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Yukon Government misses human rights case deadline

The Yukon Department of Justice has failed to provide necessary documents in a human rights complaint involving Michael Nehass.

The Yukon Department of Justice has failed to provide necessary documents in a human rights complaint involving Michael Nehass.

On Thursday, the department acknowledged it had missed a June 7 deadline to provide documents to the Yukon Human Rights Board of Adjudication about Nehass’s time at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre, but refused to explain why.

“We fully intend to comply with that order to disclose documents related to the case,” Dan Cable, a spokesperson for the department, said today.

Cable was not able to provide a precise timeline of when the documents would be filed, only saying it would be “soon.”

The department missed a first deadline set for January 26. The government was asking for an extension to provide the documents and the decision only came on April 23, said Cable.

The June 7 deadline was set in the April 23 decision.

The board of adjudication - a body separate from the Yukon Human Rights Commission that hears the actual cases - declined to comment.

The case stems from a complaint Michael Nehass’s father filed in 2014 about his detention conditions, alleging he had been in solitary confinement for 28 months straight.

Nehass has been in jail since he was accused of assaulting a woman in Watson Lake in 2011. He was found guilty in May this year.