MCKINNON AND ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

McKinnon and Ontario Human Rights Commission

McKinnon and Ontario Human Rights Commission

Introduction

This paper is discussing the case of McKinnon and Ontario Human Rights Commission v. Ontario (Ministry of Correctional Services). It was the case of workplace abuse and violence. McKinnon was working at a place situated in Ontario. He was being abused by his fellow colleagues. The case is concerned the discrimination on the basis of Aboriginal ancestry and has become the leading Canadian case on human rights remedies in race discrimination.

Background of the case

Mr. McKinnon had been a prison guard for 11 years. His wife, Vicki Shaw-McKinnon, was a guard at the same institution. The Board of Inquiry found Mr. McKinnon's workplace and that of his spouse and fellow correctional officer Vicki Shaw McKinnon, to be poisoned by discriminatory conduct including racist comments, reprisals after he objected to the behavior and a failure on the part of the Employer to effectively address the problem. There always had been a trickle of racist taunts at work. Now there was a flood. Derogatory cartoons were posted on the prison bulletin boards depicting Mr. McKinnon as a bow-and-arrow-toting redskin, and the name-calling became constant. He was now called as "McInjun," or "Chief Crazy Horse McKinnon" or simply "Chief." He was also called Geronimo, Wagon Burner, Big Canoe, Tomahawk, and Running Bear. Vicki Shaw-McKinnon, who is not aboriginal, was now nicknamed Vicki Squaw-McKinnon (American Intelligence, 2011).

The taunts came from colleagues, fellow guards, former friends, hockey teammates, even prison managers. On one occasion, Mr. McKinnon was greeted in a corridor of the prison by a group of four corrections officers decked out in feathered headdresses, who were war-whooping, laughing and doing their best imitation of a native ceremonial dance. Apart from Mr. James and a handful of others, his colleagues respected him, and despite the hostility from his supervisor, Mr. Geswaldo, his personnel file said he had a "commendable record." The job paid well, and his wife was fast-tracked for promotion. Life was looking at least okay, if not entirely good.

The incident happened one morning when he was discussing some paperwork with a colleague, Donny Stockwood, when Frank [Geswaldo] came out and said 'What's this? Another Pow Wow?' This time, Mr. McKinnon did not turn and walk away. He put in an informal complaint with management. He just could not take it anymore. And according to the Ontario Human Rights Code, he did not have to. "Every person who is an employee has a right to freedom from harassment in the workplace by the employer or agent of the employer or by another employee because of race or ancestry," it says. The Code is legally binding, and applies to every employer in Ontario, including the Ministry of Correctional Services. McKinnon thought the ministry would move quickly to fix his situation, but that did not happen. There was already plenty of evidence that racist harassment was common at Toronto East. Other human-rights complaints from other employees, already on record ...