All Posts Tagged With: "human rights act"
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.
UPEI ordered to reinstate retired profs
Mandatory retirement against human rights law
The University of Prince Edward Island was recently ordered to reinstate three employees who were forced to retire under a mandatory retirement policy that was found in contravention of the Human Rights Act. Mandatory retirement was once common in Canadian universities, but it has been largely phased out through a combination of provincial legislation and university amendments to their own retirement provisions. UPEI was one of the last institutions to have such a policy.
Psychology professor Thomy Nillson, sociology professor Richard Willis and receiving clerk Yogi Fell will be returning to work complete with back pay minus retirement benefits already paid out. The UPEI Human Rights Commission ruled in favour of the three employees, who were forced to retire between 2005 and 2007, back in February but only recently issued orders for the university to reinstate them. The university must also “Refrain in the future from committing the same or similar contravention, namely,
mandatory retirement.”
University officials are not pleased with the order and estimate that compliance will cost more than $1 million in addition to $325,000 required to respect the order on an annual basis. “For comparison purposes, this is double the increase to our government operating grant for Main Campus in 2010-11,” Gary Bradshaw, vice-president finance, said in a statement. Bradshaw further warned that “Restrictions on hiring and on discretionary expenditures are anticipated.” UPEI is also on the hook for $52,000 in legal costs that the UPEI Faculty Association incurred in arguing the case.
The university maintains that their mandatory retirement policy was justified under a provision of the Human Rights Act that states that prohibitions against age based restrictions “do not affect the operation of any genuine retirement or pension plan.” The university has also cited a 1990 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that concluded mandatory retirement policies were exempt when there exists a “genuine retirement or pension plan.”
The Human Rights Commission disagreed with those arguments, concluding that the university ” had failed to establish that the discrimination was justified.” UPEI is appealing the decision to the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island.
The Faculty Association is satisfied with the result and in its own statement said it would provide a check on the university to ensure it respects the rights of the reinstated employees. “Moving forward, the Association will work to ensure that the collective agreement rights of those being reinstated, of the departments involved, and of other members in those departments are all respected,” the statement read.
The association also expressed concerns over the university’s response. “It is unfortunate, though, that the Vice-President’s memo also seems to threaten the entire University community in response to the Commission’s Decision and Order . . . This is especially concerning given that we are now in negotiations.”
The new head of the class?
A controversial bill gives Alberta parents more of a say in school
Soon after the Alberta Tories began discussing how to revise the province’s human rights legislation early this year, Lindsay Blackett, the cabinet minister stickhandling the issue, received a visit from an interfaith delegation of religious leaders—evangelicals, Anglicans, Mormons and Muslims—led by Frederick Henry, the outspoken Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary. Henry, who in the past has been less than shy about discussing such things as the future of Jean Chrétien’s eternal soul, laid out for Blackett the group’s concerns about including sexual orientation in Alberta’s Human Rights Act—and particularly how the topic would be dealt with in schools.
He argued parents should have more of a say in shaping sex-ed curricula, which he and others fear may encourage homosexuality and contravene parents’ own values. As it stands, Alberta children get lessons on the changes of puberty in Grade 4, the perils of blood-borne diseases like HIV in Grade 6, and “safer” sex in Grade 9. Though sexual orientation isn’t specifically addressed in the curricula set out by Alberta Education, the teachers’ union website encourages teachers to create “safe, caring and inclusive environments” by including the topic. In talking with Blackett, Henry sought more control for parents. “We felt it’s high time that there be some attempt on behalf of parents to push back, because many of their rights are seemingly being ignored,” he says.
It’s always tricky to figure out how much social or moral education is just right and how much too much. Alberta is the first province to wade into the issue by giving parents what amounts to a veto. Even here it happened by accident. An update to the province’s human rights law was overdue: more than a decade ago, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vriend vs. Alberta called the legislation unconstitutional because it failed to include sexual orientation as a ground for discrimination. And many on both the left and right hoped the Tories, under Premier Ed Stelmach, might excise Section 3, which deals with publications “likely to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt” and has led to controversial human rights cases.
Then Blackett did the unexpected. His Bill 44 added sexual orientation to the act but kept Section 3 intact. More mysterious still—and to the delighted surprise of social conservatives—he included provisions granting parents the right to remove children from lessons in which teachers plan to discuss religion, sexuality and sexual orientation—the only provincial human rights legislation to do so. Specifically, the bill permits mothers and fathers to pull kids out of sex-ed classes, though not from academic classes where, say, evolution is taught. And it grants them the power to file human rights complaints against teachers and school administrators who don’t notify them in advance of these topics.
