Henry Freitag knows his issues well. Having fought the Town of Penetanguishene a decade ago in his battle to get his municipal council to stop reciting the Lord’s Prayer, he’s in a good position to lead his current bid to get politicians there to abolish such religious observances altogether.
So, in launching his case to rid of all prayers, including the non-denominational one the town council has observed since his victory at the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1999, Freitag is so far representing himself at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
The Penetanguishene senior may succeed, but it’s clear that many other people alleging discrimination before the tribunal would struggle to make their case without a lawyer.
It’s worrisome, then, that roughly 70 per cent of the people making complaints to the tribunal since last year’s overhaul of the province’s human rights system don’t have counsel.
The high number is somewhat logical given that many cases are still at early stages and given that the changes aimed in part at allowing people direct access to the tribunal without first applying to have the Ontario Human Rights Commission investigate their case and provide legal representation.
But while the old system came under heavy criticism for long delays, human rights advocates were deeply concerned the revamped one would leave complainants, many of whom are vulnerable, without the ability to make their cases.
In efforts to allay those concerns, the province promised the new Human Rights Legal Support Centre would fill the gap by providing lawyers to take up people’s causes.
That would still leave complainants without a body like the commission to investigate their files but at least held some prospect of speeding up the system while ensuring access to justice.
In the meantime, the commission, whose role now largely involves dealing with systemic rather than individual cases of alleged discrimination, would establish two secretariats, one for disability and the other for racism issues.
One year later, the government has largely fulfilled its promise of a speedier process.
But while that’s good, the commission has yet to set up the two secretariats.
At the same time, its staffing levels have gone down to 55 from 140 before the changes, while the legal support centre has filled at least some of that gap with its roster of 25 lawyers and eight paralegals.
Nevertheless, the support centre has already had to cancel a pilot duty counsel program at the mediation stage and, as the new crop of cases filed since the overhaul reaches the hearing stage, it will likely find it hard to handle the demands for help.
It’s unclear how the onset of those hearings will play out, but the statistics showing so many complainants are without lawyers are a sign of stress to come. They point to a need for more resources, most likely through more staff at the legal support centre.
Otherwise, vulnerable people will start falling through the cracks, a scenario that would leave the many advocates who criticized the controversial changes having correctly predicted that the government would fail to live up to its promises.
At the very least, we need an official report on how the new system is doing as well as some answers on how the government intends to deal with any problems that arise.
- Glenn Kauth
