Human Rights Is Big Bucks #14

Toronto Sun – A comedian whose put-downs of a lesbian and her companion in the audience is hoping she doesn’t have the last laugh at a B.C. Human Rights Commission tribunal this week…

Pardy is seeking damages in the neighbourhood of $20,000.

The Human Right Not To Be Insulted By Stand Up Comedians

CTV – A comedian whose put-downs of a lesbian and her companion in the audience is hoping she doesn’t have the last laugh at a B.C. Human Rights Commission tribunal this week.

Was Guy Earle’s discriminatory verbal assault spurred solely by the woman’s sexual orientation, or was the professional funny man exercising his right to free speech when an audience member wouldn’t settle down?

Poor Lawyer Still Doesn’t Understand The Human Rights Hierarchy

Vic News – “We’re preparing an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in Ottawa,” said lawyer from his Broughton-Street firm.

It’s discriminatory, he said, to offer free mammograms to women in their 40s while denying men of that age free prostate cancer screening tests, called PSA tests.

In 2006, Armstrong took his complaint against the Ministry of Health to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

The tribunal, however, found no evidence of discrimination between the genders.

The Human Right To Teach Homophobia And Heterosexism In High School

Vancouver Sun – The B.C. human rights tribunal will hear a complaint arising from the Abbotsford school district’s refusal in 2008 to offer a high-school course dealing with sexual orientation, gender identity, homophobia and heterosexism.

BC Human Rights Tribunal: Racial Profiling OK (If We Say So)

British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal Annual Report 2008 – 2009 – The Chair approved seven new special programs this year.

The British Columbia Nurses’ Union received five year special program approval to restrict hiring for the position of Education Diversity Officer to candidates who are members of a visible minority…

The Legal Services Society (“LSS”) received five year special program approval to limit hiring and/or provide preference to people of Aboriginal ancestry for lawyer and staff positions…

School District No. 28 (Quesnel) received five year special program approval to restrict hiring of teaching positions assigned to the Aboriginal Education Department to persons of Aboriginal ancestry…

Thompson Rivers University received five year special program approval for three programs that allow it to restrict hiring to a person of Aboriginal descent…

Vancouver Community College received five year special program approval to recruit persons of Aboriginal Ancestry for its new Culinary Arts – Aboriginal Speciality training program…

No Statute Of Limitations On Bigotry

British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal Annual Report 2008 – 2009 – [page 8] The Code requires that a complaint must be filed within six months of an act of discrimination, or the last instance of a “continuing contravention” of the Code.  The Tribunal may accept late-filed complaints if it is in the public interest to do so and no substantial prejudice will result to anyone…

[Page 9] A complainant filed a complaint five years after he was fired and told it was due to restructuring. In unrelated civil proceedings, he learned that one respondent said he was fired because of his disability.  It was in the public interest to accept the late complaint because the complainant did not discover the discrimination until the later civil proceedings. The respondents were not prejudiced by the delay.

When Human Rights Collide #15

Take a wild guess:

Does freedom of religion trump the right not to be discriminated against due to sexual orientation?

This question is at the core of a complaint before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. It involves a Christian couple, two gay lovers, and the use of a home-based bed-and-breakfast.

Warriors. Come Out To Pla-eee-ay!

West Kelowna News – A former employee of the Westside Warriors hockey club has filed a complaint of sexual harassment with the B.C. Human Rights Commission.

Marie Carrothers lodged the complaint against the hockey club, its parent company Vision Sports Group LLP and Brent Fournier, a volunteer with the hockey club.

Carrothers claims she was sexually harassed by Fournier on two separate occasions in 2008 and 2009.

The allegations came to light two days after she was fired by the Warriors on January 19, 2009.

Contravening The Human Rights Code? STFU

Oak Bay News – UVic pro-life group protests Students Society board decision…

A decision to revoke the club status of a controversial student group has members of Youth Protecting Youth fighting for their right to free speech…

Veronica Harrison, chairperson of the Student Society board, said two of the rules for harassment violations in the existing UVSS policy manual are in question.

They include behaviour that contravenes the B.C. Human Rights Code (which includes discrimination on the basis of sex, religion and sexual orientation), and behaviour that creates a hostile or intimidating environment.

Huh. Wearing Short Sleeve Shirts Isn’t a Human Right for Dudes

CP: The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal says men do not have the right to bare arms in a Kamloops, B.C., nightclub.

The tribunal has ruled in favour of Blue Grotto owners Teri, Kathy and Kevin Willey, in their battle to keep gang influences out of their club.

Chase, B.C., resident Dorian Payne complained after he was forced to pull a sleeved shirt over his tank top while visiting the Blue Grotto with his sister and father.

He argued he was the victim of sex discrimination because women at the club are permitted to wear sleeveless shirts.

Workers Comp Bigots to Face the Power of a Fully Operational Human Rights Tribunal

CP: The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled the province’s Human Rights Tribunal has the power to hear complaints that the chronic pain policy of the Workers Compensation Board is discriminatory.

Three people who suffer from chronic pain as a result of work-related injuries had challenged the board’s policy that makes chronic pain awards a fixed percentage of total disability awards.

Keep the “Other Reasons” Coming

YourHome.ca: The B.C. Human Rights Code makes it illegal to deny accommodation to a person because of his or her physical disability (among other reasons) without “a bona fide and reasonable justification.” The Ontario code has a similar prohibition, stating that every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to the occupancy of accommodation without discrimination by reason of disability (and other reasons).

As with other provincial Human Rights Codes, the B.C. code prevails in the event of a conflict with any other legislation – including the B.C. Strata Property Act.

Human Rights Activist: BCHRT “Flawed”

[Province] A case in point arose this summer, when a raucous public debate reverberated across Canada after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal agreed to hear a complaint about an allegedly Islamophobic article published in Maclean’s magazine.

Critics, including B’nai Brith Canada, say the complaint had no merit and should not have been heard. Defenders say the tribunal was simply fulfilling its role of hearing complaints under Section 7 of B.C.’s Human Rights Code, which prohibits publication of anything that “indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate . . . or is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred or contempt.”

As the public awaits the tribunal’s verdict, critics have seized on the case to call for major reform to the quasi-judicial body.

David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada and a longtime human-rights activist, says the way in which human rights is governed in B.C. is “flawed.”

McGill Party Animal Bummed By Human Rights Commissions

Thou Shalt Not Be A Big Meanie To Anyone

[McGill Daily] Journalists, comedians, and pastors, among others, have been brought before the British Colombia Human Rights Tribunal for exercising their human right to free speech. This star chamber has the power to force people to pay fines, publicly repudiate their own beliefs, and even to send them to jail if they refuse or cannot do those things. All this is done without respecting basic human rights such as the right to face one’s accuser or the right to freedom of speech.

The vagueness of the B.C. Human Rights Code and the Administrative Tribunals Act means that if you read the Third of the Ten Commandments aloud in, for example, a church, you could be brought before the Tribunal for condemning those who have left any of the Abrahamic religions. The Third Commandment reads: “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” I should note that I’m an athiest and I don’t believe in the Ten Commandments, but I have a big problem with being told I can’t say them aloud…

— Peter Hurley was The Daily’s Web editor last year. His favourite right is that which allows him to party.

Conservatives Lead In BC; Human Rights Tribunal’s Phones Broken

[CBC] The majority of British Columbians think Stephen Harper is the best choice for prime minister, according to a poll conducted by the Environics Research Group for CBC News.

The survey, conducted between Friday and Tuesday, shows that province-wide, 38 per cent of respondents have confidence in Harper’s leadership.

NDP Leader Jack Layton was the runner-up, favoured by 20 per cent of respondents, while Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion was selected by 14 per cent.

British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal: Sorry, No Polygamists

[Vancouver Sun] The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint by a polygamist couple who alleged that the teachers union discriminated against them and their religious group by calling on the provincial government to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation in Bountiful.

Duane and Susie Palmer, who are members of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, filed the complaint with the tribunal in December 2004. Duane is the superintendent of Mormon Hills School in Lister, B.C., the closest community to Bountiful in southeastern portion of the province near Creston, while Susie is a teacher there.

The Palmers alleged that three publications — a letter to the premier, a news release and petition — issued by the B.C. Teachers Federation were discriminatory on the grounds of marital and family status, and religion.

So You Tell Us…Are Elected Officials Still In Charge Of British Columbia?

[National Post] Somewhere in the middle are Murray and Peter Corren. One of the first gay couples in Canada to marry, they almost single-handedly forced the topics of sexual orientation, gender identity and same-sex families into schools, launching a B. C. Human Rights Tribunal complaint against the provincial government.

The Correns said they had “much evidence” that the province’s Ministry of Education had, in the past, “taken active steps to suppress these issues from the provincial curriculum.” This was discriminatory, they alleged.

Rather than see the complaint wend through the human rights process, where a quasi-judicial panel might find in favour of the Correns and impose a far-reaching remedy, the province negotiated a settlement two years ago. It pledged to solicit feedback from “organizations or groups with expertise in sexual orientation, homophobia and other issues of inclusion of diversity in the curriculum” and then develop what has become the Social Justice 12 course.

…

Material: Paul’s Case by Willa Cather “Paul’s Case is about a boy who does not fit in. He is being pressured by his father to become what ‘all the other boys’ become.

Some young people feel that they do not fit in. Paul does not have any real friends. He is often bullied because other youngsters do not understand him. His teachers treat him cruelly because he makes them feel small and inferior. Have students research the correlation between adolescent suicide and homosexuality. What are the possible reasons for this statistic? (Note to teachers: Ensure students understand that homosexuality does not ’cause’ depression or suicide.)” – Course: English 12

You Can Vet A Candidate, Just Don’t Be A Bigot About It

[Canadian Press] A transsexual Vancouver prostitution advocate is preparing a human rights complaint against the city’s governing party after it rejected her as a parks board candidate nominee.

Jamie Lee Hamilton said candidate interviews with two board members of the Non-Partisan Association party about being a nominee for November’s municipal elections focused on her sex life.

B. C.’s Human Rights Code says it is illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of sex or sexual orientation.

Hamilton said the interviews made her uncomfortable.

I felt that my whole lifestyle was being interrogated . . . that I was somehow immoral,” she said.

Hamilton said the board members invited her to a cafe to discuss an ad she placed on ShemaleCanada.com., a meeting place for transsexuals.

She had described herself as a cougar” in the ad.

And, she said, she declared on her candidate’s form that she had worked in the sex trade.

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.

Women File Human Rights Complaints Over Breastfeeding In BC, Ontario

[Canwest] A woman who organized a “nurse-in” to protest at a Vancouver store filed a complaint to the BC Human Rights Tribunal on Thursday, the second such complaint in Canada in a week.

…

“This is actually a case of discrimination. I would like to see other women come out and file their complaints, as well.

“And I would like to see all companies to be educated and made aware of the law in B.C.,” she said.

“This is a right that breastfeeding women need to have so we can do our job.”

Valle said she has accepted H&M’s apology and doesn’t want to see anyone at the store fired over the incident, but the principle is worth filing a complaint over

Allison Loblaw, of London, Ont., launched an online complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario after she said she was humiliated for breastfeeding at a LaSenza lingerie store in Windsor, Ont., last month.

Flashback: Back in July, we at DWE warned you this was coming.

Steyn Can Take It, But HRCs Are Sacred

[Media Monitors, Greg Felton] The human rights case against Maclean’s magazine, discussed in my last column, has significance beyond the anti-Muslim defamation that writer Mark Steyn is charged with committing. Of much greater importance is the smear campaign being launched against the country’s human rights tribunals in the mainstream media and by unhinged bloggers.

Steyn’s apologists have concocted a revisionist reality in which po’ li’l Marky is not the bloviating windbag of anti-Muslim paranoia that his writing would seem to suggest;  rather, he is a victim of government censorship and a poster boy for free speech.

…

My book The Host and the Parasite–How Israel’s Fifth Column Consumed America is available exclusively from GregFelton.com until I can find an honest publisher.

Jonas: Human Rights Officials Kangeroos, Pussies

[National Post] Brainy little kangaroos, our homegrown marsupials. The Bathurst Island kind have nothing on them. Our joeys leaped out of the way with Olympic alacrity, once they heard the thunder rolling down the track.

…

Here pussy, pussy, have some milk. See what a nice little kitten thought police types can be, once they’re de-clawed.

…

Whoa, just a sec! Hatred? Excuse me, but what is hatred? The Muslim complainants thought that what Levant and Steyn published or wrote was hatr … 

Oh, complainants, what do they know? Entre nous, they’re just a bunch of Jews, Muslims, homosexuals … We’re officials. We know. Anyone above the rank of obergruppenführer at the Federal or Provincial Human Rights Commissions knows. We’re trained to tell the good cholesterol “offensiveness” from the bad cholesterol “hate.” It’s a skill you acquire in human-rights school … You sit for an exam and get a framed diploma for the wall.

Globe and Mail To HRCs: Repeal Thyself

Funny. All this time we thought elected officials wrote the law. Oops.

From the Daddy, I Took The Car Without Permission, Please Ground Me file:

[Globe and Mail] In the end, though, human-rights commissions should advise their respective legislatures to repeal these dangerously vague sections, so that those who exercise the freedom of speech and press are no longer harassed by such complaints.

Alberta Human Rights Commission: Let’s All Pretend This Never Happened

CHRC punted on Steyn. OHRC punted on Steyn. AHRC now punts on Levant. BCHRT…you’re up! Come on, chickenshits. You nailed McDonald’s for handwashing, surely you can bust Steyn for a hate crime. Or will you punt, too?

[CBC] The Alberta Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint against publisher Ezra Levant for reprinting the provocative Danish Muhammad cartoons in his magazine in 2006.

The complaint was filed by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities.

Levant, who has characterized the controversy as a free speech issue, said he was pleased with the outcome and pledged to continue fighting against censorship.

Anningson: What If…?

[Times and Transcript] So what if none of us ever got to say what we thought was important?

What if when I tried to write about vegetarianism the meat lobby had me shut down. What if the coffee federation silenced me when I said we should pay more for a cup of coffee because the labourers don’t make enough? What if the government brought me up on charges when I suggest that detainees are being treated unfairly in military prisons?

If you have been reading Maclean’s magazine this year you will realize that Canada has such a thing as a Human Rights Court, which is not really a court in a standard legal system, but a court where any individual whatsoever can bring charges that you have somehow written or published hate literature against some group.