Jail guard asks McGuinty to end 18 years of racism

Ontario's largest public sector union is calling on Premier Dalton McGuinty to personally intervene in a case of racism that has persisted for nearlytwodecades inside a Toronto jail.

Michael McKinnon, an aboriginalguard who works at Toronto's Metro East Detention Centre, first filed a complaint in November1988 that co-workers were harassing and taunting him with racial slurs.

Ten years later, his case went before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and the Ministry of Corrections was ordered to fix a poisoned work environment and systemic discrimination.

But McKinnon complained nothing had changed and the tribunal said on Jan. 30 the ministry failed to clean up problems as ordered.

"I'm demanding that the premier take steps to ensure there will be no more delays, no more studies, no more appeals and no more denials of basic human rights in Ontario corrections," Leah Casselman, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said Monday.

McKinnon, who underscored the call for McGuinty to get involved in the case,said he isangry that despite rulingsin his favour over the years, the racism still persists. "It's the larger picture. It's not just Mike McKinnon. It's impacted my wife, my family.It's impacted other people at other facilities, people from different cultures. I see how they're treated. It's absolutely disgusting."

Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter said he accepts there is a problem of racism in the system, but said the government is working to eliminate it by diversifying the workforce and implementing sensitivity training for managers.

Not an isolated complaint

At Monday's press conference, McKinnon and OPSEU also detailed 20 other unresolved complaints at Metro East jail involving allegations of racism.

They said the Ministry of Corrections failed to comply with previous orders to monitor internal racism within the department and to do adequate training.

The tribunal's recentdecision criticized the ministry for what it called "shameful conduct" and accused it of burying complaints from McKinnon or investigating them in an incompetent manner.

The tribunal concluded it is still not safe for McKinnon to return to work because of the racism. He has been off work for the past three years and was also away before that on an intermittent basis.