Moving Forward in Human Rights

Service Improvements in 2004

Over the last two years, significant changes within the Commission have led to more effective, consistent and timely handling of human rights cases. This year, there were additional improvements. These included:

• improving effectiveness and efficiency at the complaint intake level;
• developing a more effective and efficient process for notifying respondents;
• developing a pilot preliminary assessment approach; and
• creating a more rigorous settlement monitoring system.

The new intake process ensures that complaints are carefully scrutinized in a uniform manner at the intake level. Often, this involves referring the complaint for review to a team of legal, policy and operational staff.

This process helps to establish how the complaint should be handled. This might involve accepting it at the Commission for mediation or investigation, referring it back to an internal grievance or conflict management process in the department or company concerned, or directing it to another, more appropriate, agency. If a complaint is referred to another dispute settlement mechanism, the complainant retains the right to return to the Commission if the matter is not resolved.

To further improve resolution of cases at an early stage, the Commission worked on a pilot preliminary assessment project which was launched early in 2005. This involves a human rights specialist helping parties to a dispute to clarify and narrow the issues just after the complaint is received. This may lead to a settlement, an agreement to enter mediation, a non-confidential report that will speed up investigation, or referral to a more appropriate grievance or review procedure.

The advantages of this approach include timeliness and an opportunity to resolve a dispute early, before positions harden.

All these measures aimed at improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of the process contributed to reducing the number of cases referred to investigation.

Finally, the Commission is taking a more stringent approach to monitoring settlements. It wants to make sure settlements are being implemented. So, it has set up a central settlement monitoring unit to:

• review and analyze settlements and maintain records;
• help parties implement terms of the settlements and resolve disagreements over interpretations of wording; and
• verify that the settlements have actually been carried out.

In 2004, the Commission continued to rely on the advice of the council of eminent jurists it had set up in 2003. Comprised of former justices Gérard La Forest, Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, Charles Dubin and Roger Kerans, the Council advises the Chief Commissioner on alternative dispute resolution as it relates to human rights and public interest issues. The Commission wishes to acknowledge the work of the members of the Advisory Council in helping it to improve its processes.

The Commission is working on service standards for each step involved in the complaint process.

The Commission continued to invest in mediation and developed an online list of trained mediators. It also made this roster available to government departments looking for contract mediators to help settle disputes through their own internal mechanisms.

Results in 2004

Equipped with these improvements, the Commission continued moving towards achieving the objectives it established at the outset of its reform process. In 2004, the Commission:

• reduced by 75% the number of active cases in its caseload that were two years old or, from 347 in 2002 to 86 in 2004;
• reduced the average age of cases to just over 12 months from 15 months in 2003 and 25 months in 2002;
• handled 1,547 cases², about the same number as in 2003, but an increase of 64% over 2002; and
• produced final decisions in 1,237 cases, about the same as in 2003, but an increase of 70% over 2002.

In 2004, 61% of cases were one year old or less, compared to 50% in 2002.

The caseload includes all complaints where there are ongoing investigation, mediation or conciliation activities, as well as those complaints in which analyses of section 40/41 issues are required. It also includes cases that are awaiting a decision by Commission members.

This figure excludes inactive cases—that is cases that were stood down by the Commission pending a Court/Tribunal decision. Work will resume on these cases once the Court/Tribunal decision has been rendered.

Inactive cases:

2002: 125 cases
2003:  32 cases
2004:  61 cases

The actual caseload declined to 955 active cases in 2004, from 1,219 in 2003 and 1,287 in 2002, a 26% decrease over two years.

In 2004, the Commission rendered 1,237 final decisions, of which 340 were section 40/41 analyses. In the 897 remaining cases, the allegations were addressed through alternative dispute resolution or investigation. Of these, 369 or 41% were settled. This compares closely to the result of 46% for 2003. These settlements included terms that were crafted by the parties themselves. As such, they not only included the types of remedy described in the Act, but also created solutions designed to meet the particular needs and interests of the parties. In a small number of cases, the parties settled the matter on their own, and the complaint was withdrawn as part of the settlement. In most cases, however, the settlements were submitted to the Commission for approval, and in all of these cases, the Commission satisfied itself that the settlement was consistent with the public interest before giving its approval.

² The number of cases handled by the Commission represented by the number of interim and final decisions rendered during the year. Final decisions include pre-tribunal settlements and conciliation-tribunal settlements.