Thank you, Mr. Speaker. GNWT employees who are charged and suspended without pay is breaching Canadian common law of innocence until proven guilty. The GNWT, as an employer, must adhere to this principle of law.
In Canada, Section 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom states: “Any person charged with an offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.”
The presumption of innocence is the legal right of any accused in a criminal trial. The law in Canada applies to everyone, including police, judges, politicians, employers, and employees of our government. The main purposes of our laws are to provide order in society to provide a peaceful way to settle disputes and to express values and beliefs of a civilized society.
Everyone in Canada, citizen or permanent resident, has equal access to the justice system. I have a fairly low level employee who has been suspended without pay for a few months, potentially losing his job as a result of us, as his employer, waiting for his court case. This is completely wrong. In fact, I don’t know where they got that policy from.
In 2010 the deputy minister of Human Resources said publicly that there is no government policy on dealing with employees who are charged or convicted of crimes. He said the department handles each case individually, depending on the nature of the charge and nature of the position.
I don’t believe we should be suspending people without pay. Should we not be, if anything, like the RCMP, suspending them with pay until the case is resolved, or even continue employment with other duties? Suspending them for months without pay before they have legal proceedings is completely not the way to go, according to our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I will be asking the Minister of Human Resources questions on this later today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
