Ontario is at a ‘moment of reckoning’
Human rights chief’s tenure comes as province confronts racism, COVID
When Ena Chadha was a Ryerson University journalism student in the late 1980s, she got a job for the summer as an intake officer in the Mississauga branch of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
“Picking up the phone and being right at the front-line hearing people share their stories and concerns, that was the root of me deciding I wanted to go into human rights,” she said.
After her journalism degree came law school, followed by a 20-plus-year legal career with a strong focus on human rights, including disability and race. More recently, she was appointed by the provincial government as a co-reviewer looking into allegations of antiBlack racism at the Peel District School Board.
Chadha says she now feels like she’s coming home, as she takes on the role of interim chief commissioner of the human rights commission.
“Human rights, a lot of people think about it as ivory tower or something global like the United Nations,” Chadha said in a recent interview with the Star.
“Human rights in the province, it affects everybody. I talk about it as human rights when you get on the bus, it’s human rights on the sidewalk when you meet up with the police officer, it’s in your universities with respect to sexual violence.”
Chadha’s appointment on July 22 is for a one-year term. She replaces Renu Mandhane, who had been in the position since 2015 before being appointed a judge on the Superior Court this year by the federal government.
Chadha’s tenure comes at a critical time in Ontario, one in which she sees the commission playing a crucial role as the province faces calls to dismantle systemic racism and grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and the plethora of human right issues stemming from it.
“We’re at that moment of reckoning and I think the OHRC will be at the forefront of calling on all levels of government to be aware of how these issues intersect,” she said.
“Universally, this moment is one where we have to recognize our collective responsibility and we can’t lose sight that the Ontario Human Rights Code is an actual tangible, enshrined commitment as a society to tear down barriers of systemic racism, systemic sexism, all these forms of protected grounds.”
The commission, founded in 1961, is an arm’s-length agency of the Ontario government. Its role is to “promote, protect and advance” human rights through research, education, legal action and policy development. Those who know Chadha say she’s well placed to take on the role as interim chief commissioner given her focus on human rights during her legal career. She has served as director of litigation at ARCH Disability Law Centre and has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on constitutional and human rights matters.
Chadha also has experience working for all three pillars of Ontario’s human rights system: the commission (where Chadha also once worked as counsel), the Human Rights Tribunal and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre.
Chadha was a vice-chair at the tribunal from 2007 to 2015 and adjudicated on numerous cases including those dealing with topics such as sexual harassment and racial profiling.
She also served as chair of the legal support centre, which offers legal assistance to people experiencing discrimination under the human rights code. She stepped down from that role prior to becoming interim chief commissioner.
“She’s an advocate but, at heart, she’s a social justice advocate, and I think a huge part of that is championing access to justice,” said Sharmaine Hall, the legal support centre’s executive director.
“And so I think both the commission and our organization will continue to benefit from the importance that she’s placed on ensuring that all Ontarians have access to the human rights system.”
Some big files that will have greeted Chadha include an ongoing inquiry by the commission into racial profiling and discrimination of Black people by Toronto police. Despite COVID-19 delays, the commission says on its website it hopes to release its final recommendations by the end of the year.
She said it was still too early in her tenure to offer a position when asked whether she has a stance on defunding the police, a call that has grown louder in Ontario and across the world in just the last two months.
“I think we are, as a society, all in agreement that we need to emphasize de-escalation; I think we need to emphasize recalibrating services across the board: education, health, policing, all of those,” she said.
Controversy erupted earlier this year when the government appointed an active-duty Toronto police officer, Const. Randall Arsenault, as a part-time commissioner while the commission was continuing with its inquiry into Toronto police.
Chadha said the commission will continue to follow the directions set by the integrity commissioner, including that Arsenault recuse himself from any commission work dealing with Toronto police.
“I’m all for broadening perspectives at the OHRC to those who deliver front-line services,” she said, adding she will welcome Arsenault’s input on other topics.
Chadha is certainly no stranger to the work needed to tackle discrimination and racism. She brings her own lived experience as a racialized woman who grew up in Brampton, as well as a large body of work. When she was working as an intake officer for the commission back in the1980s, the AIDS crisis was ongoing and homophobia was rampant.
“I was very aware of the discrimination experienced by the gay community and all of this was extremely emotional and difficult,” she said. “These forces came together to crystallize for me that I had to do human rights law.”
Among her cases while working as a young lawyer years later at the commission included the 1999 case of a gay man who had become a foster parent and was the subject of derogatory rumours at work. The case set a precedent that employers are responsible for a toxic workplace even if it’s just rumourmongering among employees. And when she worked as an adjudicator at the Human Rights Tribunal, her decisions included the 2011 racial profiling case of an Indigenous man who police wrongly suspected was in possession of a stolen bicycle. Chadha found the man had been discriminated based on race during a street check by police.
Last year, she was tapped by the Ontario government to be one of the reviewers looking into allegations of anti-Black racism and dysfunction at the Peel District School Board.
Among other findings, the damning report concluded that racism disproportionately impacted Black students, including in academics and higher suspension rates, and that board leaders were “paralyzed by inaction.”
Chadha said she will be drawing on perspectives gained from community members and experts during the review in her new role at the human rights commission.
“That was a life-changing experience,” she said. “There was such tangible harm that was experienced by racialized students and families, particularly anti-Black racism. It was palpable, it was painful and that’s an experience I’ll never forget.”
The Ontario government said it will be launching an open application process in the fall for a permanent chief commissioner. Chadha will have the option to apply, though she’s not sure yet if she will.
She said her commitment has always been to human rights in her work. She pointed out that after having to take a leave from her duties at the Human Rights Tribunal several years ago due to an aggressive form of breast cancer, it was human rights work to which she returned.
Chadha may not have decided yet whether to put her name forward for the permanent job, but said, “if they need me, I’d be willing to serve.”
“I think we are, as a society, all in agreement that we need to emphasize de-escalation; I think we need to emphasize recalibrating services across the board: education, health, policing, all of those.” ENA CHADHA INTERIM CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION