Big Brother Just A Phone Call Away

We hope you enjoy paying their phone bill.

[Montreal Gazette] Catherine Morissette, the Action démocratique du Québec immigration critic, wants to know what kind of advice Quebec’s proposed 1-800 number on reasonable accommodation would give callers.

“If a student comes home at night and tells his parents that his new teacher wears a hijab, the parents have the right to ask questions,” Morissette, MNA for the Quebec City riding of Charlesbourg, told the National Assembly.

Morissette said the parents might want to try the new 1-800 number the Charest government is considering. Lawyers and specialists from the Quebec Human Rights Commission would answer such questions.

The rest.

The Vision & Creativity Of Filling Out A Government Form

The YWCA celebrates the achievements of Saskatoon women at the Women of Distinction Awards on Tuesday, June 5, at TCU Place.

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Women 2000 is a community-based group in Saskatoon. Its activism focuses on the hidden dimensions of women’s inequality as evidenced in what appear to be normal institutional policies and practices. In 2000, the group filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission alleging discrimination in the women’s elite Huskie hockey program at the University of Saskatchewan. The vision, creativity and initiative these women demonstrated during their seven-year campaign to compel the university to more equitably support women’s hockey is an unprecedented achievement that will benefit a new generation of students and citizens.

The rest.

Canadian Imam: Court Of Public Opinion Is Best

[Kingston Whig-Standard] But the recent controversies about the role of human rights commissions and concerns about their potential to encroach upon free speech caused Soharwardy to rethink the matter. Some months ago, after consulting widely (including asking my opinion), he publicly withdrew his complaint, explaining that he had come to the conclusion that “the court of public opinion” was the only logical place to settle issues of appropriate speech, and that human rights commissions might better stick with their more traditional role with respect to discrimination on prohibited grounds in employment, housing and services.

The rest.

Human Rights Lawyer: Let’s Leave Stalin Out Of It

[CBC] Darryl Robinson, a human rights lawyer who was on the independent committee that reviewed the genocide course, recommended excluding the Ukrainian famine.

Robinson says the recommendation was not politically motivated. “The course already had three case studies. We thought it was better to go in-depth with these three case studies. They’re from three different eras and three different regions.”

The rest.

Massive Research Project Examines Canada’s Widespread Bigotry

[Kingston This Week] Stories like these are not unheard of across the country; police receive reports of racial discrimination every year. However, a research project to be presented at the North Kingston Community Health Centres May 29 finds immigrant women in smaller cities such as Kingston much more visible and hence vulnerable.

In researching “Mapping Vulnerability, Picturing Place,” Kingston-native Cheryl Sutherland explored immigrant women’s experience through a group of 18 participants that included Abdalla and Li. They come from 11 countries, eight in Kingston and 10 in Peterborough.

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Cuban Prestige On The Rise

DWE has noticed the word “Cuba” being used more in the press this year, especially in regards to the UN. Looks like the Cuban media makeover is working. We’re fairly certain this is an attempt to use Palestine/Israel as a model for Cuba/United States. We’ll see. Best guess for the near future is the international community telling the US to give Guantanamo Bay back to the Cubans, killing two birds with one stone.

[Periodico] Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque spoke before the Cuban parliament’s International Relations Committee about the country’s increasing international support in its struggle against the US blockade and aggressions. 

Perez Roque told legislators on Tuesday that Cuba had defeated US attempts to isolate it, and currently has diplomatic relations with 186 countries and chairs the Non-Aligned Movement.

The rest.

Human Rights Is Big Bucks

[Winnipeg Free Press] The members of Canadian rock band Rush have donated $100,000 from the sale of tickets to last weekend’s Winnipeg concert to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The three band mates — Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart — also announced today they will be selling museum T-shirts at all of the remaining Canadian stops on their Snakes and Arrows Live concert tour, and donating all of the proceeds from those sales to the museum’s $105-million private sector fund-raising campaign.

The rest.

Panties And Hankies At News Conference

[Calgary Herald] It was set up as a formal news conference, with a backdrop of panties. Feminist and human rights groups launched the Panties for Peace protest movement Tuesday, highlighting human rights abuses in Myanmar, formerly Burma - particularly those against women. The event appeared to have a lighter side until Thet Thet Tun, a Concordia University student who left Myanmar 20 years ago, wept as she began to describe the oppression people face under the country’s military junta.

The rest.

Another Pot Smoker Files Human Rights Complaint

[CBC] Ontario regulations banning medicinal-marijuana users from smoking on bar and restaurant patios violate the human rights of people with disabilities, alleges an Ottawa man who has filed a complaint over the issue.

Russell Barth submitted the complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission on Monday on behalf of himself and his wife, Christine Lowe.

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Amnesty Int’l To Canada: Take It Easy On Bigotry & Tasers

[Montreal Gazette] Canada came under stinging criticism Wednesday as Amnesty International blasted Western leaders and emerging countries like China for failing to do enough to fight torture, unfair trials, limited freedom of expression, and social inequality around the world.

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Canada, meantime, was criticized for the use of electro-shock weapons by police, which last October was followed by the death of Polish national Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport.

Amnesty also charged there is discrimination against aboriginals and poor treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and objected to federal anti-terrorism legislation.

The rest.