VANCOUVER—B.C. is now home to Canada’s first fully independent human-rights commissioner, who has promised to hold the government to account on systemic issues.

“My job as commissioner is to be a watchdog for human rights in this province,” said Kasari Govender, who was sworn in earlier this week.

As her independent commission reports directly to the Legislative Assembly, Govender said “we have the ability to hold the government’s feet the to the fire.”

Speaking to the media Thursday, Govender outlined her priorities for her first year in office. She said she would focus on education to increase the “public understanding of both rights and obligations under B.C.’s human-rights code” in order to “create a new culture of human rights in this province.”

She said her other focus will be the “extreme discrimination and inequality” Indigenous people face in B.C.

Govender also cited a number of issues that she feels need more attention, including disability rights and the rise of hate crimes.

“There are more that one hundred white nationalist groups in Canada, and activity is on the rise,” she said. “There is a lot of hard work ahead of us.”

The province re-established the independent Human Rights Commission after the original commission was scrapped in 2002. Govender was selected as B.C.’s first commissioner in 17 years at the start of 2019.

Govender is a lawyer and was the executive director of West Coast LEAF before taking on the role of commissioner.

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