Down With Everybody

The province has nominated Gerry McNeilly as Director of Ontario’s new independent police review system, expected to be in place next year. As Director, McNeilly would help build the new system and lead a new, independent civilian organization to handle public complaints about municipal and provincial police in Ontario.

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McNeilly is a former Chair of the Board of Inquiry for the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (now the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario) and has also served as a justice of the peace and deputy judge. For the last nine years he has served as the Executive Director for Legal Aid Manitoba.

The rest.

The internet’s influence has drastically changed the media landscape, often to the detriment of print newspapers. Is new media edging out accountability and standards with ill-informed opinion and user-generated rants? Or is it the evolution of journalism, breaking down barriers which previously restricted the flow of information and narrowed the range of debate?

Our panel of experts debate the implications of new media on journalism and what it means for press freedom in the digital age.

Speakers include:

Andrew Keen – Author of the critically acclaimed book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture. A Silicon Valley veteran, prominent media commentator and regular contributor to numerous publications including the Guardian.

The rest.

An X-Box in every room, and no more broccoli for lunch:

CHILDREN might be allowed to sit on expert panels ruling on hospital closures under plans being considered by ministers that will comply with human-rights legislation.

Children in Scotland, an umbrella group representing 400 children’s agencies, has said that under-16s should be appointed to independent “scrutiny panels” that will decide the future of NHS services including accident and emergency departments, surgical centres and maternity units.

According to the charity, the new advisory groups, comprising medical staff and members of the public, must include children to comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that has already been ratified by the UK government.

The rest.

Coren is on board with DWE’s theory: when sex and religion meet, guess who wins?

In California the Salvation Army was forced to close down several inner city missions because officials refused to sign a document approving of homosexuality. The destitute suffered terribly as a consequence. In Britain the Roman Catholic church similarly was obliged to shut the doors of its adoption agency.

This is not about justice, equality or discrimination. It is about crude bullying and triumphalism. The campaign stopped being about tolerance a long time ago and now is about penalizing anyone who will not embrace a particular social and sexual agenda. It’s enough to drive you to drink — unless you’ve signed the morality clause!

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Leonard Pitts Jr:

Ours is still an era wherein war, hatred and intolerance often wear a clerical collar. As Mr. Lawson puts it, “Much of Christianity in the United States has been more influenced by violence and sexism and racism and greed than by the teachings of Jesus.” 

The rest.

See you at Sundance:

Finding the previous policy discriminatory, the Tribunal ordered that a transsexual detainee who is going to be strip-searched must be given three options: the use of male officers only; the use of female officers only; or a split search involving both. It provided direction on how such searches should be conducted, including a requirement that the officer-in-charge be informed and authorize the strip search. Direction was also given on how to resolve the situation where an officer has serious reason to doubt a detainee’s self-identification as a transsexual person. The Tribunal order also states that officers are not allowed to “opt out” of performing strip-searches of a transsexual person except in limited circumstances where the officer has significant Human Rights Code or Charter of Rights and Freedoms interests of his or her own to protect. Finally, the order requires Peel Police to produce a training video on transsexuality for all members of its force, in conjunction with experts, and with input from the transsexual community. The Commission must approve the video prior to its release.

The rest.

Babs Hall, OHRC Chief, explaining the drive-by on Maclean’s:

Once that decision was made, we were free to comment on the issues raised. We followed the correct process for both aspects of our mandate under section 29 of the Ontario Human Rights Code – protecting and promoting human rights in order to create “… a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of each person…,” as set out in the Preamble.

Sorry, Babs, but we still call bullshit. Nice try on the public relations, though.

You may have followed the dictate of your “preamble,” but it doesn’t matter much. You declined to hear the case, but still gave a verdict on it, while the case is still to be heard in BC and at the CHRC. Uncool.

By the way, how’s your speech coming along? We assume you’ll give one in September, as your face is on the poster. Wish we could attend, but $450 a ticket is a bit steep, even to hear your magnificent views. Must be gas prices, but we’re feeling cheap these days. By the way, take Marilou’s face off the poster. She quit the Saskatchewan branch weeks ago.

An open letter signed by more than 100 legal experts says the Harper government has no legal basis to reject the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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