Restraining Equality Human Rights Commissions in Canada: Human Rights Commissions in Canada

by Howe, R. Brian; Johnson, David

• ISBN13: 9780802044822
• ISBN10: 0802044824
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

"Restraining Equality" addresses the contemporary financial, social, legal, and policy pressures currently experienced by human rights commissions across Canada. Through a combination of public policy analysis, historical research, and legal analysis, R.Brian Howe and David Johnson trace the evolution of human rights policy within this country and explore the stresses placed on human rights commissions resulting from greater fiscal restraints and society's rising expectations for equality rights over the past two decades. The authors analyse sources of these tensions in relation to the delivery of equality rights in both federal and provincial jurisdictions since the Second World War. Through a series of interviews with human rights commission officials and a survey of advocacy groups, business organizations, and human rights staff the authors explore the performance and the internal workings of these. Howe and Johnson also analyse human rights commissions in light of the theoretical literature and empirical data, and discuss the political and legal contexts in which the commissions operate, and the reform measures that have been implemented.

Author Biography

R. BRIAN HOWE and DAVID JOHNSON are professors in the Department of Politics, Government, and Public Administration at University College of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xiii
The Evolution of Human Rights Legislation	3	(34)
Ground Zero	3	(3)
Pioneering Legislation	6	(3)
The Dawn of Human Rights Commissions	9	(3)
Expansionary Developments: Legislative Change	12	(10)
Expansionary Developments: Judicial Interpretation	22	(3)
Why Human Rights Legislation?	25	(12)
The Public Administration of Human Rights	37	(33)
Commission Foundations: The Institutional Perspective	37	(2)
Human Rights Commissions and Institutional Design: The Critique of the Courts	39	(3)
The Administrative Rationale for Human Rights Commissions	42	(2)
The Legal Rationale for Human Rights Commissions	44	(4)
The Organizational Design of Commissions	48	(1)
General Agency Structure	49	(3)
Organizational Design and Procedure: The Ontario Model	52	(1)
Commission Structure	52	(2)
Case Procedure	54	(4)
Organizational Design and Procedure: The Federal Model	58	(3)
Organizational Design and Procedure: The Quebec Model	61	(4)
Organizational Design and Procedure: The British Columbia Model	65	(3)
Conclusion: Administrative Options, Legal Constraints	68	(2)
Fiscal Restraint	70	(31)
Expanding Commission Workloads	71	(4)
The Contraction of Resources	75	(4)
The Impact of Restraint	79	(3)
Variations in Restraint	82	(2)
Revenue Availability	84	(1)
The Size of Minorities	84	(2)
Interest Group Pressures	86	(3)
Administrative Structure	89	(1)
Women in Power	90	(1)
Political Party in Office	91	(4)
Why Human Rights Restraint?	95	(6)
Coping with Restraint	101	(34)
The Context of Contemporary Rights Administration	101	(2)
The Reconfiguration of Public Administration: Reinvention or Reform?	103	(3)
Human Rights Commissions and Reinvention	106	(1)
Human Rights Commissions: Coping with Restraint	107	(2)
Rethinking Case Management	109	(3)
Case Screening	112	(1)
Investigation and Conciliation	113	(2)
Caseflow and Management Information Systems	115	(1)
Boards of Inquiry and Adjudication	116	(4)
Public Education	120	(4)
Systemic Discrimination	124	(3)
Restraint and Reform	127	(5)
Commissions and Organizational Models	132	(1)
Conclusion	133	(2)
The Paradox of Human Rights Policy	135	(34)
Great Expectations	137	(1)
A Human Rights Report Card	138	(3)
The Overall Results	141	(1)
The Perspective of Advocacy Groups	142	(3)
The Perspective of Employers and Business Groups	145	(2)
The Perspective of Human Rights Staff and Officials	147	(3)
The Grand Paradox	150	(1)
The Paradox, Part One: Rights Consciousness	150	(3)
The Paradox, Part Two: Rights Restraint	153	(4)
The Paradox Constructed: Incompatible Expectations, Limited Capacities	157	(2)
Viewpoints: 1. Crisis	159	(1)
Viewpoints: 2. Balance	160	(2)
The Pluralist Perspective: An Assessment	162	(4)
Conclusion: The Paradox Continues	166	(3)
Notes	169	(20)
Index	189