Human rights commission names new director
Birju Dattani is the Yukon Human Rights Commission’s new director of human rights.
Birju Dattani is the Yukon Human Rights Commission’s new director of human rights.
The director is the commission’s senior management position, responsible for its daily work, outreach and initiatives.
Dattani has extensive academic and practical experience in the field of human rights, the commission said Tuesday.
He was awarded an LL.B. (with Honours) by the University of Wales in Aberstwyth, a Post Graduate Diploma in Professional Legal Skills by the City University of London and an LL.M. in Public International Law by the London School of Economics and Political Science.
In addition, Dattani has spent time studying at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, Cambridge University and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Since 2017, he has been the assistant regional director with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
There, he had a wide range of duties, including providing oversight and supervision on the Alberta commission’s investigation and conciliation programs.
Dattani delivered educational workshops and provided advice to other senior executives on a wide array of legislative, political and regulatory matters.
Before taking that position, he worked as a legal research associate for the director of the Alberta commission’s legal counsel, and was a teaching fellow at the Department of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
He was also the director of legal operations, international law, at the Syrian Legal Development Program under the auspices of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“We are very happy to have Birju staring with us as director of the commission, and we look forward to the experience and the expertise that he will bring to our work under the Human Rights Act and to our major initiative, funded by the Department of Justice Canada, on Workplace Sexual Harassment,” said Gavin Gardiner, the Yukon commission’s co-chair.
“I look forward to introducing him to the public at the Yukon Human Rights Commission‘s annual celebration of International Human Rights Day, which will take place on Thursday December 10th, 2020 and which will be modified this year to ensure compliance with all COVID-19 prevention guidelines.”
Gardiner also thanked Lesley McCullough, who has acted as director for the past 10 months, and former director Jessica Lott-Thompson for their contributions to the commission.
Comments (13)
Up 9 Down 1
George Orwell on Oct 28, 2020 at 5:59 am
"We are not all equal. Some have worked their ass off to get where they are, they deserve what they have, they shouldn't have to give up what they've worked for to make things equal."
Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others.
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Yoduh on Oct 27, 2020 at 3:24 pm
Dear People are People, By Western Ideologies, do you mean things like, work hard, get an education, support yourself and your family, be an asset to society, and not a burden. It would appear you believe that the art of government consists of taking as many benefits as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
Marginalized people come in all colours, sexes, and cultures, not just in one.
I respect your opinion, and will leave you with an
Unpopular Opinion: "We are not all equal. Some have worked their ass off to get where they are, they deserve what they have, they shouldn't have to give up what they've worked for to make things equal."
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People are People on Oct 26, 2020 at 5:36 pm
Dear Yoduh - Preferential hiring practices are the correction of human rights issues. Years of imposed disadvantage need to be removed to afford the marginalized the opportunity to advance personally and to advance society in the direction of greater fairness. Affirmative action programs are necessary to correct the imbalance created by Western ideologies.
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Yoduh on Oct 26, 2020 at 12:50 pm
Asking for a friend...
Is it a Human Rights issue if you get preferential hiring treatment, based on the colour of your skin, or percentage of people like you in our community?
The Territorial Liberal Government wants to know, for their hiring guidelines. Looking forward to your answer...
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Sheepchaser on Oct 25, 2020 at 3:12 am
It’s a great concept on paper, but these ‘thought courts’ wouldn’t stand a charter challenge. Just another champagne socialist project no one really cares about. All bluster, little action.
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This is why we can’t have nice things... on Oct 24, 2020 at 5:20 pm
Hey Matthew - You are wrong in your thinking that any little thing can become a Human Rights complaint. The Commission regularly screens out complaints that do not meet the criterion for further investigation. There are prohibited grounds of discrimination that the plaintiff must prove on a balance of probabilities that discrimination occurred. There are direct and indirect forms of discrimination. There must be a demonstrable link to the prohibited ground of discrimination. Discrimination does not require an intent to discriminate to constitute a discriminatory act.
However, this does not mean that discrimination cannot happen. In fact, Unions, Tribunals and Courts often allow discriminatory practices to occur if it meets their political objectives of presumptive fairness. So, you can have diversity hiring initiatives that weight competitions differently to favour less qualified candidates for a given position. You will see all sorts of preferential hiring practices everywhere.
However, this all takes place at an abstract level of analysis based on presumed characteristics based on the colour of your skin, your sexual or gender identity, your political affiliation etc. It does not matter what your actual abilities or qualifications are.
If you look at the YEU website for instance you will see that YEU is telling its membership straight up front that your rights can be willfully violated, no representation for you, based on YEU’s assessment of the Collective’s political interests - That’s right - You are one of us in dues only!
So no, not every little thing can become a complaint. I am getting tired of forums like these allowing uneducated and unthoughtful opinions to be manifest for general consumption.
Diversity is good in theory but in its current reality it is chaos because there is no equality - Only the continual divisions of political interest groups who are granted power in any particular point in time...
Human Rights as they are advanced in the name of special interests are designed to create instability not equality and not even equality of outcome.
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Concerned Citizen of the Republic of the Yukon on Oct 24, 2020 at 12:15 pm
The Yukon Human Rights commission has become so procedurally bound and restrictively applied that it has relegated Human Rights to the status of a protectorate; for YG, the Employer and special interest groups alike.
It is not the arbiter of Human Rights for all but rather for those it deems worthy. Thus, any consideration or adjudication by the Commission removes thoughtful deliberations of an individual humanity to one in which one is considered an object of some categorical imperative.
Because of this, quite often, the behaviours and actions of both perpetrator and victim are relegated to a secondary status such that historic concerns related to the present concern are given peremptory status through the manipulation of words, thoughts, and ideas to cast someone as an object of amorality or evil.
This is the problem with Human Rights more broadly.
However, the real problem and the real threat imposed by these so called Humanitarians is the absconding of Human Rights into the realm of the legal system. Your rights once obtainable through your own efforts through assistance with the office once responsible for Human Rights have now been put out of reach of the average person as it is becoming ever increasingly necessary to retain a lawyer.
Notwithstanding any jokes that may arise from considerations of lawyers and humanity to begin with it is not likely that one could afford to hire a lawyer to address their supposed Human Rights to begin with. Then, there is the very real concern that the Legal Community often sleep in the same house as their “adversary” (lol).
Then there is the problem that the Yukon Human Rights Commission is simply another branch of the Yukon Government - Supposedly, at arms length. This is highly questionable however as the outgoing Director was a former Director for the Department of Justice who are currently embroiled in yet another class action lawsuit for Human Rights violations.
You cannot make this stuff up and it should concern you that this ongoing cronyism and nepotistic orgy of self-regulation in such a closed environment is not only going on but, it is being reinforced at every turn by individuals who are in defense of an image to which they have adopted the axiom: The best defense is a good ‘offence’.
Hopefully Birju Dattani does not succumb to the weight of unregulated self-interest so rampant in the Yukon under the guise of “building relationships”.
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Don Cherry on Oct 24, 2020 at 11:43 am
@Matthew
Welcome to clown world. God forbid you state a fact that goes against the narrative. You're gonna get cancelled and your career and life as you know it is over. If you merely suggest that maybe we shouldn't be giving hormonal replacement therapy to children, for example, congratulations, your life is ruined you homophobic bigot. Imagine being completely un-personed for stating an opinion that others disagree with. That is the state of our 'democracy' at present.
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Alright, alright, alright... on Oct 23, 2020 at 6:31 pm
Matthew, Matthew, Matthew - Human Rights are not a joke. Often, the application or misapplication may be. Without the concept of Human Rights we would not have opened the conversation on reconciliation with our First Nation brothers and sisters. Women would still be relegated to the confines of the kitchen. Other minority rights would suffer. There are many other ways in which the human condition reinforces prejudice which require the continual check of an authoritative body such as the Human Rights Commission.
Where it clearly becomes a joke however and therefore lacks any moral authority is when they are used to create special rights for some groups over another. We are seeing the results of a legislative myopia with the Lobster Fishery back east, the current levels feminine-toxicity which disadvantages boys and men, the preferential treatment of races over those who are alleged to be Caucasian.
That is what makes Human Rights a joke. Because they do not treat everyone as an equal. They confer advantages in a system of moral relativism... Wherein nothing sound or sane can exist... Because, you are not you but rather a representation of a category you are assigned to for the purpose of adjudication...
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Matthew on Oct 23, 2020 at 6:08 am
Entire human rights thing is a joke! It's a very slippery slope we're going down as ANYTHING can trigger ANYONE and make a complaint.. it's a sad sad world we're transitioning into. Can even get human rights called for firing employees. They can cite ANYTHING and it will be approved for a meeting and possible fine. I'm going to start filing human rights against the liberal gov as their plan is clearly to place blacks, natives and women well above men. How is this right?
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Matthew on Oct 23, 2020 at 6:03 am
Since 2017, he has been the assistant regional director with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
Oh really.. what was his stance on when a Syrian Refugee abused 6 girls at WestEd water park and the female liberal judge let him go citing "cultural differences"?
Right.. silence..
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drum on Oct 22, 2020 at 10:47 pm
It will take time for any of us in the Yukon to be able to say his or her name.
Birji Dattoni.
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TMYK on Oct 22, 2020 at 1:14 pm
We really need to get rid of this waste of money kangaroo court.