Down With Everybody

Paruk, who wanted to see her face during testimony so he could assess her credibility, gave her a choice: remove the veil and testify or the case would be dismissed.

Muhammad offered to testify before a female judge, but Paruk is the only district judge in Hamtramck.

In the end, Paruk dismissed her case. The car rental company countersued her and won a $2,083 judgment.

Ayad took the case to federal court before the rental company could collect. Ayad says Paruk violated her constitutional right to practice her religion and denied her access to the court system.

The rest.

Who figured the Barrie Examiner would have the best piece about gas prices, and Canadians in general?

Canadians are sheep. Not as hockey players or soldiers or peacekeepers or human rights activists or in other real heart-and-soul matters, but as consumers of energy resources.

Specifically, we are sheep when it comes to gas prices.

Oh, we grumble and grouse about the highway robbery at the pumps. As the international price for oil continues to climb, gas stations were charging more than $1.17 per litre of gas this week. But we just meekly pull up to the pumps and put in however much we need.

The rest.

A human rights adjudicator in Yellowknife is expected to rule in May on whether sexually-themed music in the workplace constitutes sexual harassment, after a complaint from a former restaurant employee.

Patricia Sherman alleges that the Yellowknife Boston Pizza restaurant, where she worked as a delivery driver in 2004, was rife with music that she found offensive and denigrating to women.

…

Sherman is seeking compensation for sexual harassment, as well as for other discrimination she says she faced because of chronic back problems.

The rest.

One of these “new avenues” is clearly the legal arena. For many activists who work in a framework of the Constitution and domestic statutes, the idea of an alternative, inalienable, universal source of legal rights is something of a revelation. Given the longstanding determination of the United States government to shield itself from any meaningful international human rights obligations, it is usually met with skepticism.

But U.S. legal experts are increasingly converting their skepticism about human rights into a growing appreciation of its use, as environmental justice attorney Monique Harden puts it, “to break out of the chokehold of domestic law.” 

The rest.

vs.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm):

I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Michigan…

+

 OATH OF ATTORNEY State of Washington, County of _______________ ss. I, _______________, do solemnly declare: 1. I am fully subject to the laws of the State of Washington and the laws of the United States and will abide by the same…

+

Sec. 82.037. Oath of Attorney

1. Each person admitted to practice law shall, before receiving a license, take an oath that the person will:
   1. support the constitutions of the United States and this state [Texas]…

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15.

The rest.

A community activist says closing the in-patient mental health beds at the Ajax hospital is an issue for the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Ajax councillors, however, want a legal opinion before endorsing a request to have the commission look into the situation.

Maurice Brenner, a former Pickering councillor, sent a letter to Ajax council asking it to support his request to have the OHRC intervene.

The rest.

The government has even sought out potential complainants, sending in officials to interview and talk to women, children and men in Bountiful. Despite the overtures, not one complaint has emerged from the community.

Ever since Texas officials raided the Eldorado compound on April 3 and removed 437 children from their families, who were all members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect, B.C.’s government has been urged to take action in its own backyard.

For years, Bountiful, the polygamous community on the outskirts of the town of Creston, has escaped prosecution even though polygamy is illegal. The head of one of the polygamous communes believes religious rights protect them.

For the moment, the B.C. government is at a stalemate.

The rest.

Ontario is among a number of places considering striking down the clothesline bans that have been common in North America, arguing they are environmentally irresponsible. Laws seeking to overturn the bans are pending in Connecticut, Vermont and Colorado. 

“If we can’t change simple stuff like this, we’ll never handle the big things we need to do for the planet,” said Aurora’s mayor, Phyllis Morris, who earlier this year petitioned Ontario’s government to declare clothesline bans an illegal “barrier to conservation” under provincial law. 

“People say: ‘Oh Phyllis, you want to turn women back into the laundry lady,’ and I say: ‘Wrong. This is about rights. It’s about the environment.’”

The rest.

Toronto Star:

The Ontario government is quietly laying the groundwork to collect ethnic, racial and other diversity data on two million elementary and secondary students in a controversial plan not yet made public.

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Under Ontario privacy laws, ethnic or racial details are considered personal information that must be authorized for collection and protected properly. A full description of how such data would be used is also required.

The ministry makes clear in the project description that it wants any data collection to conform not only to privacy laws but also to the Ontario Human Rights Code. It would be several years before Ontario-wide collection of broad racial and ethnic data could begin. The research is expected to start in September and run through 2010.

The rest.

A piece on Amnesty International secretary general, Irene Khan, citizen of Bangladesh, speaking in Little Rock:

She pointed to Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, which have tried terror suspects in their civilian judicial systems, and said the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the country’s pursuit of military trials for terror suspects is divisive and the wrong approach.

OK. Want to talk military and courts? Perhaps you’ve been busy in Arkansas. Let us help:

The military-controlled caretaker government of Bangladesh has been promoting “reformation” in all sectors, including the political culture, bureaucratic and judicial practices, and the business sector, since it took over power by proclaiming a state of emergency. After 16 months, the “improvements” achieved by this “reformation” process prove the government’s propaganda merely a farce — as feared at the very beginning.

The separation of the judiciary from the executive branch of government has been overdue for decades. Yet the judiciary, which includes the Magistrate’s Courts and the Judge’s Courts, remains subordinate to the military-controlled regime.

The rest.