All Posts Tagged With: "Criminal Code"
Canada should be LGBT world leader
Adding gender identity, expression to list of protected groups is a positive step
A Dutch student successfully campaigned to have his diploma replaced by a university after he had sex re-assignment surgery. Initially reluctant, the university at first offered the man — who was a woman when he graduated from the institution — a simple certificate confirming his graduation. The country’s Equal Opportunities Commission ruled in his favour this week, saying he is entitled to a new diploma that properly identifies him.
Back in Canada, a private member’s bill is causing a bit of a different stir. Bill C-389 would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of identifiable groups protected by the Human Rights Act and even the hate provisions of the criminal code.
In a May debate in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Sylvie Boucher argued that making it illegal to express hatred towards transgender, intersex and transsexual people is a violation of free speech.
“We need enough evidence to conclude that there are enough cases of hate propaganda against transgender people,” she said. “Without that evidence, it is difficult to justify amending the Criminal Code and placing additional restrictions on free speech.”
Boucher pointed to recent Human Rights Tribunal decisions, which found that cases of harassment or discrimination brought forward by transsexuals was fully justified because “discriminating against transsexuals is prohibited based on the current ground of sex.”
In other words, Canada already has these protections in place. But this bill wants to make them more explicit — and that’s also justified.
Given the string of suicides among LGBT youth this fall, and given the fervency with which the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is being debated in the U.S., there is still a need to protect people from those who would do them harm.
If that means making sure the appropriate name is on a diploma, then fine. And if it means making sure that the harassment and abuse of transgender, transsexual and intersex people in Canada will not be tolerated, then fine.
Canada has a chance to be a world leader on this. Boucher told the House that no other country has established these kinds of protections. It can get better, and Canada can help lead the way.
The luckiest law students in all the land
Spoiler alert: It’s the kids at Osgoode Hall.
The decision this week by an Ontario Superior Court judge that struck down three of Canada’s criminal code provisions that relate to prostitution made this week an awesome one to be a law student. In my criminal law class today we spent about half of it looking at the Bedford decision as a way of studying how the Charter can affect the Criminal Code. The planned lesson for today in any event was going to be the Constitution and the Criminal Code, as well as how aspects of morality and harm play into the criminal law, so the prostitution decision just made all of that more current and awesome. Just trust me, it was a really fun and illuminating class.
Fun as it was at UVic, though, it seems impossible to conceive that the luckiest first-year law students in this country aren’t the ones who have Criminal Law at Osgoode Hall Thursday, for the simple fact that their Professor, Alan Young, is the lawyer who got the three provisions struck down. How cool is that?!? Can you imagine what class will be like?
“Guys, listen, I know on the syllabus it says we’re going to talk about how omission relates to actus reus, but instead what we’re going to do is talk about my week because I don’t know what you did this week but me, personally, I got three provisions of the Criminal Code declared unconstitutional. Boom.”
Also, he looks like a pretty funny guy from the section on examination in his Criminal Law syllabus:
In lieu of this mode of evaluation, students may make a significant donation to the Alan Young Personal Reclamation Trust Fund (cash only in U.S. currency)
Come on, that’s pretty funny. Anyway, I’m going to go drown my jealousy by absorbing myself in Contract Law readings.
