Quebec human rights cases thrown out after massive delays
MONTREAL – His photo hung on the wall at the Montreal police station near his home, informing officers he’d had run-ins with the force before.
Given his history of severe mental health issues, police had also met with a community group and his family. They wanted to ease the tense relationship and discuss how to best approach any future interactions.
But those efforts didn’t prevent a simple noise complaint in 2009 from deteriorating into an hour-long intervention involving dozens of officers. Nor did they stop it from ending only after officers had pointed their guns at the man, used pepper spray and Tasered him as his mother and sister screamed in horror.
The Quebec Human Rights Commission would position the case as necessary and important: It would be the first time the provincial Human Rights Tribunal would be asked to rule on possible discrimination by police toward a person with mental health issues.
But in a sign of what critics argue is a growing concern — and one tribunal judges have been flagging for nearly 13 years — the commission let the case stagnate. By the time the tribunal ruled on it last month, more than 10 years had elapsed since the police intervention.
In a 113-page decision rendered in December, the tribunal ruled the police officers did not discriminate against the family.
But it also ruled it would have had no choice but to throw the case out due to unreasonable delays.
“It must be noted that the commission handled this file with an unacceptable slowness, not only to the detriment of the complainants and defendants but also to the detriment of a society which has every interest in having human rights files diligently decided on by a tribunal,” the decision reads.
“Such delays,” it continued, “bring the human rights protection system into disrepute and are likely to undermine the public’s confidence in it.”
Designed to address systemic issues, the Quebec Human Rights Commission handles citizen complaints that involve discrimination, harassment and exploitation, among others.
It first evaluates the complaint to ensure it’s well founded. If a mediation process then doesn’t lead to an agreement between the two sides, a committee will evaluate the file to see if corrective measures, including monetary damages, should be suggested.
If it chooses to, the commission will then bring the complaint before the tribunal, which has the power to enforce the suggested financial penalties and recommendations.
According to the commission, the vast majority of its cases are handled from start to finish within three years. The average delay in cases, as of last March, was 15 months. In this family’s case, the tribunal found the commission responsible for 65 months of delays.
The commission had asked the tribunal to award $20,000 in damages to the man and an additional $15,000 to his sister and mother.
It argued there was racial profiling in the case — the family was Jamaican — and that the police acted with excessive force due to false assumptions that people with mental health issues are more dangerous.
It was also seeking to have the SPVM implement a more thorough policy on the matter and increase the number of training hours its officers receive.
In November 2016, the city of Montreal, representing the police force, filed a request to have the case thrown out due to unreasonable delays. It argued the case wasn’t that complex, yet nearly 6 1/2 years had passed between the family filing its complaint and the commission bringing the case before the tribunal.
But the tribunal decided the best way forward would be to hear the case on its merits before ruling on the city’s request.
After 29 days of trial, it found the officers involved didn’t discriminate against the family and the intervention was justified due to the man’s aggressive behaviour.
But the time that had elapsed since the intervention had essentially rendered whatever findings the tribunal would come to moot: Not only had the SPVM’s approach to mental health cases drastically changed during the 10 years, but so had the approach of most forces across the country.
It also found the delays had compromised parts of the evidence: Some of the officers’ memory had been “seriously” affected by the years that had passed and physical evidence had even been destroyed.
“Given the circumstances,” the tribunal ruled, “faced with a 77-month delay, of which 65 months are attributable to the commission (…) this is an exceptional case that deserves the exceptional remedy of dismissing the action.”
The Center for ResearchAction on Race Relations, which often accompanies complainants through the process, has raised concerns about delays plaguing the commission for years.
In June, the centre’s director, Fo Niemi, wrote to Quebec Justice Minister
Sonia LeBel to warn of system-wide issues and call for reform.
Niemi said he fears people are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the idea of filing a complaint with the commission, seeing how they know they could wait years for the case to be settled.
“A lot of people rely on the human rights system to access justice, but the system is badly broken,” Niemi said.
“Something needs to be done.”