Ontario Human Rights Commission Promotion Activities: The Experience of Responding to Racial Profiling by Police

• Author: Shaheen Azmi
• Profession: Director of Policy, Outreach, and Education of the Ontario Human Rights Commission
• Pages: 305-327

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chapter 11

ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

PROMOTION ACTIVITIES THE

EXPERIENCE OF RESPONDING TO

RACIAL PROFILING BY POLICE

Shaheen Azmi1

A. INTRODUCTION

The Ontario Hu man Right s Commission (OHRC) has been d irectly i n-

volved in respondi ng to racial proling by police employ ing multiple

approaches since 2002. Th is article will r eview the key elements of thi s

experience and h ighlig ht its promotion elements i n particu lar. This

experience is a pr ime example of huma n rights ac tivity by a C anadia n

human rig hts commission t hat strateg ically combines prote ctive and

promotion mandates to r espond to a complex and entrenc hed form of

discri mination that has been r esistant to change for ma ny years. It will

be argued that the strateg ic and susta ined employment of promotion

activit ies by commissions i s vital to adeq uately respond to entr enched

forms of disc rimination in Ca nadian societ y.

B. EMPLOYING THE PROMOTIO N MANDATE

TO RESPOND TO PO LICE RACIAL PROFILING

In accordance wit h international huma n rights law, human rights leg is-

lation in Can ada has generally provid ed commissions with bot h human

1 Shaheen Az mi is the direc tor of Policy, Outreach, a nd Education of the On-

tario Hum an Rights Comm ission. The author is a n employee of the Ontar io

Human Rig hts Commission, bu t the contents of thi s article are h is own

and do not represen t the views of the OHRC.

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shahee n azmi

rights protec tion and promotion mand ates.2 The protect ion mandate

has involved comm issions with h andling of individua l complaints

from communit y members. Such act ivities routi nely involve regist ra-

tion, mediation, investigation, and litigation of human rights com-

plaints. The promotion mandate involves education, public aware ness,

train ing, research , policy development, a nd systemic c hange activ ities.

The tendency for Ca nadian human rig hts commissions has bee n for the

protection mand ate to preoccupy resou rces and for promotion act ivity

to be deemed as seconda ry. In part this i s related to the natu ral tendency

to focus on the lega l aspects of the mand ate that draw most public atten-

tion and media sc rutiny but some of thi s is clearly related to ha rd choices

forced on commission s dealing w ith limite d and increasi ngly tight

budgets.3

Human right s promotion is unders tood to be a vital c omponent to

the eective ope ration of a human rights s ystem. The United Nations Of-

ce of the High Comm issioner for Human Rights i ndicates:

Whether hum an rights violations a re intentional or uni ntentional,

struct ural or specic, a la ck of knowledge can result i n actions that

breach human r ights pri nciples. Sometimes t raditiona l ways of

thin king and behav ing result in huma n rights abuse. In ei ther case,

human rig hts education an d the inculca tion of human ri ghts val-

ues can promote cha nge in behaviour w ithout the need for punit ive

sanctions. Succ essful hum an right s promotion can ther efore help

prevent human r ights violations f rom occurring i n the rst place.4

The OHRC is unique i n Canada for being t he only commission whose

current ma ndate is focu sed primar ily on a promotion mand ate. As a

2 The Paris Princ iples relating to th e status and f unctioning of n ational

instit utions for human r ights adopted in 1992 by the Un ited Nations Hu-

man Rig hts Commission a nd by the UN General Assembly in 1993 clearly

indicate t he importance of bot h protection and promo tion mandates for

national hu man rights i nstitutions. S ee Principles Relating to the Stat us of

National Institutions, annex to Nat ional Institutions f or the Promotion and

Protection of Human R ights, CHR Res 54, UNE SCOR, Supp No 2, UN Doc

E/1992/22, (1992); GA Res 48/134, UNGAOR, 4 8th Sess, (1993) Annex, ar ticle

3 [Paris Pr inciples].

3 R Brian Howe & David Johnson, R estraining Equality: Human Right s Commis-

sions in Canada (Toronto: Universit y of Toronto Press, 2000) at 120–27.

4 United Nations Oce for the H igh Commissioner f or Human Rights, Na-

tional Human Rights Inst itutions: History, P rinciples, Roles and Respon sibilities

(New York: United Nations, 2010) at 57–58.