Friday, March 27, 2009

Possibly As Early As This Spring?

Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett says he wants to include sexual orientation in Alberta’s human-rights law, possibly as early as this spring.

Blackett said he also wants to, as part of the same legal reform package, strip the Alberta Human Rights Commission of the power to adjudicate cases involving hate crimes and free speech, adding that those matters are better handled by the hate laws in the Criminal Code.

I may be proven a fool in a week or two, but Lindsay Blackett's dance around his "reform package" re the Alberta Human Rights Code--including the repeal of Section 3--seems to be a gradual backing away from action. We've gone from preparing to prepare to discuss the package in caucus, to preparing to vote on the reforms in caucus, to deferring the pre-debate discussion, to hinting at a deferral in the package itself.

Quite a statement if Ezra can't even get a reform package passed in his home province (by a Majority Conservative Legislature!).

10 comments:

MgS said...

Simply repealing S.3 (or S.13 in the federal statute) would be an unmitigated disaster.

It would give the hatemongers (and there are plenty of them) free license to spread what amounts to group slander electronically.

... something the so-called "free speech warriors" have yet to clue into.

Ti-Guy said...

All that's come out of that province for the last 20 years are gassy emissions. No cultural products, no revolutionary discoveries, no interesting innovations, nothing.

The last good things that came out of Alberta were k d lang and the Bloody Caesar.

MgS said...

No cultural products, no revolutionary discoveries, no interesting innovations, nothing.

Not entirely true, Ti-Guy. There is a very active R&D community in the province, but most of what is being explored is off the public radar.

Kurt Phillips said...

I don't know if that's fair Ti-Guy. We did give Feist to the world. By way of Amherst, Nova Scotia and Regina, Saskatchewan.

Okay, not the greatest example. Let me ponder this for a few hours.

bigcitylib said...

Tigi,

Don't insult the Albertans. We'll need a few onside when we nationalize the tar sands.

Ti-Guy said...

There is a very active R&D community in the province,

All for tar sands exploitation, probably. Which is fine by me, but R&D isn't just about technological innovation or innovating for the consumer economy.

I'll acknowledge what is worthy when I see it. At least as far as recent history is concerned (which means my entire lifetime) the bad has outweighed the good. By a long shot.

And that's saying a lot, considering the province's prosperity. Maybe it's all the boozing? Alberta ranks second only to the Yukon in drunkenness.

meddy said...

International Trial of the Edmonton Protocol for Islet Transplantation
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/355/13/1318

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Math/Science 2006
http://www.pisa.gc.ca/BROCHUR-E-28.pdf
Canada among the top -- Alberta tops in Canada

But this story is about the Albertan polictial system, which is sick.

KC said...

I don't think this sounds like a backing off. Legislatures are sooooo slow.

MgS said...

I'll acknowledge what is worthy when I see it. At least as far as recent history is concerned (which means my entire lifetime) the bad has outweighed the good. By a long shot.

Speaking as an Albertan that is involved in R&D, there's a lot of stuff going on that's pretty amazing.

It's not all about the oilsands here (in spite of what's in the news)

You don't see it because a lot of it is stuff that will never be visible to the general public.

In this case, you tar people with too broad a brush.

Gayle said...

"All that's come out of that province for the last 20 years are gassy emissions."

Hey! Although in my case, that may be true...