Update: Canadian Supreme Court Nullifies Damages In Chronic Fatigue Case

[CP] The Supreme Court of Canada has wiped out a $500,000 punitive damages award against Honda of Canada in what had been a landmark wrongful-dismissal suit.

The award had been the biggest ever handed down in Canadian employment law history. But the justices said the award was a mistake.

In a 7-2 decision, justices said lower courts were wrong in awarding punitive damages to Kevin Keays, a chronic fatigue syndrome sufferer who was fired by Honda in 2000.

Justice Michel Bastarache said the original trial judge made “palpable and overriding errors” about the company’s behaviour. He said the judge found that Honda acted “in bad faith” in firing Keays.

“There was, in my opinion, no such breach and no justification for an award of damages for conduct in dismissal.”

He said Honda’s conduct, overall, “was not sufficiently egregious or outrageous to warrant an award of punitive damages.”

Keays also won two years back pay from the company at trial.

The Ontario Court of Appeal agreed he had been wrongfully dismissed, but reduced the punitive damages award to $100,000.

The Supreme Court erased the damage award entirely and reduced the back pay portion to 15 months salary.

The rest.

Human Rights Commission To Advise On Dog Park

[TDN] The long-running debate over if and where the city should help develop a dog park seems to have no end. We thought the issue had been settled a couple of weeks ago, when the Longview City Council voted 4-3 to contribute $15,000 in leftover Neighborhood Park Grant Funds to fence off three acres at Gerhart Gardens Park. Councilman Chuck Wallace thought differently.

The day following that June 12 vote, Wallace contacted the Washington State Human Rights Commission to question whether or not the council’s action squared with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Wallace worries the park’s planned location would make it inaccessible to many elderly and disabled dog owners. “We’re expected to keep everyone in mind, not just the loudest squeaky wheel,” he told Daily News reporter Amy M.E. Fischer. “I do believe I’m doing the right thing. … This is definitely opening up an issue.”

The rest.

The Province: BC Human Rights Tribunal The Poster Girl For Political Correctness

[The Province] Did you hear the one about the two lesbians who walked into a comedy club and started heckling the comedian? He turned the tables on them, so they complained to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. And now the joke is on the taxpayers forced to pay for this kangaroo court.

Well, it was obviously not so humorous when comic Guy Earle got into an ugly exchange with two women at Zesty’s Restaurant in Vancouver in May of last year.

But you get the point: This kind of petty dispute should never have been accepted as legitimate by any government-funded agency, yet alone one that’s become the poster girl for political correctness.

The rest.

Pankiw Threatens Boycott Of Human Rights Tribunal

[Calgary Herald] Hours after a Supreme Court of Canada decision ensured Jim Pankiw, accused of racism, would need to face a human rights commission, the former MP threatened to boycott the tribunal.

The court’s decision Thursday morning meant Pankiw, former MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, will be investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal over nine allegations of discrimination.

…

“What we have now is a government bureaucracy who can censor elected officials,” he said.

The rest.

Identity Crisis: Canadians Think “Canadarm” Country’s Defining Accomplishment

[CBC] Picture this mental image: Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau stands with his back to the thundering waters of Niagara Falls, clutching a red maple leaf in his hand. On Canada Day.

Can you imagine a more Canadian scene? Only if the robotic space Canadarm somehow snuck into the frame, according to a recent poll.

The Ipsos-Reid survey, on behalf of the Dominion Institute and the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration, asked Canadians what best defines their country.

After tallying the results, Trudeau was revealed as the person who most defines Canada. Niagara Falls was the defining place, Canada Day the defining event, Canadarm the defining accomplishment and the maple leaf was the defining symbol.

The rest.

UK Minister: Discrimination OK If It’s A “Push Forward”

[Wales Online] BOSSES will be encouraged to discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minority candidates under plans announced by Equality Minister Harriet Harman yesterday.

The forthcoming Equality Bill will aim to close the gender pay gap and clamp down on age discrimination – 40 years after Barbara Castle’s landmark Equal Pay Act.

Defending the moves against the charge that white men could miss out on promotions, Ms Harman said: “You don’t get progress if there isn’t a bit of a push forward.”

The rest.

Aussie Human Rights Award Winner: All Non-Violent Prisoners Should Be Set Free

Note: Kilroy is an ex-con, and her daughter is currently facing a fraud and theft rap.

[The Age] “We need to start talking about prison abolition. The prison system is a failure. Prison generates violence and institutionalisation. We need to stop people going into prison and stop them from returning to prison,” [Debbie Kiroy said].

The first former Australian inmate to become a lawyer, she called for the redirection of resources – including the Victorian government’s recent budget pledge to increase spending on prisons by $591 million – to social policies for “people on the ground” for education, health and housing.

“We pour money down the throats of prisons to prop them up when we should initially be (freeing) all non-violent people and supporting them safely in the community,” she told The Age.

The rest.

Blinked? Canadian Human Rights Commission Dismisses Complaint Against Maclean’s

[CNW, Press Release] Maclean’s magazine is pleased that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed the complaint brought against it by the Canadian Islamic Congress. The decision is in keeping with our long-standing position that the article in question, “The Future Belongs to Islam,” an excerpt from Mark Steyn’s best-selling book America Alone, was a worthy piece of commentary on important geopolitical issues, entirely within the bounds of normal journalistic practice.

Though gratified by the decision, Maclean’s continues to assert that no human rights commission, whether at the federal or provincial level, has the mandate or the expertise to monitor, inquire into, or assess the editorial decisions of the nation’s media. 

The rest.

60 Minutes’ “Foreign Affairs” Babe

Not much to do with “human rights,” but the irony was too rich for us to pass up.

[New York Post] Sexy CBS siren Lara Logan spent her days covering the heat of the Iraq war – but that was nothing compared to the heat of her nights.

The “60 Minutes” reporter and former swimsuit model apparently courted two beaus while she was in Baghdad, and has been labeled a homewrecker for allegedly destroying the marriage of a civilian contractor there, sources said.

The rest.