Law Times

PAGE 2 NEWS March 16, 2009 • Law TiMes Justice Department managers to get diversity training BY ROBERT TODD Law Times ing, a move made public a year after a Senate committee heard scathing testimony alleging minorities are largely blocked from rising to the department's upper echelons. Justice Department associate T he federal Justice Depart- ment is forcing its manag- ers to take diversity train- deputy minister Donna Miller says the diversity initiative "is about the pursuit of excellence." Miller, who leads the depart- they're the most critical layer," she says. "They're the layer that recruits, that retains, and that promotes." Former Justice Department employee Mark Persaud told the Senate human rights committee in February 2008 he was driven from the department's Toronto office in 2003 by a "poisonous, toxic culture that causes many people to leave." Persaud, who leads the Canadi- ment's employment equity initia- tives, says, "We think that a diverse and inclusive organization is the best to promote excellence, and the excellence in legal services and ex- cellence in legal policy." Over 600 managers from across the country will take the work- shops starting in May, says Miller. Members of the department's advi- sory committees attended diversity workshops last November, and se- nior managers also received training in December, says Miller. "That's where we're starting — an International Peace Project, told the committee his former work- place was filled with "overt racism and intimidation of employees." He told Law Times in an inter- view at the time of the committee meetings that he was prevented from obtaining a promotion after fighting allegedly discriminatory at- titudes of a former colleague. Persaud calls the diversity aware- Mark Persaud would be a better way to address the issue, suggests Persaud. While the department is looking ness workshops "a start." He adds, "It's taken the department such a long time to acknowledge that there's a problem. In the meantime, there have been a lot of casualties." The enforcement of sanctions against managers who fail to follow policies regarding hiring procedures Miller acknowledged that the department needs to improve diversity among its senior ranks. She did not have statistics imme- diately available on the number of senior managers from diverse backgrounds. "If you look at our senior man- • Aboriginal Peoples: rise to 3.6 per cent from 3.3 per cent. But, speaking anecdotally, to enhance diversity in its offices, Miller says it already has a strong track record. "We actually have more visible minority employees in the department, for example, than the labour availability numbers would suggest," she says. Miller offered the following sta- tistics comparing diversity within agement cadre, we do not have suf- ficient diversity," she says, adding the caveat that women are well rep- resented at that level. Miller says the department also is building diversity numbers into its performance pay scheme to get "immediate results." The plan to introduce diver- • persons with disabilities: up to 5.5 per cent from 5.1 per cent; the department from April 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2008: • visible minorities: up to 13.1 per cent from 11.6 per cent; age of the Senate proceedings on employment brought issues relat- ed to diversity in Justice Canada to the forefront." The posting indicates that the department is looking for "facili- tation services to deliver diversity awareness workshops to its manag- ers." It lists an estimated value of $50,001 to $100,000 for the work, and states that the services will be needed from the time the contract is awarded to March 31, 2010. "The workshops are intended to bring awareness to diversity is- sues within the DOJ, including discrimination and racism," states the posting. LT Decision reserved sity training became public when the department posted a request for proposals to administer the project on a web site. The RFP states that, "Recent media cover- Continued from page 1 Visit us online! canadianlawyermag.com lawtimesnews.com the CJC must apply a two-step test when deciding if a recommenda- tion should be made to remove a judge. He said the first stage — whether the judge has committed judicial misconduct as defined by the Judges Act — has been met. But he said it has not been estab- lished that the finding of miscon- duct merits removal based on all other relevant circumstances. Paliare argued that Cosgrove's apology, independent counsel Earl Cherniak's position that removal is not merited, glowing character letters, and the fact that he sat as a judge for over four years following Elliott without facing a complaint means a "strong admonition" is punishment enough. The complaint against Cosgrove followed the Ontario Court of Ap- peal's 2003 decision to overturn the judge's decision to stay proceed- ings against Elliott and order costs against the Crown. Cosgrove cited 150 alleged Charter violations by Crown counsel and senior mem- bers of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General in his ruling. The appeal court said the evi- dence did not support "most of the findings of Charter breaches by the trial judge." The inquiry committee's De- cember ruling stated, among other things, that Cosgrove allowed defence counsel at Elliott to "take control of the trial"; failed to curtail inappropriate cross-examination by defence counsel; demonstrated an "appearance of anti-Crown bias"; and abused his contempt powers, noted Cherniak in his submission to the council. The inquiry committee also Fresh content delivered weekly. Canadian Lawyer Law Times 4Students InHouse House-Online_LT_Mar16_09.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 3/11/09 2:45:27 PM reported that, "an observer of the trial could only have concluded that Justice Cosgrove continually exhibited a bias against the Crown's position." It also took the position that his conduct "includes every- thing from rude, abusive, or intem- perate language up to the misuse of contempt power, or threats to do so, and beyond that to defamatory statements of persons who had done no wrong who, in some cases, had no opportunity to answer the judge's damning allegations." Elliott pleaded guilty to man- slaughter and received a seven-year sentence after the appeal court or- dered a retrial. The council, which is not be- holden to the inquiry committee's finding, reserved its decision. LT

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