HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL OF ONTARIO
B E T W E E N:
Michael McKinnon
Complainant
-and-
Ontario Human Rights Commission
Commission
-and-
Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Ontario as represented by the Ministry of Correctional Services, Frank Geswaldo, George Simpson, Phil James and James Hume
Respondents
-and-
Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Intervenor
INTERIM DECISION
Adjudicator: H. Albert Hubbard
Indexed as: McKinnon v. Ontario (Correctional Services)
AppearanceS BY
Michael McKinnon, Complainant ) Kate Hughes, Counsel
Ontario Human Rights Commission ) Prabhu Rajan, Counsel
Ministry of Correctional Services, ) Frank Geswaldo, George Simpson, ) Leslie McIntosh, Counsel Phil James and James Hume, Respondents )
Ontario Public Service Employees Union, ) Joshua Philips, Counsel Intervenor )
1The Tribunal held a pre-hearing conference on April 20, 2009 to consider the complainant’s request that the hearing into this matter be reconvened to deal with a number of alleged failures on the part of the Ministry of Correctional Services (the “Ministry”) to comply with the orders made in the Tribunal’s decisions of 2002 and 2007 (2002 CanLii 46519; 2007 HRTO 4)
2After hearing the parties, the Tribunal concluded that the hearing must be reconvened in order to hear evidence and submissions regarding those allegations and to make such further orders and rulings as might be necessary. It was agreed that the hearing will resume on June 3, 2009 and that the parties will endeavour to identify the outstanding issues by May 27, 2009.
3Since one of the matters in contention is the structure and effectiveness of the TEDC Compliance Committee, the Tribunal agreed to the suspension of the operations of that Committee pending a resolution of the matter.
4In the course of the conference the complainant and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (the “Commission”) requested that a number of orders be made and, after hearing counsel in that regard as well, the Tribunal informed the parties of its decision to make the following orders.
ORDERS
- It is hereby ordered that, by May 15, 2009 at the latest, the Ministry provide to all parties and to the intervenor the following documents requested by the complainant:
(a) A current chart setting forth WDHP (Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Prevention) incidents/complaints occurring at TEDC (the Toronto East Detention Centre) from 2005 to date.
(b) A current “Status Update” report regarding the Ministry’s Workplace Effectiveness Branch.
(c) A current “Vendor Marketing Profile” of WDHP investigators. That list must include not only the names of any companies that might be called upon to provide such services but the names of the persons who may in future be assigned to undertake such investigations, and it must identify those persons who have actually been assigned such investigations.
(d) A list of WDHP investigations that were assigned to one person and subsequently reassigned to another, indicating by whom the reassignment was made and for what reason.
It is hereby ordered that, by May 15, 2009 at the latest, the Ministry provide all parties and the intervenor with the information requested by the Commission to enable the preparation of a report regarding all of the matters referred to (at page 3) in paragraph 4, subparagraphs (1) to (6), inclusively, of the July 30, 2008 letter from the Commission’s Director of Legal Services to the Executive Director of METRAC (the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence to Women and Children) regarding the “Retention of METRAC for provision of Consulting, Monitoring and Evaluation Services with respect to Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario Orders”.
It is hereby ordered that the Ministry respond to the METRAC Report of June 20, 2008.
It is hereby ordered that METRAC personnel have access to the managers and staff of the Ministry as deemed necessary in order to complete their evaluation of the “Ministry Anti-racism and Anti-sexism Training and Development Program”.
Dated at Toronto, this 22nd day of April, 2009.
“Signed by”
H. Albert Hubbard
Adjudicator