The Lynch List, 08-Oct-2010

I extend hearty wishes for gastrointestinal health over this Thanksgiving weekend. I hope reading about the HRCs doesn’t contribute to any discomfort…

First: Both BC and now Alberta have “overhauled” their Human Rights apparatuses by installing new personnel, supposedly to ally some of the concerns about the bureaucracies. Nevertheless, the machinery still remains, and all it takes is for a less sympathetic government to install someone much, much worse. Don’t let these governments fool you: a benevolent dictator is still a dictator.

Second: Some more reaction to the CN Rail family-status decision:

Dufresne said the cases interpret the grounds of family status more broadly than previous decisions.

“There were some decisions that took the view that the grounds of family status had to be interpreted more narrowly than the other grounds and that provided less protection for parents with young children,” he said. “What these three decisions do is they reject that narrow interpretation and instead confirm that family status has to be interpreted broadly.”

He said the decisions are not binding on other panels, “but they are certainly very persuasive.”

Third: The Windsor Star calls for a “real debate on the need for the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario” in an editorial focusing on the complaint from Emily Carasco against Windsor University:

In other words, the tribunal has the power to effectively hire and fire at the University of Windsor, regardless of the impact on the institution. This is symptomatic of the trouble with the Ontario Human Rights Code that governs the tribunal — the code gives the tribunal carte blanche when it comes to remediation.

Fourth: An on-campus take on the Carasco complaint from the University of Windsor: