Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 05/99) - Ten years after the complaint was filed, the hearing for a suit alleging employment discrimination against the territorial government opened last week.

A room in Yellowknife's Explorer Hotel was transformed into a courthouse of the highest order as members of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and teams of lawyers gathered there from Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

The suit involves issues of pay-equity and discrimination against women and female-dominated occupations.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada filed the suit on behalf of the Union of Northern Workers in March, 1989 under Section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act -- alleging that government "has engaged in a discriminatory practice on the ground of sex (equal pay) in a matter related to employment."

At stake is not only what the union says is millions of dollars in back pay owed to thousands of current and former workers across the territory, but also the existing and future system of job classification and wage determination.

The 10 years leading up to Monday's opening were taken up by reports, the tribunal's appointment, preliminary hearings and appeals that have reached as far as the Supreme Court of Canada.

Last week's hearing opened in a similarly slow manner as tribunal chairman Paul Groarke mediated while the three sets of legal counsel -- representing the government, the alliance and the Canadian Human Rights Commission -- wrangled over disclosure of the documentation and the witnesses they plan to present in the course of the hearing.

It was only the next day that the alliance called its first witness to testify -- Pat Armstrong, director of Carleton University's School of Canadian Studies and a recognized expert on women's employment and pay equity.

For three days Armstrong spoke at length about the fundamentals of discrimination in the workplace: how it came to exist, what forms it takes now and what efforts are being made to fight it.

"The cases come looking for me -- I don't go out volunteering to testify," said a hoarse and weary-looking Armstrong after her second day on the stand.

The professor said she has testified and discussed the need for pay-equity legislation in some dozen cases around the country.

"Quite a few women in Ontario got the pay they deserved -- so, yes, I think there's been quite a few positive results," she said, adding, "and there may be other resolutions, but when the cases are so drawn out it's hard to see the end."

Chairman Groarke brought the hearing to a close Thursday morning, saying the tribunal would reconvene in Yellowknife on Aug. 28 for a further two weeks, when the government will get a chance to cross-examine Armstrong.

The parties will then move to Ottawa and hearing dates are scheduled into next year. Alliance lawyer Andrew Raven said the PSAC and the commission plan to present about four witnesses in all while the government is considering a total of 15.