Durham Catholic District School Board (DCDSB) recognizes that it is our shared legal, moral and professional obligation to ensure that classrooms and workspaces are safe, welcoming, diverse and equitable. In furtherance of its commitment to identifying and eliminating any form of overt or covert racism, discriminatory practices, systemic barriers and biases within our board, DCDSB recently appointed a Human Rights and Equity Advisor.
The Human Rights and Equity Advisor has two main objectives, which are to:
- Continue to build capacity to foster a culture of human rights, maintain a welcoming, respectful working and learning environment in the board; and
- Support the resolution of human rights complaints.
The Human Rights and Equity Advisor continues to work to achieve these objectives through education and training, relationship-building, and participating in system-level decision-making. The Human Rights and Equity Advisor will support the DCDSB to identify and address systemically-based human rights and equity issues and build capacity to ensure compliance with the Ontario Human Rights Code.
The Human Rights and Equity Advisor will work towards complaint resolution and restorative justice by overseeing the board’s internal human rights complaints procedure. They will act in a non-partisan capacity to protect and advance human rights as articulated in the Ontario Human Rights Code and school board policies.
The Human Rights and Equity Advisor will also maintain appropriate independence and impartiality and will not:
- Provide legal advice or representation to, or act as legal counsel; or
- Provide other advice or take other actions in relation to any party in a dispute that may place them in an actual or perceived conflict of interest in relation to any other party to the dispute.