CCLA Rights Watch … La veille sur les droits et libertés

Mr. David Lepofsky, the noted lawyer and disability rights activist behind automated announcments for subways stops is now taking aim at the Presto smart card system. The system’s machines give a visual, but no audio indicator of a card’s balance, and Mr. Lepofsky says that the failure to include an audio option contradicts the goals of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and violates human rights obligations.

Presto’s executive director says that a automated-voice feature is not viable, given the hectic nature of turnstiles at the city’s stations:

“It just operationally doesn’t work. You can’t have the gate stopped or the device stopped in the middle of rush hour.”

Presto notes that visually-impaired commuters can check their balances online on by phone, but Lepofsky argues that the disabled should be able to check their balances just like everyone else. Read the story here.

The Globe and Mail gives a profile of the seven jurors who will decide the fate of Guantanamo’s Canadian detainee Omar Khadr. The article also explores the Khadr defence team’s efforts to obtain an unbiased jury panel.

Nova Scotia’s black community is angered following revelations that vehicle access to a private shortcut was granted only to white families in an area undergoing bridge repair. Officials have called the accusations of racism “misguided.” The clash comes at a time when race-relations are at the fore in the province, following several high-profile incidents in the past several years. Read more here.

A leaked internal report suggests that the Montreal police force is engaged in systemic racial profiling. This comes amid rising claims from citizens’ groups based on anecdotal evidence.

Research in the report suggests that black youths in certain Montreal neighbour hoods are being stopped and asked for identification over four times more often than their white counterparts. Police respond that the results of the study are misleading given the limited size of the sample.

Nonetheless, popular outrage is increasing as Montreal prepares to celebrate the two year anniversary of the shooting death of  Mr. Freddy Villanueva by a Montreal police officer. Many community activists have also criticized the blunt way in which police tackle crime in minority-neighbourhoods. Read the story here.

A court challenge to the UN’s much-criticized anti-terrorist sanctions mechanism is set to go ahead despite the appointment of a Canadian as Ombudsman for the beleaguered committee.

Critics call the move a “face saving effort” for a UN process that has been widely condemned and repudiated by the U.K. and other nations. The suit was launched by the British Colombia Civil Liberties Association, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and Mr. Abousfian Abdelrazik, the only Canadian known to be on the UN sanctions list.

The challenge asks the Federal Court of Canada to strike down Canadian regulations implementing the decade-old United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 on grounds that the listing and  appeal processes lack “basic protections of procedural fairness that are fundamental to the rule of law.” Read more here.

The defence of Omar Khadr has been dealt a significant blow, with the presiding judge ruling that all statements made by the Canadian terror-suspect are admissible in court, despite Khadr’s contention that they were obtained as the result of abuse. It now falls to the defence to convince jurors that the evidence offered by the prosecution is unreliable.  Read the story here.