Down With Everybody

Where will this lead? To great difficulty conducting business through the exchange of bananas and uttering, “Uga uga.” 

The rest.

Hey, hey, three cheers for Babs. Out of a few allegedly racist incidents involving fishermen, her Ontario Human Rights Commission guaranteed themselves years of work and a bigger bureaucracy. In a superb move, she even got the Ministry of Education on board, so now all of Ontario’s children can learn how much bigotry takes place on the high seas…er, lakes.

Some of their self-described “highlights“:

During the Inquiry into Assaults on Asian Canadian Anglers, the Commission met with 21 organizations to identify solutions. These organizations included police services, municipalities, provincial government ministries, and community organizations. The Commission obtained over 50 commitments from these organizations and made an additional seven commitments. Highlights of these commitments include:

• Developing teaching and resource materials around racism and hate activity, using the angler incidents as examples (Ministry of Education, various boards of education)
• Developing a race relations committee in Georgina with the assistance of the police (municipality of Georgina, York Regional Police Service)
• Developing a brochure in multiple languages regarding the angler incidents, ensuring that people know where to call for assistance (Ontario Provincial Police)
• Placing a statement on the City of Kawartha Lakes web site, referencing the incidents and condemning racism and discrimination. Asking for increased police presence in the area (City of Kawartha Lakes)
• Providing training on racial profiling to conservation officers to equip them to respond to complaints that may be based on racial profiling (Ministry of Natural Resources)
• Providing training on anti-racism and anti-discrimination to teachers (Conseil Scolaire de District Catholique Centre – Sud)
• Establishing a police-stakeholder working group to further review and respond to recommendations of the Hate Crimes Community Working Group report that affect policing (Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services)
• Monitoring reports of any similar incidents over the fishing season in 2008. The Commission will also support organizations with fulfilling their commitments, and will share information on the progress throughout the year (Ontario Human Rights Commission).

Wei Tang’s lawyers say she believed she had an employer relationship with the women. The Crown argues that it is not necessary for her to have knowingly enslaved, only that she knowingly set up the conditions that effectively made the women slaves.

The landmark case challenges the constitutionality of the laws. The federal Attorney-General and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission are appearing to defend them.

The rest.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has called on the Government to support today’s report from Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights which calls for any child of ‘sufficient maturity, intelligence and understanding’ to be given the right to withdraw from compulsory religious worship in schools. Currently, only sixth form students have the right to withdraw themselves, and other children can only be withdrawn at the request of their parents, but the Human Rights Committee have said that this violates children’s rights to freedom of belief and conscience.

The rest.

Gettysburg, PA:

Former Gettysburg Police Sgt. Sharon Gelwicks will receive $75,000 as part of the settlement to a gender-discrimination lawsuit she filed a year ago against Gettysburg Borough, its mayor and former police chief.

Without discussion, the Gettysburg Borough Council on Monday unanimously approved the settlement agreement - marking the end of a “sad and difficult chapter” for the borough and police department, borough Solicitor Harry Eastman read from a statement at Monday’s meeting.

Eastman said the agreement involves “no admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of any party to the settlement,” and he called it a “fair resolution” for the borough.

The rest.

Switzerland agreed to step up action against xenophobia, ratify the protocol of the UN convention against torture and create a national body to help prevent torture.

It will also continue to consult civil society on human rights and take into account gender specific perspectives.

…

A Swiss delegation was questioned by around 40 states on various issues as part of the council’s Universal Periodic Review.

DWE is finds it amusing that Canadians are often called idiots and bigots under the guise of “education lacking.” Here’s a good one, about the Sikh man who didn’t want to wear a helmet on his motorcycle. The court told him tough luck.

“This is just a show of ignorance,” said Mr. Badesha supporter, Mangat Manjit. “We have to educate this community more. The government and decision makers don’t know about our culture and religion.”

The rest.

That would be the Canadian culture. Right?

The Ontario Human Rights Commission took Badesha’s side.

Who says Canadians are anti-American?

In Quesnel v. London Educational Health Centre (1995), 28 C.H.R.R. D/474 at para. 53 (Ont. Bd. Inq.), the Board of Inquiry applied the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (4^th Cir. 1971) to conclude that Commission policy statements should be given “great deference” if they are consistent with Code values and are formed in a way that is consistent with the legislative history of the Code itself. This latter requirement was interpreted to mean that they were formed through a process of public consultation.

The rest.

“For [Canadians], the death penalty is a fundamental human rights issue,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the U.S. national Death Penalty Information Center.

The rest.

In April, Pictou County Municipal Council voted in favour of a new rule that prevents the gay pride flag and others from being raised at civic buildings. The decision came after a Truro vote last year, restricting what flags can be raised by its municipal council. Pictou County Warden Allister MacDonald said at the time the proposed flag policy for the county is not discriminatory and a standard policy will treat everyone equally.

“A policy that says no to everybody and to give council the right to say no to a select few is not equality, it’s discriminatory to everyone,” says Westgate. 
 ”This is not over. In fact, if nothing is done about it we are considering legal action against the county and will go as far as enacting a human rights lawsuit.”

The rest.

Big deal. Everyone’s “enacting” human rights suits now.