Vetting for Perceptions: The Resignation of the Chief Human Rights Commissioner

In the world of public perception controversy is frequently fatal. You might expect the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to have absorbed this lesson after nine years in power, and to ensure that senior appointments are vetted accordingly. Yet PMO seems to have dropped the ball when vetting the incoming – and now outgoing – Chief Human Rights Commissioner Birju (aka Mujahid) Dattani.

Concerns about possible antisemitic bias were raised soon after Dattani’s appointment was announced.  A quickly commissioned third-party report found no evidence of actual bias on Dattani’s part but identified several red flags in his past writings as well as an inadequately explained change of name that signalled a possible lack of candour. So, while bias had not been demonstrated the government faced a situation that could give rise to negative perceptions. In the circumstances Mr. Dattani had little choice but to resign, leaving the Canadian Human Rights Commission looking for a new head just as it thought it had gotten one.

The embarrassingly basic lesson for PMO is that anything you’d (de facto) fire for you should vet for. Potential candidates should also take this to heart – in an age of intense and often hostile scrutiny it’s futile to hope that no one finds out about the things you’d rather they didn’t.

Is perception a legitimate basis for these kinds of decisions? Perceptions of bias are pretty important in public decision-making. For example, many, perhaps most, of our conflict of interest rules are designed to avoid the perception of basis. A perceived conflict is a conflict, as we in the business of governance say.  Arguably, this is all the more true when you apply a diversity lens, which by its very nature seeks to balance diverse societal perspectives.

That said, perception is just one of many considerations governments need to bear in mind, and making it priority one is likely to be self defeating. Governing, alas, requires keeping more than one goal in your head at a time.

Karl Salgo

Associate and Executive Advisor

Institute on Governance