A petition circulating out of Surrey is calling to bring back British Columbia's Human Rights Commission – a body that was dismantled in 2002 – in an effort to spark discussion around the issue in the lead-up to the provincial election next year.

The petition, led by Gurpreet Singh of Radical Desi Publications, said it is "an embarrassment that B.C. is the only province in Canada that does not have a human-rights commission" and that it should be restored to "educate its people and investigate cases of human-rights abuse."

B.C. has a human-rights tribunal that serves to accept and make decisions on human-rights complaints.

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"If there is no need, then why do we have commissions in other provinces?" Mr. Singh said

After signatures start rolling in, New Democrat Harry Bains, MLA for Surrey-Newton said he will bring Mr. Singh's petition to the legislature as soon as he can .

"I think [the current government] will ignore it, but that is a mistake. I think the community expects them to be more pro-active when it comes to protecting and promoting human rights in British Columbia," Mr. Bains said. "After all, Canada is considered to be a champion of human rights and the promotion of human rights all around the world."

A statement received from B.C.'s Ministry of Justice said: "The decision to move to a human rights tribunal was made following extensive study and consultation with stakeholders. B.C.'s Human Rights Tribunal is a recognized leader in the protection of human rights, and both the tribunal and the Ministry of Justice play a formative role in educating British Columbians so that human rights are upheld in our province."

The petition was announced by a small group at a library in Surrey. "We decided to launch this in our community because Surrey-Newton is very diverse, and it has a sizable number from visible minority groups who are generally more vulnerable to racism and human-rights abuse," Mr. Singh said.

Those who attended, he says, took copies of the petition to distribute to communities across the province, including Abbotsford, Burnaby and Vancouver.

In 2014, a report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, called on the province to establish a new human-rights commission that would be mandated to serve "educational, preventive and investigative functions."

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One of the authors of that report and B.C.'s first human-rights officer, Shelagh Day, referenced that document in an e-mail: "Without the capacity to review legislation, conduct research, educate the public or investigate systemic discrimination, B.C. is failing to address the needs of its residents, and at the same time failing to live up to international standards for human-rights institutions established by the United Nations."

Ms. Day explained that without a human-rights commission, the province has no body in charge of working to educate and prevent discrimination on a large scale. "Instead, B.C.'s human-rights system has been narrowed to settling disputes between private parties (via the tribunal), rather than addressing the broader issues in which the whole community has a stake," she wrote.

Mr. Singh said the timing of his petition is strategic – it is targeted to raise the matter in advance of the province's elections, slated for late next spring. "We should try to put pressure on the government and also the opposition to keep this issue in the focus," he said.

The petition's launch featured a presentation by Harinder Mahil, who led the commission before he was fired and the body was subsequently scrapped.

Geoff Plant, attorney-general at the time, said then that the system had been unworkable and that the changes would help bring back confidence to human-rights protections.

Mr. Mahil said that there is no way the duties of the commission can be infused into a tribunal. "It's like a judge speaking out on what the law has to be, the judges don't go out and educate people," he said. "They adjudicate, they make decisions on what is put in front of them. If a judge speaks out on an issue like that they would be deemed biased, it is not their role."

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While insistent that the province needs one, Mr. Mahil said he has no intention or interest in returning to work with the commission if it were to be restored. "It's not about me," he said. "It's about what the British Columbians are missing."

With a report from The Canadian Press