Kim Bernhardt - Grievance dealing

Grievances dealing with various issues

You mention the many issues that come into a person's being

There is becoming a recognition in human rights law of intersectionality.

So don't have to decide whether you're going to take your issues

about being aboriginal, about being a woman, or subject to violence, or disrepsected

or not promoted at the workplace as separate entities.

You would want, in considering your form, to intersect all those

to recognize that each one affects the other. It's not just women's issues

separated from aboriginal issues but being an aboriginal woman

has a particular impact. When you're looking at how to attack such an issue

you would want to look at the forums that have mandate and jurisdiction over

as many as possible. You may not be able to get them all in one forum or hearing.

Certainly if you're dealing with violence you want to involve the criminal role

that grievance arbitration and human rights wouldn't do as well.

Internally you have options if you were to go to an employer and say

We need to have a plan to deal with all of this.

That might be the most comprehensive way you can do it.