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8 Tuesday June 23 2015 POLITICS HUMAN RIGHTS Find details on evacuation routes procedures check lists directions and preparedness on the first page of the Town of Fort Smith website under Emergency Info. www.fortsmith.ca THANK YOU MAHSI CHO Thank you to the organizers sponsors and participants of Aboriginal Day in Fort Smith. The events and activities presented highlight the essential contributions of Aboriginal traditions and culture to our community. TOWN OF FORT SMITH Town of Fort Smith spring cleanup program will be finished at the end of June. It is FREE so please take advantage Take your refuse to the curb call Town Hall 872-8400 and municipal crews will come to take it away for you. If you want to haul loads of refuse or gar- bage to the dump all tipping fees have been waived. In addition to cleaning up our community this special program is offered to encourage fire abatement. For advice on how to Fire Smart your yard so your home is safer call Daniel Allaire Manager of Forests for the South Slave Region at 872-6425. THE END IS NEAR Fire season is upon us and we all have to do our part. This is your chance to Fire Smart your yard. Remove any flammable debris Take away any brush and small trees if you are close to the forest edge If you want to burn Be aware of fire hazard levels. Contact Town Hall to see if burn- ing is allowed. Be careful with cig- arette butts. Help make our com- munity safer HAPPY ABORIGINAL DAY By DALI CARMICHAEL Following a review of its rst 10 years in operation the NWT Human Rights Commis- sion HRC is preparing to undergo a system overhaul moving from a strictly formal ju- dicially-based method to one more restor- ative in nature. BymovingtothenewsystemtheHRCaims to reduce the numberof individual complaints reachingtheadjudicationstagebyleavingmore resources available for communities outside of the North Slave region and being more pro- active in identifying and addressing cases of systemic discrimination - some of the major recommendations stemming from the report. If a complaint is referred to the adjudi- cation panel its exactly like going to court said HRC chair Charles Dent in an interview with the Journal. You have the two sides in front of a judge or jury presenting their legal arguments and precedent. Its not just come and tell your story and the truth be out the current system is very legal and youre talk- ing about a very expensive process. The new process theyve recommended is moving away from that legalistic adversarial process to a The current adversarial or legalistic process does not always fairly resolve human rights issues. Charles Dent NWT Human Rights Commission Review of NWT Human Rights Commission calls for shift to restorative system restorative process meaning the information gathering would take place more face to face. The updated system would use more of an inquisitorial information gathering style Dent said likening it to the process used by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It becomes a totally different process if the adjudicator is the only one asking ques- tions he said. Its more of an exploration of the issue than it is one where you have to prove that somebody has broken a law. Thereportalsocallsforimprovementstothe HRCs structural organization which is cur- rently divided into three independent bodies - the directors ofce the commission and the adjudication panel - which have no duty to report to one another. This can create a bun- gled and drawn-out process for dealing with complaints that leave those involved angry confused and disheartened not to mention broke if they have hired a lawyer. What happens now is people come into the directors ofce they develop a relationship withthepeopleinthedirectorsofceandthen when their complaint gets referred to the adju- dication panel its a totally different ofce and totally different people and they start all over again Dent said. With the recommendation we would actually have a seamless process. Theadjudicationpanelwouldstayindependent but administrative changes would allow infor- mationtoowmorefreelybetweenthebodies. The review conducted by out-of-province consultantsJenniferJ.LlewellynJ.GrantSin- clairandGeraldJ.HasheyexaminedtheHRCs performance over the last 10 years looking at elements including comprehensiveness of in- vestigations fair consideration of complaints accessibilitytothecommissionandaddressing individual and systemic discrimination. The HRC is ready and willing to imple- ment the recommendations from the review Dent said. The current adversarial or legalistic pro- cess does not always fairly resolve human rights issues Dent said. This is an agency thats created to resolve those issues and were saying it doesnt do that as often as it should. We recognized there is a signicant problem and we had considered restorative as perhaps a way to resolve that but we thought we would park that idea and just focus on improving the current process as much as we could. To act on this change of heart the HRC will need some help from the legislative assem- bly to both increase its funding and to make amendments to the NWT Human Rights Act. The recommended changes to the legis- lation will take time Dent said. With an election coming up this fall nothing is going to get done until probably a year from now. When that time nally comes Dent and his team will be ready. They are currently prepar- ing an implementation plan for the restor- ative system set to be completed by this fall and executed over the next two to three years.