Human Rights Is Big Bucks

Winnipeg Free Press – Two-and-a-half million dollars down, another $36.5 million to go.

The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights just received $2.5 million to help build the museum that’s under construction at The Forks.

Gay Rights Lady To Ontario Premier: Hey, When Are You Going To Teach Anal Sex To School Kids?

CanWest – A gay rights group on Friday criticized Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s decision to shelve a retooling of the province’s sexual education curriculum.

Egale Canada’s executive director, Helen Kennedy, said McGuinty’s reversal on the policy, which would have introduced discussions on sexuality in Grade 3 and anal intercourse in Grade 7, was “very disappointing,” adding that “kids with same sex partners are being left out again.”

Or Maybe They Recognize That “Human Rights” Is A Franchise Racket

CNW – Harper Government Steps Up Attacks against Women’s Human Rights

In recent weeks, the following organizations have been denied funding by Status of Women Canada (SWC): the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, le Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des femmes au travail (CIAFT), the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), Réseau des tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec, the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, Action travail des femmes.

Several other key organizations have been denied SWC funding in the last few years, such as the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, Womenspace, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, the Alberta Network of Immigration Women, Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition feminine, Association féminine d’éducation et d’action sociale (AFEAS.)

Hey, What’s 20 Years Among Friends?

Xtra – As Xtra previously reported, Richard filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2005. He alleges discrimination based on sexual orientation by his former employer, the Treasury Board of Canada.

Richard, the Canadian government, the CHRC and the Attorney General are entangled in legal proceedings over whether Richard’s allegations of systemic homophobia — which was filed two decades after the events in question — should still be heard in court.

The Human Right To Have The Public Pay For Your Sex Change Operation

Edmonton Journal – Dismayed and angry members of the transgendered community are preparing to launch a human rights complaint after the province delisted sex-change surgery from its funding coverage.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” said Jamie-Lynn Garvin, a 47-year-old who has been living as a woman for the last two years and was on a waiting list for a sex-change operation (although her funding hadn’t yet been approved).

OHRC Gives Another Reason To Avoid Expanding Your Business

ACC – Keep an open mind when determining which relationships are covered by family status protection. For example, the Ontario Human Rights Code defines family status as “the status of being in a parent and child relationship.” This definition however, has been liberally interpreted by both courts and tribunals to include most parent and child “type” relationships including non-biological parent and child relationships and non-biological gay and lesbian parents. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has also taken the position that family status protection extends to individuals providing eldercare to aging parents. Given the aging population, employers should prepare for family status accommodation requests from employees who are looking after older parents with special needs.

Canadian Senator A Little Less Cordial Than Abortion Money Beggars Would Like

Health Zone – Aid experts alarmed by Canada’s new anti-abortion stand in foreign policy have received some raw political advice from a Conservative senator: “shut the f— up” or it could get worse.

“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until G-8 starts. Shut the f— up on this issue,” Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told a group of international-development advocates who gathered on Parliament Hill on Monday to sound the alarm about Canada’s hard-right stand against abortion in foreign aid.

Damn Canadian Judges Dig This “Free Expression” Thing

Ontario Superior Court Of Justice, May 3, 2010. Click to read full ruling.

Toronto Star: Canadian Human Rights Commission Deserves A “B”

Toronto Star – Hate speech and the Canadian Human Rights Commission: B

Any restriction on speech has to have a clear social benefit, and so we recognize the Canadian Human Rights Commission for its decision in the Lemire case to deem the hate speech provision of the Canadian Human Rights Code to be unconstitutional.

vs.

Examiner – Don’t expect Commissioner Lynch to bring about change to way the system works, at least not in anyway that protects and respects the fundamental freedoms Canadians cherish such as free expression…

Asking Ms. Lynch this week about changing well documented problem behaviours in the CHRC, she tried to tell me that they are rated as one of the best places to work by civil servants and that they are continually improving.

“We are proud of how we accomplish our work,” says Lynch. I just wish the rest of us could say the same.

Lawyers See Dollar Signs, Speak Appropriately

Vancouver Sun – The rules that allowed a Vancouver Catholic high school to sideline a lesbian teacher after her lifestyle became an issue have been in place for decades across the country and have been upheld by Canada’s highest court.

But labour and employment lawyers said Thursday it may be time for the Supreme Court of Canada to revisit the issue of how religious rights and freedoms can in some cases trump individual human rights.

United Nations Confirms Joke Status

National Post – “Iran wins a seat on UN Commission on the Status of Women.”

But this is no laughing matter. The country that sees women as second-class citizens and stones adulteresses to death has won a place by default on the world body’s commission charged with improving the lot of women around the world.

Human Rights Chick: Hey, Where’s All The Free Money?

Globe and Mail – What issues are you going to be raising?

We’re thrilled the Canadian government has decided to focus on maternal and child health for the G8. But the fact is that they’ve been backsliding. This is a government that hasn’t taken gender equality and women’s rights issues very seriously in terms of our foreign aid. The Canadian government used to give a lot of funding directly to women’s organizations, but we’ve been shrinking that funding over the years.

More From The “No Dick, No Problem” File

Ottawa Citizen – What a difference a week makes. Just days after that final ruling, the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA), which oversees high school sports, was forced to stand down on the same issue. OFSAA was advised it was about to lose a challenge before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal on its written policy denying girls the right to try out for boys’ teams if a girls’ team exists in the school.

Now, girls can play on a boys’ team in Ontario’s 860-plus high schools if they successfully try out. The switch is now sparking heated discussions about how to manage school sports everywhere.

Paper: Bummed About Balls

Edmonton Journal – The Alberta government again appears to be making health-care decisions based not on true cost savings, but on what it thinks taxpayers will make the least noise about. How else to explain the continuing determination to end funding for sex-change operations?…

In the case of the relatively few Albertans seeking sex-reassignment surgery each year, they would be required to pay for a procedure that costs between $18,000 and $70,000 — an amount that can be financially devastating, to say nothing of the emotional and psychological devastation that would result from being unable to afford it.

Noted Humanitarian State Elected To UN Commission For Women

Fox – Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”

If You Want The Public To Pay For Your Boobs, Get In Quick

Vancouver Sun – Albertans who have already had voluntary mastectomies or have started hormone therapy that has irreversibly led them to change sexes will be eligible to have their transgender surgery paid for by the province if they apply by July 31.

Funding for up to 20 people will remain in place for the sex-change surgeries until 2014-15, when the cash will dry up from Alberta Health and Wellness.

Another Example From The “Why Not To Bother Starting Something” File

Times-Colonist – It seems increasingly likely that a dispute between the parents of a Nanaimo bantam girls hockey team and the Nanaimo Minor Hockey Association will go before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal later this year.

Parents recently cancelled a settlement meeting to try to resolve the dispute, first made public last fall.

A complaint filed on behalf of the Bantam A female hockey team claimed “gender-based” discrimination after a competitive hockey program for teenage girls for the 2009-10 season was cancelled.

The NMHA informed parents the female Bantam A competitive program, which had been running for four years, would be cancelled due to a lack of players.

Remember That Time You Told Gus That He Couldn’t Take The Weekend Off To Fly To Vegas? You Were Committing A Crime Against Humanity

National Post – The European Union has declared travelling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers’ dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.

Antonio Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, proposed a strategy that could cost European taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros a year, The Times of London reports.

“Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life,” Mr. Tajani told a group of ministers at The European Tourism Stakeholders Conference in Madrid on April 15.

When Human Rights Collide #17

Toronto Star – City bureaucrats may withdraw funding from Pride Toronto next year if the activist group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is allowed to march in this summer’s parade.

The city, which gave Pride $121,000 in 2009, believes its anti-discrimination policy was likely violated by QuAIA’s conduct and even its very presence at last summer’s parade, said general manager of economic development and culture Mike Williams…

“They’re trying to compare it to hate speech, and I find it deeply offensive, as somebody who’s been fighting human rights battles for a really long time, to hear that criticism of the state of Israel is somehow hate speech. No way,” said Flanders, one of several Jewish QuAIA members.

“I’m a big Jew-lover. And my Judaism taught me to stand up for what is right. This has nothing to do with anything other than criticism of Israel … Political difference need not be censored.”

Human Rights Defenders! Assemble!

The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) announced plans last month to close its regional offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Halifax, a move some critics are calling an attack on the human rights system…

Taylor says the closure of the offices will actually deliver better service, because the CHRC is “taking management positions and turning them into front-line positions.”

Since There’s No Repercussions, Why Not File A Complaint?

Bold ours.

Your Ottawa Region – Update: The respondents have agreed with the suspension of proceedings. The case is now closed.

The human rights violation claim against Mayor Terry Gibeau and the Town of Arnprior was dropped suddenly April 12.

Applicants Igor (Alex) Winter and James (Ron) MacIntyre contacted the Ontario Human Rights Commission to have the claim dismissed after nine days of hearings. The final two days were to take place early next week at the Best Western hotel, on Carling Avenue in Ottawa.

Repeated requests for interviews went unanswered by Winter, MacIntrye and their lawyer, Gordon Douglas of Gowlings Lafleur Henderson in Ottawa…Tribunal vice-chairman David A. Wright, who was presiding over the hearing, also refused comment.

From the Tribunal’s “Core Values” section:

Transparency: Tribunal procedures will be clearly established and decisions will be made in an open way, with substantive reasons that are clear, concise and understandable.

The Human Right To Fart. Or Not. We’re Not Sure

Globe and Mail – Environmental sensitivity is listed as a disability in Ontario’s Human Rights Code, which means that employers have a duty to accommodate the needs of the environmentally sensitive in the workplace.

However the rule doesn’t specifically address scent sensitivities as a disability, says Pascale Demers, spokesperson for the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

The commission has only ever received two complaints from employees about scent sensitivity. Both were settled privately, and the commission has no information about what was decided, Ms. Demers says.

Blogger Psyched About Job Prospect

Scaramouche – Love power? Looking for employment? Willing to relocate to beautiful British Columbia? Well, then, do I have the job for you–a spot on the B.C. Roobunal…

Good call:

Heather MacNaughton, Chair, BC Human Rights Tribunal. 2008 salary: $172, 101.

Whenever Someone Tells Us That “Human Rights” Isn’t About Money, We Laugh Our Heads Off

CTV – The Forks in Winnipeg is undergoing a makeover which is expected to last around ten years.

The Forks North Portage and their site partners outlined their plans for the future of the area at a Public Open House on Saturday.

Some of the projects include an Adventure Park for kids, renovations to the Manitoba Children Museum and the Upper Fort Garry Heritage Park and Interpretive Centre as well as the anticipated completion of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

There are also plans to build 350 condominium and apartment suites.

Asking Where The Money Goes Is Tantamount To Murder

Toronto Star – The new Conservative appointees hounded the [Rights and Democracy] president, Remy Beauregard, over three small grants he had given to one Israeli and two Palestinians NGOs to probe possible human rights violations during the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago. He died of a heart attack caused by the harassment, said his wife, Suzanne Trepanier, who testified Tuesday.