September 19, 2005
Human Rights Commission
Motion on Notice
[Be it resolved that the House condemn the BC government for disbanding the Human Rights Commission and be it further resolved that this House urge the BC government to restore and strengthen the Human Rights Commission.]
M. Polak: It is indeed a privilege to rise to speak to such an important matter on my first time speaking in the House. I'm quite, well, moved by the suggestion that we ought to be taking a second look at our educational programs around human rights, particularly since there seems to be such a great deal of misunderstanding amongst the opposite members. Indeed, perhaps that's an area of education that we ought to attempt to address, because they do seem to be lacking today.
Let's be clear here. We're talking about the restructuring of a human rights model that was developed in the '70s. It reflected a '70s world in British Columbia. We're in the year 2005, and many things have happened and changed in that time. The needs of British Columbians have changed. Their desire and their knowledge about human rights have changed.
I want to cast the House's mind back to the '70s. I want to talk a bit about what I grew up with and give you a bit of an idea of the personal framework that I bring to this debate. I was raised in a family that was highly unusual in its day. My mother suffered from cerebral palsy, which meant that she was a paraplegic and had limited use of her arms, and other facets of her physical condition were impaired. As a result of that, we walked around the world as children not really understanding why but seeing that people would look at us differently in the mall. Or maybe when it was time to go through a door or to do something that people thought my mother couldn't do, they'd fall all over themselves and weren't really sure what to say, and sometimes they'd look down their nose.
Sometimes, as a child, when I would be standing in a shop and talking to an adult, the adult wouldn't speak to my mother because they assumed she wouldn't be capable of understanding. They assumed things about her disability because they didn't have an awareness or an understanding of what life for disabled people can be like and what they're capable of.
There was one occasion when I was in my preteens. I remember an adult in a store patting my mother on the head as they spoke to me about whatever purchase we were making. That was a world where people were only just beginning in British Columbia to think about what human rights really meant.
In 2005 we've come an awfully long way. We've come to a point where it's not just the actions of people that have changed. Certainly, that's important, but we don't want people to be taking discriminatory actions. We don't want people to be being hurtful to one another in their words or in what they do. But it's more than that. One of the members opposite spoke of tolerance. I would say it goes beyond that. It goes to acceptance, and that only comes from the kinds of changes that can take place in the culture around us. It takes place in hearts and minds, and we see the results of it when we see the reaction to acts of discrimination.
Recently there was a very unfortunate incident that took place in my riding at a soccer match. There was a soccer match involving teams from all over the province. In fact, I think there were some from out of province. At one point in time one of the players was asked to remove his religious headdress. He refused. He debated with the official and was then ejected from the tournament.
Here's where we start to see the evidence of hearts and minds changing. Someone made a mistake. It's been acknowledged. They made a horrible mistake in doing that. But the reactions are telling, because they're very different than what would have happened 20 years ago.
First of all, the reaction of the teammates. These teammates didn't miss a beat. They didn't look at their fellow player and wonder: well, my goodness, why is he making this all hard for us? Why does he have to wear that silly thing anyway? That wasn't their reaction. I'm proud to say that their reaction was to stand with their teammate. These were teammates who immediately realized as a gut reaction that there was something going horribly wrong. They stood with their teammate despite the fact that that meant they were then forced to forfeit two games. That's an incredible thing for young people to do. It's an incredible show of leadership.
What was the reaction of the sports association involved the next day? I'm proud to say that that team was back playing and that player was back playing. There had been firm instructions given that this not only was to be investigated, but this incident was to be addressed.
Then, the reaction of our minister. The Hon. Olga Ilich, Minister of Tourism, Sports and the Arts, sent a letter to all sports associations in British Columbia not only describing the incident and the wrongness of it but asking them to take a look at their own organizations, their rules, their structures to ensure that something like this would never happen again.
I submit to you that in 1973, when the commission was established, that never would have happened. This is a different world. It's not one without its problems. It's not one where people have, intuitively, a sense that they always should do the right thing. There will be people who do the wrong thing.
I happen to believe, as do members of this government, that every British Columbian has a right to access justice at the Human Rights Tribunal directly. They don't have to go through a gatekeeper. If they feel their rights have been violated, why should they have to spend a year while a bloated bureaucracy takes a look at their complaint and discusses it with them? Meanwhile, they expend time and resources and at the end of the day may not even have their case heard before the tribunal. British Columbians have a right to go to the tribunal directly now, and that's something I'm very proud of.
I want to talk a little bit, too, about the drive toward education that the members opposite seem to think is currently lacking. Let's talk about how important that is. I think it's very telling that this government, in terms of setting its priorities, doesn't just put education lumped off with a bureaucracy that sits in a major centre in British Columbia that people have to come to, and maybe they have some pamphlets and some programs. We now have the Attorney General's ministry statutorily charged with the responsibility for developing educational programs in this province. That says in what kind of priority this government holds education on human rights. We've accomplished so much.
We've accomplished so much because we've involved not just a bunch of paid bureaucrats who will go around and create work for themselves. We've involved community organizations, organizations on the ground that involve everyday members of their community. These are people who know the issues in their community and know how to address them. They know those issues far better than anyone else, and we've seen the evidence of it.
Just this last week in the Kamloops Daily News there was a recognition of a lady whose name I, unfortunately, have forgotten at this point in time. She was acknowledged, as are many others across our province, for a time of service in an immigrant-serving agency that sought to educate people not only about their individual rights but about what it means to live in a country like Canada, a province like British Columbia, and what their responsibilities were to bring to our communities.
People like that, organizations like that, are being honoured all over British Columbia frequently throughout the year. Why? It's because the Attorney General's ministry now involves them in reaching out to the public.
What's happened in public education? I'm quite sure that in the 1970s, if you walked into most public schools in British Columbia, it would be very unlikely for you to walk in during the celebration of a religious holiday or cultural event from anything outside of a Judeo-Christian perspective. Nowadays you walk into a public school in British Columbia, and you're going to be hit by a microcosm of celebrations — not only celebrations but understanding of one another.
When you're in a kindergarten class these days in British Columbia, particularly in the lower mainland, you're not looking at students who even notice if their seatmate's skin colour is different from their own or if they happen to eat a different kind of food or if they happen to have an unusually formed family. It's just not part of what those children see in their world anymore. That's because we've had effective education that's been brought down to the level of everyday citizens in British Columbia. It involves them. It engages them.
It doesn't surprise me. I mean, when the NDP was in government, their form of government was one of saying: you know, we want to take care of you, and we're going to do it better than you can. This government believes that British Columbians themselves want to achieve great things in the area of human rights. This government believes that British Columbians are the ones who have been most responsible for bringing about change in the hearts and minds of citizens. It's how we treat each other every day. It's when I walk to the Legislature and say good morning to anybody that walks past. Those are the ways in which we build a community of caring. That's what human rights are all about.
It's time that the opposition stopped whining about labels and names that attach themselves to structures and instead started looking at outcomes. We are seeing incredibly positive outcomes in British Columbia. We're seeing those in our young people. We're seeing those in every community across this great province. We will continue to see them.
I'm going to support this motion because I believe that British Columbia is moving forward, and it's time that we don't go back to the days when people had to stand in line to get justice for their human rights concerns.
