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Alberta Continues Reformes With New Director

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Created on Thursday, 21 October 2010 18:49
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Vancouver Sun, Oct 5 2010: EDMONTON — The provincial government has named a new director of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the latest step in an overhaul of the agency designed to speed up and improve the process of dealing with discrimination complaints. Read more

Death of Kangaroo Court?

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Created on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 19:11
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Calgary Herald, September 12, 2010: The Alberta government will soon announce a new director for the Alberta Human Rights Commission, completing an overhaul of the quasi-judicial body that has been nearly two years in the making. It will be a long-awaited but welcome change spurred in part by a critical report early in 2009 that called for reforms.

Alberta Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett, who was instrumental in pushing for the change, recently told the Herald's editorial board that the commission is being retooled from top to bottom so that there will be "no more kangaroo courts." For too long, human rights tribunals have operated outside the normal rules of evidence that apply to regular court proceedings, leading to allegations that they are often unfair and lacking in due process, especially in controversial areas such as free speech. Read more

Private Member's Bill to insert "Social Condition" into CHRA

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Created on Sunday, 01 August 2010 04:43
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Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, introduced a private member's bill on June 17, 2010, to insert "social condition" as a prohibited ground of discrimination. According to Davies, this would prohibit discrimination against "people experiencing social or economic disadvantage, such as adequate housing, homelessness, source of income, occupation, level of income, poverty, or any similar circumstance." Read more

ARCHIVE: Ottawa urged to scrap hate speech law

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Created on Friday, 11 June 2010 23:26
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Joseph Brean, National Post · Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008: Section 13, the controversial hate-speech provision in the Canadian Human Rights Act, should be repealed so that online hate speech is a purely criminal matter, according to an independent review by University of Windsor law professor Richard Moon. Read more

ARCHIVE: Canadian HRC Grilled in Parliamentary Committee

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Created on Friday, 11 June 2010 23:21
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Canadian Human Rights Commission called before the Parliament of Canada to explain their abusive tactics, posting of hate messages, paying serial complainant Richard Warman, theft of a womans Internet connection, and many other abuses.

Human Rights Commission closings apolitical: official

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Created on Friday, 11 June 2010 23:17
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Canwest News Service March 27, 2010: A decision by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to close offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax is not an attack on human rights, nor is it being done on orders from the Conservative government, says a top official with the commission. Karen Mosher, secretary-general of the commission, said yesterday the closings are part of a reorganization that will save about $500,000 in rent, salaries and other administrative costs while having a minimal impact on the work of the commission. Read more

Saskatchewan may abolish Human Rights Tribunal

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Created on Friday, 11 June 2010 23:10
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Angela Hall, Canwest News Service · Friday, Apr. 16, 2010: The Saskatchewan government may scrap its Human Rights Tribunal in favour of having rights cases heard by the courts, the province's justice minister said yesterday. Justice Minister Don Morgan said the province could dissolve the tribunal and turn its cases over to the Court of Queen's Bench -- something that has been suggested by David Arnot, chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

"This is a recommendation that's come forward and is a recommendation that, in fact, may have some merit. There are criticisms that the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal may be seen as too close to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission," Mr. Morgan said in the legislature. Read More