Alberta's Bill 44 To Be Implemented This Fall

...over the non-silent objections of teachers, Lindsay Blackett looks to "the silent majority" for support:

"For those people around the country that think that's somehow wrong, we in Alberta believe in family values, because the family's at the core of what makes a great community. . . . We're taking a lead, here."

Bill 44 may allow parents to drag teachers before the AHRC (Alberta Human Rights Commission) if, for example, they talk about religion or sexuality in class without giving advance notice to the parents, who may then ask that their children be pulled from the class in question.

Blackett is obviously preparing for such an eventuality:

"We're looking at overall governance of the commission and we're also looking at training of staff within the commission. So a lot of those things have to happen and we'd like to get them all tidied up before we actually proclaim the bill into law."

Wow! Beefing up the AHRC! Ezra's gonna be pissed.

Man, Would You Look At All The Old White Folk

Ezra plays Calgary, and I'll bet the place hasn't seen this much gray hair since the Rolling Stones last came through town. I suppose when the Speechy Revolution finally arrives these folk will send their grand-kids to the barricades, or they'll mount machine-guns on their walkers.

Speaking of the revolution, the Alberta Budget came down yesterday and in it was no hint of Lindsay Blackett's Human Rights reform package. Perhaps this was not the most likely place to introduce such changes, but several media outlets had suggested they might be made public this week and they have not been.

If Ezra's crusade fails in Alberta...with a Conservative majority in place there for the foreseeable future (and beyond!). Wow! Smell the flop-sweat!

So What's Going On With Human Rights Legislation In Alberta?

I dunno.

Either they are on the verge of writing protections for homosexuals explicitly into the Act, removing the power to adjudicate hate-speech cases from the AHRC, and allowing parents to opt their kids out of school classes that go against their religious beliefs (like classes teaching evolutionary biology?)

...or they are not.

I've received a couple of emails from people fairly close to the scene in Calgary who say the Stelmach government, and Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett in particular, will indeed be going ahead with the reforms, but there have appeared in Mr. Blackett's statements over the past several weeks a number of hedges that make me think this will not happen, at least not in Spring 2009.

However, there are definitely a couple of private member's motions on the table:

In Motion 511 Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview MLA Tony Vandermeer suggests: "Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to review how complaints are addressed by the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission to ensure a fair process for both complainants and respondents."

Calgary-Egmont MLA Jonathan Denis is bringing forward Motion 523: "Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to introduce amendments to the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act whereby those who are found to have filed frivolous and vexatious complaints with the Human Rights and Citizenship Commission (including complaints that are found to unreasonably challenge the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of conscience and religion) be required to pay a portion of the respondent's procedural costs."

Note that these are private motions and, if they function in the same way as they do on the Federal level, they don't actually require action on the part of the provincial government: they are non-binding statements of opinion, not changes to the actual law.

Note too that the 2nd motion (Denis') is quite interesting in that requiring the complainants to pay the costs of the respondent is a common reform suggested to the HRC system by people generally supportive of that system (for example, I think Kinsella might have mentioned such a reform, although I can't find the post on his site). However, it turns out that, in some cases where there is an "egregious abuse" of the Human Rights Tribunal process, it can already be done.

In any case, the next few weeks should tell the tale.

Shorter Ezra: Curses, SODOMIZED AGAIN!

Or at least that's what he WILL say when he discovers that Alberta Tory caucus discussion of possible changes to Section 3 of the Alberta human rights code (the provincial analogue of the CHRA's Section 13) has been deferred.

His conservative magazine flopped in the nation's most conservative province; his anti-human-rights crusade appears similarly destined.