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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Recent changes to the NWT Human Rights Act will see that commission's director become an employee of the public service. However, officials say this will not lead to the government wielding powers over the human rights commission or any of its affiliates.

Under the new amendments to the act, the director of human rights will become an employee of the GNWT through the legislative assembly. Previously, the director was appointed via a contract with the speaker of the legislative assembly.

Whether or not this new relationship could result in a conflict of interest if a human rights complaint is filed against other employees of the assembly or MLAs was discussed at length before these changes were proposed, said Tim Mercer, clerk of the legislative assembly of the NWT. Mercer said the changes make it easier to deal with issues such as pensions and health benefits.

"It's absolutely a valid concern but in the end someone has to be the employer and we think the legislature, not the government, is in the best position to do that," he told Yellowknifer.

Human rights complaints in the NWT are managed by three separate bodies which work to enforce the NWT Human Rights Act that was established in 2004.

The office of the director of human rights receives complaints and decides whether or not to refer the complaint to an adjudication panel. That panel then acts as judge and jury on the complaint in determining whether or not the complainant's rights were violated and how that violation should be addressed.

The third body is the NWT Human Rights Commission, where workers oversee the act, ensuring that it is being followed correctly.

Commission members also work in public outreach and communicate with employers to make sure that everyone understands their responsibilities, said Charles Dent, chair of the NWT Human Rights Commission.

Maintaining an arm's-length relationship between these bodies, and among human rights workers and their employer, is essential in ensuring that human rights violations are dealt with properly, he said.

"Human rights are such fundamental rights and you want to make sure that there isn't something that's being done to hinder the reporting mechanism - whether or not things are being done properly, whether or not human rights are being respected," said Dent.

Since the territory established its own act, the legislative assembly has appointed members of the commission and members of the adjudication panel, said Mercer. However, once these roles are filled they can only be relieved of duty for specific reasons.

Other checks are also in place.

"If there was ever a case where the legislature was trying to unduly interfere, the commission would raise some alarm bells over that," said Mercer.

Dent said he does not foresee that the recent changes will affect the day-to-day workings of the human rights commission.

"These changes do not affect people's rights, they don't change the way the commission does its work," he said.

This is not just a hypothetical issue, said Mercer. Complaints have been filed against the legislative assembly in the past and a healthy portion of complaints received by the human rights director are against the GNWT as an employer. However, complainants and defendants are kept confidential unless it goes to the adjudication panel, so exact numbers on complaints stemming from the GNWT are not available.

In 2011-12, a total of 38 complaints alleging discrimination were filed with the director's office, according to the commission's annual report. Twenty one of those complaints came from Yellowknife, 27 of them were filed against an employer and the top four grounds of discrimination were disability (21 complaints), gender (seven complaints), race (six complaints) and place of origin (six complaints).

Recent rulings by the Supreme Court of the NWT have changed the role of the human rights director somewhat, diminishing the director's ability to dismiss complaints before sending them to the adjudication panel, said Mercer.

"Unless there is a very compelling reason not to forward a complaint to adjudication, the director now has an obligation to do so," he said.

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