Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 3: Increase the number of Indigenous Peoples at all levels of the BCHRT, including staff, tribunal members and contractors.

Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 4: Create education materials and training:

1. For Indigenous Peoples, about the Code and BCHRT processes;
2. Within the BCHRT, to develop cultural competency and safety among BCHRT staff and tribunal members;
3. For the general public, through a proactive campaign to highlight specific areas of discrimination faced by Indigenous Peoples.

Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 6: Increase the training for and number of lawyers available to support Indigenous Peoples in bringing human rights complaints, with an emphasis on Indigenous lawyers.

Immediate procedural steps

Recommendation 8: Create a staff/tribunal committee tasked with developing the Expanding Our Vision Implementation Plan. Indigenous lawyers and cultural leaders or academics with knowledge of human rights should be recruited to join these efforts. The Expanding Our Vision Implementation Plan should include immediate steps to be taken in the first 6 months, and then be renewed on a yearly basis.

Incorporate Indigenous laws

Recommendation 10: The BCHRT should actively engage with Indigenous Peoples, working with the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, Indigenous lawyers, and law schools, to incorporate Indigenous laws into a renewed human rights process which reflects Indigenous approaches for protecting human rights.

Increase Indigenous involvement within the BCHRT

Recommendation 13: Audit the current HR process to identify why Indigenous Peoples are not being recruited or hired. Provide specific training to HR staff on how to actively recruit and fairly assess Indigenous applicants. Seek specific mentoring advice from other organizations with higher Indigenous staff ratios about how to address this underrepresentation. The BCHRT should set yearly hiring targets for the first five years, and report on success in meeting those targets in annual reports.

Increase Indigenous involvement within the BCHRT

Recommendation 14: Audit the tribunal appointment process to identify why Indigenous Peoples are not applying or being appointed as tribunal members. Set specific recruitment and appointment goals for BCHRT Indigenous tribunal members.

Increase Indigenous involvement within the BCHRT

Recommendation 15: Implement options for part-time appointments to qualified Indigenous tribunal members, who may not be available full-time. This could provide a way to reflect Indigenous adjudicative and dispute resolution traditions within the tribunal’s expertise.

Public outreach to Indigenous communities

Recommendation 17: Create a public education campaign for Indigenous Peoples which addresses human rights from an Indigenous perspective:

1. Make materials easily accessible at Band offices, Métis organizations, Friendship Centres, Indigenous political organizations, and universities.
2. Emphasize cases where Indigenous individuals have successfully brought human rights claims.

Create an Indigenous specific stream within the BCHRT

Recommendation 26: Create the position of Indigenous Advocates or Navigators to help guide, support and coach Indigenous Peoples through the BCHRT process, and to help them address administrative barriers.