The territorial Department of Justice has disregarded two deadlines to provide the Yukon Human Rights Commission with documents surrounding Michael Nehass’ incarceration.

As a result, the commission is considering having the disclosure order filed in Yukon Supreme Court.

If the government ignores that, it could be cited with contempt.

Nehass is a 31-year-old man who’s been in custody at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) since December 2011. Much of that time has been spent on remand and in solitary confinement.

In January 2014, he was brought naked and shackled before a Yukon Supreme Court judge for a video court appearance from the jail. Three guards in riot gear held him to the floor.

After the incident, Nehass’ father filed a human rights complaint against the WCC, alleging his son was being mistreated and segregation was causing his mental health to deteriorate.

Last year, the commission referred the complaint to the Yukon Human Rights Panel of Adjudicators for a hearing.

Last December, the panel sent both parties a notice of disclosure, a timeline they must comply with when submitting documents to each other.

The commission provided its documents to Justice on time.

The department did not do the same. It provided no documentation by the Jan. 26, 2015, deadline.

On April 23, the panel ordered the department to disclose the relevant documents and files within 45 days. That deadline – June 7 – has come and gone.

The commission has received no documentation from Justice since the complaint was filed in April 2014, according to commission lawyer Colleen Harrington.

“They refuse to participate in our investigation process,” she said.

The department won’t explain why.

“On this matter, the Department of Justice is working with the process under the Human Rights Board of Adjudication,” said spokeswoman Caitlin Kerwin. “That’s all we can say at this time because it is before the panel of adjudicators.”

The Star asked for an interview with Justice Minister Brad Cathers.

A cabinet spokeswoman declined the request.

Nehass’ father, Russell, could not be reached for comment.

Now, the commission is considering turning to the courts.

Under the Yukon Human Rights Act, an order from the adjudication panel may be filed in Yukon Supreme Court, making it then enforceable as an order of the court.

“So that’s an option,” Harrington said. “We’re looking into that.”

The consequences of not abiding by a court order can be serious, such as a citation for contempt.

Contempt of court is defined in a 1960s Canadian judgment as “any conduct that tends to bring the authority and administration of the law into disrespect or disregard.”

A spokeswoman for the panel of adjudicators declined an interview request.

“With respect to your inquiry, the Panel’s chief adjudicator has confirmed that it is not our policy to comment on the progress of individual cases,” registrar Colleen Henry said in an email Monday.

The panel’s new chief adjudicator is Penelope Gawn. Appointed by the Yukon legislature last May, she replaces Darcy Tkachuk.

Typically, once both parties involved in a complaint exchange documents, a pre-hearing conference will be scheduled, followed by the hearing itself. Dates have not been set for either of these in Nehass’ case.

Last year, the Justice department tried to engage in a tug of war with the commission over inmates’ human rights complaints.

In correspondence provided to the Star by a third party, the government argued that the commission had no jurisdiction to investigate these complaints.

Instead, the Investigations and Standards Office, an independent body established under the Corrections Act, is the proper avenue, it argued.

In her response, Harrington called the department’s stance “narrow” and “completely wrong.”

Last January, the department’s lawyer, Judith Hartling, sent an email to the commission and the adjudication panel suggesting it would be seeking judicial review of the jurisdiction issue – that is, to have a judge determine who has the authority to deal with inmates’ human rights complaints.

The Justice department never did file for judicial review.

The government has remained tight-lipped about the issue.

Meanwhile, Nehass remains in custody as he awaits sentencing for forcibly confining a woman in her Watson Lake apartment, assaulting her and holding a knife to her throat in 2011.

He was convicted by a jury in May.

Over the past year, Nehass has appeared increasingly gaunt, his cheeks sunken. He no longer looks anything like the photo published in the Star in recent months.

In court, Nehass occasionally rants about a conspiracy theory he has involving Yukon government officials, the Bilderberg group, the robocalls scandal during the 2011 federal election and nanochips being implanted into people’s brains.

He has suggested judges and lawyers are part of the conspiracy and are colluding against him.

According to a jail report filed in court earlier this year, Nehass has been kept in a form of solitary confinement, removed from the general-population area, since May 2013.