New human rights commission strategic plan tackles racial profiling, solitary confinement

The Ontario Human Rights Commission publicly released its new five-year strategic planThursday morning.

It's the product of feedback from nearly 300 people over the last year and"hundreds of hours spent traveling across the province,"RenuMandhane,chief commissioner of the OHRC, told CBC's Metro Morning.

From advocating for a tougher stance on racial profiling to sounding the alarm over solitary confinement, it has been a busy year for the OHRC.

• Ottawa police race data 'consistent' with racial profiling: human rights commission
• Four years in solitary for northern Ontario inmate shocks human rights commissioner

"I am consistently amazed by how many people are personally invested in the work of the OHRC and care deeply about our success,"Mandhanewrote in the new plan.

"They encouraged us to use our unique mandate to address anti-Black racism, Indigenous reconciliation,Islamophobia, the rights of children and youth, and persistent discrimination in employment and in the criminal justice system."

Building a 'culture of human rights'

The strategy going forward will strive to build a "culture of human rights in theprovince," she said.

The plan highlightsfour areas which theOHRCwill focus on from 2017 to 2022:

• Reconciliation with Indigenous communities
• Reducing systemic discriminationin the criminal justice system
• Addressing poverty as a human rights issue
• Promoting a human rights culture throughout Ontario

In the criminal justice realm, the commissionhopes to end "racial profiling in all police practices" and the use of solitary confinement in provincial jails.

Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services David Orazietti previously saidsolitary confinement should be used "under the least restrictive conditions possible," but added total elimination "doesn't really stand the test of the practical realities in the institutions, where an individual may need to be segregated for their own safety or the safety of others."

One of theOHRC'sother goals is a human rights paradigm for Ontario that reconciles the province's human rights system with Indigenous frameworks, concepts, processes, and laws, according to the plan.

The full plan is online on theOHRCwebsite.

The plan's public release reflects the OHRC's commitment to "hearing from Ontarians directly," Mandhane said.

"We have a mandate that doesn't lend itself that well to quantifiable measures," she said.

"But with this plan we're actually making public commitments."