It’s been a busy couple of weeks for BC Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender.
On Wednesday, Govender released a statement criticizing BC’s recent decision to end mask mandates in health care settings.
Govender says that while wearing a mask has little impact on the wearer, it can prevent serious harm to the province’s most vulnerable.
As a result, she says that the removal of the mandate has a disproportionate impact on the clinically vulnerable, seniors, and marginzalized people.
She says the decision represents a violation of their rights to equal participation in their communities.
Last week, Govender also took the stand as an Intervenor in the Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation’s legal challenge against BC.
That challenge seeks to prove that BC’s free-entry mineral claims staking process is in violation of UNDRIP and the Constitution.
BC’s Declaration Act, passed in 2019, requires free, prior, and informed consent from First Nations prior to undertaking resource projects.
Govender says that, as a human rights law, it should take precedent over the Mineral Tenures Act.
