The white supremacist website, Stormfront.org, announced that there would be a white pride rally in Edmonton on March 24 supported by a group that calls itself Blood & Honour (see the announcement here). The exact location of the rally will be announced the day before.
The Edmonton Journal has reported that Edmonton police “will have a visible presence during the rally to ensure that everybody’s rights to free speech have been respected.” However, no permit has yet been issued for the rally and councillor Amarjeet Sohi has informed Metro News that “the city will not be issuing a permit, because the content of the rally is hate.”
In response to the white pride rally, an anti-racism rally has also been planned for March 24 to be held from noon to 3 p.m. at End of Steel Park near the Old Strathcona Farmers Market.
Check out the articles below:
Edmonton Journal
Metro News
Parents in Morinville, AB (northwest of Edmonton) are achieving results after a year-long battle for educational religious equality. School division boundaries had left the community without secular education and the new bill, introduced to the legislature on Wednesday, intends to correct these boundaries and create a public school division in Morinville.
Schoolchildren in Morinville have only had access to schools directed by the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division. The school division refused parents requests for secular education, asserting that “the only education it would offer was one permeated by the teachings of Christ.” Non-catholic students were required to receive report cards which graded them on their “growth in Christian values.” Following this response from the school board, parents filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission which drew the governments attention to the issue.
If the bill passes, parents in the community will be able to send their children to a non-denominational school for the first time in decades.
Check out the Globe and Mail article here
Jill Clayton was sworn in as privacy commissioner at the Alberta Legislature on Wednesday, replacing Frank Work, who stepped down in December. She returns to Alberta from her previous post with the Privacy and Freedom of Information Department for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. Clayton is expecting many challenges considering the changing landscape of information access due to “new technology, public-private partnerships, information sharing and social media.” Both the new commission and Premier Redford asserted Alberta’s ongoing commitment to openness and transparency in government.
See the full Edmonton Journal story here
The Edmonton public school board has committed to “maintaining a safe, inclusive, equitable, and welcoming learning and teaching environment for all members of the school community.” The policy, which took effect on November 29, 2011, is designed to promote awareness of the challenges that sexual minorities face in the school environment in order to prevent incidents of harassment, bullying and discrimination. Rules regarding the process by which incidents will be dealt with are being developed to assist teachers and administrators reach this goal. The school board intends to provide support to schools for policy implementation and conduct annual reports to evaluate the progress.
You can find the policy here
And an Edmonton Journal article on the subject here
Edmonton area RCMP Cpl. Gerry Hoyland is suing the RCMP after the RCMP External Review Committee investigated his reported grievances and found that he was a victim of harassment. Superiors characterize the incidents as practical jokes, but Hoyland’s claims, affirmed by the Review Committee, are that he was victimized because he refused to participate in the old boys network that covered for one another and let problems go unnoticed. These practices were unacceptable to Hoyland, who believed that the RCMP should always be accountable.
This case is one of a growing number of harassment complaints being made against the RCMP.
You can find the CBC news article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/11/14/edmonton-harassment-stony-plain-hoyland.html
The oil sands extraction and refinement activity have been the subject of intense debate for some time. Environmentalists, aboriginal rights activists, and Canadian women’s rights advocates are now being asked to choose between these causes and concern for women’s rights. Read the rest of this entry »
Mark Bogan was a student at Aurora College in Yellowknife, NWT when he was expelled as a result of his strongly expressed opinions on the parental rights of fathers in family custody courts. After his expulsion nearly 3 years ago, Bogan filed a complaint against Aurora with the NWT Human Rights Commission and has recently received an offer for a $12,000 cash settlement and acknowledgement of wrongful expulsion from the college with the opportunity to reapply to the Social Work program. Despite a confidentially clause in the settlement offer, Bogan has decided to keep the public informed of his efforts to protect his right to free speech, not surprising considering his history of public protest. As a result, his case will likely not be settled and will go to trial. Find the story here.
