Ontario Human Rights Commission is offering a free webinar on its Policy on Competing Human Rights. The policy provides importance guidance on what to do when to accommodate the rights of one person leads to a possible breach of the rights of another.
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Canada’s human rights record has come under fire over the past several months. In December of 2012, Amnesty International released a highly critical report of the state of human rights in Canada. The report details abuses against vulnerable groups in Canada including indigenous peoples, women, migrant workers and refugees.
Amnesty International notes in its report that “support for strong advocacy and diverse, including dissenting, views in debates and discussion of important public policy issues is being dramatically undermined and rapidly dismantled [in Canada].”
This month, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing police abuses against indigenous women and girls in Northern British Columbia. The report found that Canada was not meeting its obligations under international law to address violence against indigenous women and girls.
With the Canadian government under fire for failing in protecting and promoting fundamental human rights in Canada, are there legal avenues that may be available to uphold the rights of marginalized persons, rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
2012 has been a big year for the concept of competing human rights.
In May, the Ontario Human Rights Commission published a long-awaited Policy on Competing Human Rights. Earlier this fall, the media reported widely the case of the woman who was denied a haircut by a barber because his religion does not allow him to touch a woman. And today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the complex N.S. case: a case that pitted the right of the key witness in a sexual assault trial – the victim – to wear her religious face covering, against the rights of two accused men – her uncle and cousin – to have fair trials.
Continue reading “2012 a big year for Competing Human Rights.”
In April, the Human Rights Commission released its Policy on Competing Human Rights. This policy provides importance guidance on what to do when to accommodate the rights of one person leads to a possible breach of the rights of another. This comes up sometimes for our clients and so we were excited to receive an invitation today to attend a free training session on how to use this policy. We plan to be there and you may want to too!
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Smokers and non smokers living side by side; staff with guide dogs and others who are allergic to dogs working in the same office; religious based education and gay straight alliances – these are the kinds of clashes that the new “Policy on Competing Human Rights” is intended to address.
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