Defining Rights and Wrongs: Bureaucracy, Human Rights, and Public Accountability.

Joseph Garcea is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan.

This is a case study of the processes and dynamics of dealing with human rights issues in Ontario by that province’s Human Rights Commission. The book is not the usual type of structural-functional analysis of such processes and dynamics of a quasi-judicial body. Instead, it focuses on the experiences and views of claimants who enter the system through the eyes of those with whom they come into contact within the system.

The best way to understand the purpose of the book is to focus on the following major questions posed at the outset. One such question is: “How are everyday interpretations of discrimination, harassment and human rights translated into legal claims?” Other equally interesting and important questions are: “When people contact human rights commissions, how do people think about the use of human rights discourse? How are their experiences characterized by legal actors? What happens when people encounter official understandings of discrimination? How are complaints turned into cases? How are cases shaped by professional and operational considerations?”

The first chapter provides an historical overview of the social, political, and legal context in which Ontario’s provincial human rights policy and implementation, as well as a review of statutory, case law, and international rationales for current approaches to human rights enforcement.

The second chapter examines the roles of frontline staff and independent lawyers in human rights enforcement. It devotes special attention to the rise of operational imperatives in shaping complaint intake trough an analysis of organizational materials and interviews of staff members regarding their understanding of their work.

The third chapter focuses on the process of transforming human rights complaints into cases. It examines how the interests of complainants, intermediaries, and those operating the system affect the construction and processing of viable human rights complaints.

The fourth chapter addresses the broad issue of the relationship between human rights enforcement and the public interest. More specifically, it examines how the public interest is actively defined and debated in the processes and decisions of a public administrative body responsible for the protection of domestic human rights. It also devotes attention to the challenges of finding the balance between private and public interests.

The concluding chapter reflects on several major themes including: the interaction between cultural and legal understandings of discrimination; the phenomenon of bureaucratic gatekeeping as practiced through selective inclusion and exclusion of cases; the management of clients by agency staff and lawyers; the influence of professional communities on the outcome of individual cases; and the contest among advocacy groups claiming to represent the public interest.

Those deeply involved in bureaucratic processes are likely to enjoy reading the entire book. Most others, however, are likely to enjoy reading the introductory and concluding chapters because they deal with the broad thematic issues without the distraction of discrete details. How, and how much of, this book one reads depends on whether one is interested in the themes, the details, or both.