTACTS YOU
Many of you want an outline of what is happening and how you may be affected if a CHRC investigator contacts you for an interview. To be honest, while we understand the burden of proof and elements, we must prove to make out discrimination, there are some aspects of the CHRC’s processes that are somewhat opaque (such as getting a CHRC designation as a public interest case … which we will talk more about in our December report).
A brief outline of the more well defined and clear steps as we understand them follows. Clarifying information about your potential involvement as an interviewee is also provided.
WHAT STEPS ARE INVOLVED WITH DANA’S HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINT?
(1) The initial filing of the complaint is carried out by the complainant as per the forms set out on the CHRC website page. The respondent or The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) is provided with an opportunity to challenge the filing arguing it should not be accepted. Acceptance of a complaint is not automatic. Out of hundreds received, only a few cases are allowed to move forward and only after the CHRC decides to accept the complaint. Dana filed her initial complaint with the CHRC on May 10th, 2022.
(2) After submissions by the complainant and respondent, the CHRC issued a decision accepting the filing on dated January 17th, 2023. So, we are in. This CHRC has determined it will move forward through its processes.
(3) After acceptance, the parties begin the process of exchanging written submissions on their positions about various parts of the complaint, the remedies they are seeking and the documents that support their views.
(4) While this exchange is taking place, the parties also may attend a voluntary and confidential mediation session to determine whether the complaint can be settled at an early stage. Mediations are confidential and we cannot share the substance of that process apart from noting it did not settle.
(5) At this early stage, the parties also each supply the CHRC with a confidential list of persons for the CHRC investigator to interview in relation the allegations. This is where some of you may become involved. Both Dana and the respondent have provided the CHRC with interview “leads”. These “leads” are names of persons who we believe may have information relevant to the allegations being made in Dana’s complaint. We may or may not have spoken to you. For example, we may have gotten your name(s) from an ATIP request and felt it was important to provide your contact information to the CHRC investigator simply because our perception is that would have had relevant information associated with the issues of this complaint because of the position you held at the time matters occurred.
(6) The next step is the investigation by the CHRC investigator which is likely to start in the new year. The investigator will review the documents submitted by both parties and develop a plan. They will conduct steps to verify the information supplied by both parties and interview the persons that each party has provided.
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WILL THE CCG KNOW IF THE CHRC INVESTIGATOR INTERVIEWS ME?
No. The respondent CCG will not see the list of persons Dana has sent to the CHRC to interview. It may be the case that your name and contact information have been forwarded to the CHRC as she believes that you have important information to share with the investigator about matters relevant to the complaint. This list is CONFIDENTIALLY provided to the CHRC. It is not shared with anyone else.
Similarly, the CCG provides a list of persons to CHRC to interview, which Dana does not see. The names and contact information of persons with relevant information are confidentially supplied to the CHRC by both sides for the purpose of enabling the investigator to verify information.
Please appreciate that Dana and the CCG employer are NOT part of the CHRC’s interview process at all. It is entirely led by and confidentially administered by the CHRC investigator – as it should be. Neither Dana nor the CCG is involved in any part of the CHRC’s interview process with any of the persons put forward. This prevents tampering. It also allows you to speak openly, honestly and confidentially with the investigator without fear of reprisal from anyone.
As a last point in this area, if you are contacted by the CHRC investigator for an interview, please let them know if you have any questions or concerns about participating at the beginning of your interview. This will enable them to clarify matters directly with you, one- on-one in a safe way that causes the least amount of harm. Please note, we believe that they have trauma related training.
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HOW LONG WILL THIS PROCESS TAKE OVERALL?
Once the investigation is done, the parties will have to attend a mandatory conciliation conference. This is the last step before the complaint is heard and decided upon by the Tribunal. Some parties settle at this point. For those that do not settle, a Tribunal hearing is scheduled. We believe these next few steps will take another 1-2 years.
All told the entire CHRC process is about 4 – 5 years in long. This may surprise you, but in terms of litigation, this is extremely fast.
Comparatively speaking, most grievances or judicial reviews take about 18-24 months for an adjudicator or initial court to hear. If appealed, these can stretch out another 24 months or so, depending on the level and number of appeal(s) being sought. Civil litigation cases in a Superior Court take at least twice that amount of time. I am recently retired. In my past position, as Justice Canada Counsel, I worked on several civil liability cases that stretched out over 6-10 years. I also worked on some complex Crown Liability cases and class action matters, some of which went on well past 15 years.
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COMING UP NEXT MONTH
During November, we have a couple of matters planned. For strategic purposes, we will share the results of those endeavors with you in our December report.
We can say that these involve fleshing out a written position we recently tendered with the CHRC in our remedy’s submissions – such being that this matter should be handled as a public interest case because many more persons other than Dana have been affected by the organization’s toxic culture. We believe this culture which leads to long standing unresolved instances of women and minority members being bullied and harassed by their superiors and peers.
A common theme in our discussions with some of you suggest that the problems Dana experienced at the MCTS are broader in scope. They flow from a toxic workplace culture that has been allowed to pervade the organization and extend out to other branches in the CCG. It has become clear to us that female college trainees and women in fleet are suffering too. The problem is bigger than originally presented to the CHRC.
We intend to follow up on the public interest aspect of the complaint in the next couple of weeks. Suffice it to say that we would like to hear from anyone of you about any of the issues associated with harassment and bullying, as change on a broader level will take a community and a broader base of information. Our lines of communication are open, and we invite you to write us.