Read the full story in the Nov. 2 edition of The Interior News.
The Village of Telkwa council may take the unprecedented step of filing a human rights complaint against the Province and ICBC.
A letter from a concerned resident brought the idea to council’s Oct. 24 meeting in response to news that ICBC has refused to reconsider its rate territories (‘Telkwa council furious over ICBC boundary’, published in The Interior News Oct. 19).
“When I first received it [I wondered whether] this is really a human rights issue, when youare talking about a few hundred bucks for insurance,” said Mayor Darcy Repen. “Then I looked into how this ICBC issue fits into the bigger picture of how Telkwa is being dealt with as a community by our provincial government in terms of funding transfers.”
Unprecedented
The registrar of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal said this kind of complaint would be unprecedented.
“We have never seen a local government file a complaint on behalf of its residents,” said Steven Adamson, B.C. Human Rights Tribunal Registrar. “I am not saying it is impossible,but it is not something we have seen.”
Normally a ‘group’ filing is filed by an individual on behalf of a group of people, he said.
A tale of two towns
Repen said he has been comparing Telkwa’s situation with that of Taylor B.C., a Northeast community near Fort St. John.