Vancouver Sun Columnist: Who Are We To Lecture China, Since We’re Evil, Too?

[Vancouver Sun] Canadians who have poked the dragon in the eye by trying to use the Olympic games as a platform to protest China’s treatment of Tibet or its dismal human rights record have discovered a hard truth about totalitarian regimes — they really don’t tolerate dissent in the way we are used to here.

At the same time, the focus on human rights abuses in China raises the question of whether Canada’s hands are clean enough to allow us to lecture the Chinese government on the sensitive issue.

The Human Right To Extort Your Doctor

[National Post] If the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) gets its way, Ontario’s doctors will soon be stripped of their right to follow their moral convictions or religious beliefs when treating patients. In other words, doctors will risk losing their licenses if they run afoul of Ontario’s human rights police.

If, out of moral conviction, they refuse to perform abortions, refer patients for abortions or prescribe morning-after and birth control pills, or if they refuse to help same-sex couples conceive children, their own governing body will take away their right to practice medicine.

Washed Up Chretien: Harper Should Have Been More Like Me And Left His Balls In The John

[Globe and Mail] Prime Minister Stephen Harper has risked relations with China by failing to attend the Olympic Games and going overboard in honouring Tibet’s Dalai Lama, former prime minister Jean Chrétien said yesterday.

Speaking to a Canadian Bar Association gathering, Mr. Chrétien said the missteps are indicative of a government that naively fails to understand the enormous strides the Chinese regime has made in recent years, and that China has a long “collective memory” when it comes to international slights.

Like, Yeah! Sorority’s Been Advancing Human Rights For 100 Years

[Market Watch] Alpha Kappa Alpha’s international president Barbara A. McKinzie will articulate the Sorority’s 100-year record of advancing human rights when she journeys to Paris from September 3-5 to join other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) affiliated with the United Nations’ Department of Public Information.

That’s nice, cupcake. Now crack the keg and get on with the wet t-shirt contest.

Liberal Aussie Politician Laments Canada’s Freaky Star Chambers

More international bad press for Canadian human rights commissions.

[The Australian] All this is frighteningly reminiscent of the situation in Canada, where official agencies of the state prosecute citizens for the thought-crime of political incorrectness. Canada’s federal and provincial human rights commissions were established to fight discrimination in housing and employment. But these quasi-judicial bodies have metastasised into partisan star-chamber tribunals that selectively file charges against those who espouse conservative political or religious beliefs.

Is That A Bench, Or A Soap Box?

[Globe and Mail] Supreme Court of Canada Judge Ian Binnie issued a call Tuesday for Canadian multi-national corporations to pay more attention to human rights abuses in Third World countries where they operate.

Cataloging a long list of cases where developing countries were accused of harming their local populations in order to attract or keep foreign corporations operating with their borders, Judge Binnie urged lawyers with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association to persuade their employers to show a greater sense of global responsibility.