Total Confusion In Alberta...

...over bill 44, an update to the province's human rights legislation. A minister-on-minister dust up seems to have occurred between Education Minister Dave Hancock and Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett.

Background: teachers are still worried they might be taken to the Alberta Human Rights Commision for, among other things, discussing sexuality in class without having informed parents in advance, so that said parents might decide whether or not their children are allowed to participate in the discussion or even attend.

Education minister Hancock asked that implementation of this "parental opt-out" clause be delayed until next year and...what?

This story from five hours ago suggests that Blackett has agreed to the delay. This one, from a bit earlier in the day, suggests he still wants to press ahead. So I don't know what the heck is going on, but its sure no way to run a rail-road, let alone a province aspiring to national leadership.

I will make a prediction though: I predict that the opt-out clause eventually comes out of the legislation entirely, and we are left with a document that explicitly disallows discrimination on the basis of sexuality.

Update: Blackett tweets:

Section 9 will take effect on Sept 1, 2010 so formalized process can be created by School Boards.

Alberta Human Rights Reform Spiked! I Was Right! I Was Gawddamn Fucking Right! And Ezra Got Stiffed In Alberta!!!

From the mouth Of The Ez Himself. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has pulled the plug on Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett's Human Rights reform:

Ed Stelmach, Alberta's weak premier, shows he's still strong when it comes to pushing his MLAs around. Today he put that uppity cabinet minister Lindsay Blackett...back in his place.

...specifically, the repeal of section 3 (the Alberta analogue of Section 13) is OFF THE TABLE!!!

I've been saying that these reforms were stalled for months now and, holy shit!, I didn't even believe it myself at times. But today I can Lord It Over the Alberta MSM and feel totally justified. I got the Alberta zeitgeist pegged better than the Calgary Herald. My glory approaches transfinite levels! Gay rights get added to the act explicitly, and Section 3 doesn't get touched!

And, yo Speechy's, you guys are a bunch of fucking total luzers! All you're doing now is paying Ezra's bills. He can't even advance his Speechy crusade in a conservative province with a conservative majority. Like he couldn't float a Conservative magazine in the same place! When you read his latest post you can taste the flop-sweat in his very choice of fonts. Gawd you Speechy people fucking fail, fail epically, fail utterly, fail fail fail fail!!!!!!

Booyah!! Booyah!!

PS. Thanks go out to the Aryan Guard. Couldn't have done it without you guys!

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.