Prof Fired For Divorce, Doesn’t Appeal

A man standing on principle (”"I think it’s wrong to have to discuss your personal life with your employer,” he said, “and I also don’t want to be in a position of accusing my spouse, so I declined to appeal or discuss the matter in any way with my employer”), and not suing somebody? Weird.

Oh. Wait. Now we get it. Didn’t happen in Canada.

At another college, professor Kent Gramm’s divorce from his wife of 30 years might be a private matter known only to friends and close colleagues.

But at Wheaton College, the end of the popular English professor’s marriage has cost him his job—and sparked a debate about whether a divorce should disqualify a faculty member from teaching there.

Though the college has sometimes hired or retained staff employees whose marriages have ended, officials say those employees must talk with a staff member to determine whether the divorce meets Biblical standards. Gramm told administrators about his divorce but declined to discuss the details.

…

Tim George, student body president, said it is a shame that Gramm has to leave, because he is an outstanding teaching professor and a scholar. Although there has been controversy, the majority of students support the college’s decision, he said.

“We just hate to see him go. . . . But we just don’t want to compromise the values that we hold,” George said.

The rest.

The First Human Rights Commissioner

The Patron Saint of England (and a number of other countries) has been hailed a human rights campaigner by fellow activist Peter Tatchell - who backs ideas that his national day should be a public holiday celebrating dissent.

“It is time we ditched the myths surrounding St George and celebrated the reality of his courageous life”, said Tatchell - who is a prospective Green candidate in Oxford, and has gained widespread media attention for his direct action campaigns for Tibet, against Robert Mugabe, and for the LGBT group OutRage!

“St George’s Day should be a national holiday in England. We should celebrate St George as a symbol of freedom, dissent and multiculturalism,” says the human rights activist.

The rest.

Publicity Stunt

A classic. After several editorials, letters to the editor, and a spot in a CBC documentary, the Canadian Islamic Congress and a gaggle of students are now prepared to make a public offer to Maclean’s to rectify the magazine’s prejudiced views.

We call bullshit.

If newspapers, magazines, and CBC airtime aren’t already “public,” then what is?

THE CANADIAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS
PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

April 29, 2008

ISLAMIC CONGRESS AND LAW STUDENTS TO MAKE PUBLIC SETTLEMENT OFFER TO MACLEAN’S ON HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS

TORONTO - The Canadian Islamic Congress and a group of law students who recently filed human rights complaints against Maclean’s magazine for publishing Islamophobic content, are planning to present a public offer to the magazine’s management to settle the matter.

The rest.

Canadian Senator Sees Terrorism’s Shades Of Gray

We thought Canadian Senators simply collected a check and kept their mouths shut. Turns out, they make declarations on foreign policy.

“As a democratic institution, the IPU requires the host country to grant visas to any country in the world associated with the Inter-Parliamentary Union without any discrimination,” Seyyed Mohsen Yahyavi, Secretary-General of Iran’s Inter-Parliamentary Group, told Fars News Agency after the assembly, which ended on April 18.

The Canadian stance is a tricky proposition, [Canadian Senator] Ms. Carstairs suggests. “If we applied the rules we’re suggesting, then Nelson Mandela would not have been allowed into the country,” she said.

“One nation’s terrorist is another nation’s freedom fighter.”

The rest.

The Tibet Question: Bigots Jump On The Bandwagon

Many progressives, human rights advocates, and opportunistic right-wing ideologues point to the principle of self-determination.

The rest.

And, last paragraph: no wonder women and children get massacred while people preach human rights.

Progressives must oppose imperialism everywhere; they must oppose war everywhere; they must support human rights everywhere.

Have A Misfire? Sue The Government

They didn’t give you an old rifle. They violated your human right to efficiently shoot somebody. Weird, we know, but sue anyway.

A couple of weeks ago, a British High Court judge concluded that sending soldiers into war with defective equipment could be a breach of their human rights. The ruling by Mr. Justice Collins, according to The Independent newspaper, could have significant impact on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and open the door to lawsuits by the families of soldiers killed.

The rest.

Postal Workers For A Free Palestine?

Jonathan Kay:

It’s a valid question: At its national convention earlier this month, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers passed a resolution that included the following provision: “CUPW will … support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”

I’m no labour expert. But doesn’t this mean that a mailman who, say, slips the new Eddie Bauer catalog through the mail slot at 180 Bloor Street West here in Toronto would be violating union rules?

The rest.

Aussie Archbishop Pays Attention In Class

Dr Pell noted that in Canada, the Supreme Court has given a charter of rights a substantive rather than procedural meaning, so that any infringements against them are ruled to be major rights violations.

“As a consequence, the threshold for excluding evidence from criminal trials has been progressively lowered, seriously hampering the administration of criminal justice, and making these rights a matter of controversy,” he said.

“So, it is not only in areas of life, family, freedom of religion, discrimination and equality that a bill or charter of rights causes trouble.

“The irony is that the uses to which courts put a bill of rights often generate exactly the hostile majority reaction to rights that this sort of legislation is meant to avert.

“We don’t have a culture war here in Australia in the way the United States does, but a bill or charter of rights could help provoke one.”

The rest.

Backroom Dealing OK, As Long As It’s For The “Community”

Premier Gary Doer says he “encouraged” four of Manitoba’s Crown Corporations to make $1 million donations to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, but said there’s nothing wrong with that because it is in keeping with their tradition of supporting the community.

…

Last year the Manitoba government gave $40 million to the $265 million museum project slated to be built at The Forks.

The province tacked that money onto the budget of its department of culture, heritage, tourism and sport. The donation caused that department to go nearly 47% over budget.

The rest.

Social Work, The New Faith

Don Hutchinson:

Imagine that Mother Theresa and her Missionaries of Charity had been told that their ministry in the streets of Calcutta was, in essence, not ministry but “social work.” In order for the sisters to continue in their work, they would no longer be permitted to require that staff members share their beliefs and ministry commitment. 

As bizarre as this may sound, this is essentially what a single adjudicator acting as an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal recently decided in the case of Heintz v Christian Horizons.

The rest.