B.C. report says inequalities hard coded into justice, health, child-welfare systems

British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner says inequalities are baked into the province’s justice, health, and child-welfare systems. 

Kasari Govender says her office’s latest report is aimed at spotlighting the human rights issues people face when they come into contact with 10 provincial systems, especially Indigenous people, women, and other marginalized groups. 

“Across B.C., there are inequalities in the systems we interact with every day or when we are in need of extra support—from schools to workplaces; from hospitals to courthouses,” said Govender.

“Such inequities impact all of us, but impact marginalized people and communities in particular. We must ensure that we place human rights considerations at the centre of key issues concerning housing, climate, child protection, criminal justice, and public health because these systems are instrumental in either protecting or undermining our human dignity and rights entitlements.”

Govender says “unaffordable, inaccessible and inappropriate housing” tops the list for human rights issues in B.C., where homelessness and encampments “unsurprisingly” grow amid the housing affordability crisis. 

“B.C. residents face the highest rate of unaffordable housing in Canada. As a result, homelessness and encampments are on the rise: the 2023 homeless count identified 31 per cent more people experiencing homelessness when compared with 2020/21,” the commissioner’s report shared. “Lack of affordable housing disproportionately impacts marginalized groups, including people with disabilities, Indigenous people and women.”

She says women and girls are particularly at risk of violence on the street, and choose to stay with abusive partners with no other affordable options for housing.

Govender’s report, titled “Rights in Focus: Lived Realities in B.C.,” says thousands of people have been forced into homelessness in the province due to a “collision of market forces with inadequate social support.” 

The findings also highlighted inequalities in standard of living; education; employment; treatment in public spaces; and the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

“In B.C., there are large differences between groups in educational outcomes. Evidence shows that groups with worse outcomes face exclusion, racism and discrimination in schools. For example, 92 per cent of all students complete secondary school in six years, but only 78 per cent of students with disabilities and 75 per cent of Indigenous students do the same,” the report explained.

“In addition, there are gaps in human-rights-related education, and teaching social justice content is increasingly controversial. We spotlight the experiences of LGBTQ2SAI+ children and youth in schools and the controversy around SOGI 1 2 3, a supplementary education resource designed to create inclusive educational spaces. SOGI 1 2 3 has attracted considerable misunderstanding and in 2023 was the subject of large-scale political action,” it added.

She says her office will produce rights-in-focus reports every three years, examining human rights issues tied to everyday lives of people who need homes, health care and education, and for those who face inequalities in the criminal justice and child-welfare systems, among others.