During the cross-examination of one of the Respondents, she was provided with a document that was not officially entered into evidence. The Respondent’s lawyer immediately objected and told the Chief Adjudicator of the Board of Adjudication (“the Board”) that the document was a transcript of a tape recording made by one of the Complainants during a meeting. The Respondent’s lawyer argue that the Complainants had agreed prior to the hearing not to use this document and/or the tape recording.
In this case, the Yukon Human Rights Commission had made the transcripts and they were part of the Human Rights Investigator’s Report. All parties were fully informed of the transcripts. The Yukon Human Rights Regulations states that the Board may require any relevant evidence to be produced so that a fair and reliable decision may be made. Further, the Board members are responsible for weighing all evidence and awarding appropriate weight to its relevance, reliability and importance to the issue. Therefore, the Board ordered that the tapes be given to the Board’s Secretariat. The Chief Adjudicator will then listen to the tapes. The Complainants lawyers will be allowed to use the notes of the meeting during the cross-examination of the Respondent only to jog her memory and to provide her the opportunity to clarify and/or explain any possible contradictions. The Board will also decide later whether the Respondents will need to authenticate the transcripts.