Former Faro mayor Michelle Vainio has resigned from the Human Rights Panel of Adjudicators before ever sitting on a single hearing, the Star has learned.
Vainio was named to the government-appointed board in November 2008, but was not allowed to sit as an adjudicator in any hearing because she was a key witness in an ongoing complaint against the Town of Faro.
The complaint was launched by an Inuvialuit man named Les Carpenter who said he was not considered for a job with the town because of his race.
It was dismissed by the board of adjudication in October 2009, but not before the three-member hearing panel passed a less-than-flattering judgment on Vainio and other members of the town’s council.
In its final written decision, the board found that “Councillors (Val) Benoit, Vainio and (George) Miller held some negative stereotypes about first nation people or Indians.”
However, the attitudes of those councillors did not result in the man’s application being rejected, the board concluded.
The Yukon Human Rights Commission, which is separate from the panel of adjudicators, formally objected to Vainio’s presence on the board.
The commission requested that Vainio not be allowed to hear any upcoming complaints involving first nations people, but also objected to her presence at any hearing because of her opinion of the commission.
During both Carpenter’s human rights hearing and a public consultation meeting on the Human Rights Act held in Faro, Vainio criticized the commission and its process of investigating complaints.
Speaking earlier this year about Vainio’s appointment, commission chair Melissa Atkinson said that even if Vainio had gotten over her gripe, the public may still see her as having a bias against any complainant who is supported by the commission.
“It’s important for the members to not have biases and to be perceived by the public not to have any biases,” she said. “.... The public needs to see there are checks and balance on the people who will be hearing their complaints.”
At the time, Vainio declined to comment on the commission’s objection to her appointment, as did the person responsible for the appointment, Justice Minister Marian Horne.
“I am requesting to be released from my appointment on the Yukon Human Rights Panel of Adjudicators,” she writes in the March 4 letter addressed to Horne.
“It has come to my attention that there are more members than is permitted on the Yukon Human Rights Panel of Adjudicators. In order to assist with compliance, I am requesting to be removed from the panel of adjudicators by resolution of the legislature.”
Vainio is referring to the fact there are currently eight people appointed to the board, while the Human Rights Act states there may be only six.
She makes no mention of the commission’s complaint about her in the letter.
Members of the board receive an honorarium of $125 a day, but according to Ginny MacDonald in the cabinet office, board members must work for their pay.
“They must attend hearings or meetings or whatever the board of commission does,” she said, speaking generally. “... They don’t get paid if they don’t do anything.”