Ontario Human Rights Commission: Business Is Booming

Toronto Star – Ontario’s newly streamlined human rights watchdog is swamped with allegations of sex, race and disability discrimination, the Starhas found.

“We are really overwhelmed by our volume of cases now,” said Katherine Laird, the senior official whose job it is to support people who say they are victims. “Our phones are ringing off the hook.”

The Ontario Attorney General created a new human rights system nearly two years ago, making it easier for people with claims to get a hearing before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario…

Ontario Human Rights Commission chair Barbara Hall believes only a small number of cases are ever reported. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” she says.

A Whiner’s Two-Fer: Environmental Racism

CB Online – A commission that investigates human rights abuses in the Americas has taken up its first case of alleged environmental racism in the United States by agreeing to look into the complaints of black residents of a southwestern Louisiana community surrounded by refineries and chemical plants.

McGill Profs: Quebec A Cesspool Of Bigotry

Toronto Star – Comparing census data from 1996 to 2006, Jim Torczyner, a professor of social work at McGill University who leads the McGill Consortium on Human Rights Advocacy Training, said that “blacks continue to lag significantly behind non-blacks in every level of success” in a way that was “persistent, pervasive and alarming.”…

“It’s hard to find anything (in the results) but persistent and systemic discrimination,” said McGill professor Adelle Blackett.

International Minorities Expert: Canada OK, Just Racist

Relief Web – The report of the Independent Expert on minority issues on her mission to Canada (13 to 23 October 2009) (A/HRC/13/23/Add.2) notes that, while Canada has an impressive constitutional and legislative framework in the area of equality and non-discrimination and numerous policy initiatives to promote multiculturalism, significant and persistent problems affect persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, including negative experiences at school; higher unemployment; relatively poor access to services; racial profiling by police; and low representation in political structures and institutions.

Task Force Wants To Save World, Prof Just Wants A Mac

Globe and Mail – Beneath the surface, Ryerson is a hotbed of racism and discrimination, where “racialized” (non-white) students are subtly oppressed by a Eurocentric curriculum that refuses to acknowledge “other ways of knowing.” A vast new bureaucracy and mandatory diversity education for all are urgently needed to foster an inclusive, racism-free environment.

So says the Taskforce on Anti-Racism at Ryerson. “Systemic racism” is pervasive, it concludes, and anyone who doesn’t see the problem is in denial…

Mr. Al-Solaylee is a brown-skinned Muslim who is openly gay. He thinks the entire exercise is a frivolous diversion. “There are things that I need from the university, but this isn’t one of them,” he says. “I need computers that don’t crash all the time. I want students who don’t have to hold bake sales to raise money for their graduate projects. There should be money for these things, not equity officers.”

Paging Nathaniel Hawthorne

Calgary Herald – If the Mohawk community of Kahnawake wanted a way to end up on the six o’clock news, attempts to evict 26 non-natives from their reserve was the perfect way to do it. As most readers now know, those not meeting the Kahnawake reserve’s community membership code — many are involved in romantic relationships with Mohawks and some are longtime caregivers for resident members — were given 10 days to leave last month.

As of today, only 12 of the 26 have responded. Now the band council says they will post the names of those who have not left if they fail to meet this deadline.

New UN Human Rights Chief: Please Come To The Conference

Maybe some countries aren’t going because they know you merely want their news cameras and publicity. Just a guess.

[Reuters] The new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanetham Pillay, called on Monday for an open debate about racism and religious intolerance, taking aim at countries threatening to boycott a summit on those issues.

In her first speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the former International Criminal Court judge said next April’s already-contentious U.N. conference on racism and xenophobia would be impoverished if the United States and others sat it out.

“Let’s not forget that diversity of opinions is often an inherent and welcome characteristic of relationships among peers,” she said.

…

The United States and Israel walked out of the last big U.N. summit on anti-racism, held in Durban in 2001, saying it had become a forum for anti-Semitism.

Canada has said it will not take part in the follow-up meeting planned for Geneva, and the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and France have said they may stay away if Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians again stands to eclipse all else.

Federal Court: Canadian Human Rights Commission Must Hold New Hearing For Cop

[Chatham Daily News] A former RCMP undercover drug cop will have second chance to argue that he was passed over for a job of overseeing an elite unit because he’s black.

A federal court has ruled that the Canadian Human Rights Commission must hold a new hearing for Joseph Herbert, 41, who grew up in Toronto’s Jane Street — Finch Avenue area.

The commission had previously dismissed his claim that he was not made head of an air marshal program because of his race. He appealed that decision to the federal court.

Another Racist Conference On The Horizon?

[Jerusalem Post] Is the United Nations’ follow-up to the racist 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism headed for the same fate? Perhaps. In response to the newly released UN blueprint for next April’s Durban II in Geneva, EU members need to defend the red lines set by France, the UK and the Netherlands.

Aussie Writer: Australia Must Boycott Durban II

[SMH] The United Nations is planning a global anti-racism conference that is destined to encourage racism. Known as Durban II, and to take place in Geneva next April, it follows the notorious anti-semitic hatefest held in Durban seven years ago.

Canada has already decided not to attend. The United States and Israel are planning to boycott too. Australia is, therefore, faced with an important challenge and opportunity. By refusing to participate, Australia can help deny legitimacy to a global platform for intolerance and deal the voices of hate a blow.

The rest.

Massive Research Project: Peterborough Full Of Racists

[Ontario Public Interest Research Group] A survey conducted with 64 university students shows that racism exists in Peterborough. Conducted between January-April 2008, this survey demonstrates how racism is experienced in specific places in the city. The study investigated a variety of spaces which include: downtown bars, public spaces, shopping areas, university library, residences, bathrooms, campus bars, and the bus.

…

Research supervisor, Dr. Paula Butler says, “As an academic who teaches about racism and anti-racism in Canada, these findings do not surprise me…”

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.

The rest.

Paper: OHRC Not Telling The Whole Story

[Barrie Examiner] There’s an old wisecrack in the newspaper business that goes: Never let the story get in the way of a good headline. The Ontario Human Rights Commission seems to have adopted this cynical advice as its own.

Last week, the commission released a report entitled Fishing Without Fear: Report on the Inquiry into Assaults on Asian Canadian Anglers. And though the Village of Westport is mentioned as one of the places of conflict in the province last year, the report draws conclusions that do not reflect the basic concerns of villagers, or the truth about illegal fishing in their community.

The rest.

All’s Well Back Home, Time To Investigate Evil America

[Reuters, Geneva, May 16, 2008] A special U.N. human rights investigator will visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

The United Nations said Doudou Diene would meet federal and local officials, as well as lawmakers and judicial authorities during the May 19-June 6 visit.

…

Diene, a Senegalese lawyer who has served in the independent post since 2002, will report his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council next year.

vs.

[BBC, Senegal, May 9, 2008] The Senegalese army has launched an offensive against rebels in the southern Casamance region, after 16 villagers had their left ears cut off.

Racist Canadians Don’t Care About Hitchhikers

This highway has chosen young Native women as its primary victims. Many of the victims were forced to hitchhike as a means of travel, which is the reality of living on or near rural reserve areas with no public transportation.

To this day, the question still remains, if majority of those victims were not Aboriginal – if they were white – would we still be seeking justice for our vanished sisters ourselves? What is more, would the loss of these precious lives, stolen from our communities, remain in the minds of the general public, and in major news headlines?

The rest.

High estimates say that 30 people have died on the highway in 35 years. Police have the number at 18. The highway is 724 km long.

We Wouldn’t Want The Law To Steal Our Thunder

The Ontario Human Rights Commission has affirmed that attacks on Asian Canadian anglers are racially motivated, but stopped short of declaring the acts hate crimes.

The rest.

Anarchy In The UK?

UNCONTROLLED immigration has led to a “cold war” between ethnic communities, according to the head of Britain’s race watchdog.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said policy failures risk engendering racism among millions of educated professionals.

The rest.