WINDSOR, Ont. — The hoodie worn by University of Windsor student Kareem Ellis dared anyone who might target him — a tall, young, black man — for racial profiling.
“Racism is the wrong way,” read the slogan emblazoned on Ellis’s sweater as he joined a student rally outside the university’s Faculty of Law building on Wednesday.
Dozens of students at the protest also wore hooded sweaters as a sign of solidarity with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin — the black youth who was fatally shot in Florida in February while he was clad in a hoodie. George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch volunteer who killed Martin, said the teen looked suspicious.
Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/students+their+hoods+Trayvon+Martin/6411587/story.html#ixzz1r7Ah6Gm0
A new CROP poll whose methodology and findings have been criticized is adding fuel to Québec’s language war fire. The Québec news magazine L’actualité devotes its cover story – complete with provocative cover photo – to the poll’s findings in what Lysiane Gagnon (journalist with the Globe and Mail) has termed “a call to war”.
L’actualité and the Parti Québecois have jumped on these findings in calling for a renewed conversation regarding the French language’s role in Québec society, and in Montréal in particular. The subject is never far from political center stage – a 67 year-old francophone woman who was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital following a stroke recently filed a complaint that she was unable to obtain service in her native tongue.
Public conversations on the matter are not merely vitriol. L’actualité’s website actually aggregates a diverse range of views on the subject.
The CROP polls numbers are available in PDF here.
As per the 2012 Ontario budget, six previously approved hospital projects will be scrapped or downsized. Of these hospital cuts, however, five of the six are in Tory ridings, with only one (Sunnybrook) being in a Liberal riding. Some believe this decision stinks suspiciously of partisanship. The provincial government okayed a $100 million renovation at Kincardine and Winghman hospitals in the days leading up the 2011 provincial election for example – the project “was basically a done deal” according to Jeff Vandervort, chairman of the hospital board. The riding, at the time, was Liberal-held. During the election the Conservatives took control of the riding and, last Tuesday, the provincial government decided to scrap the previously-approved renovations. Vandervort does not believe this was a coincidence. If such allegations are true, it raises troubling questions about the provincial government’s failure to fairly and equally represent all of its constituents. The full story can be read here.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in BC Supreme Court by lawyers representing a former Nanaimo, BC RCMP officer alleging sexual harassment against her employer. Janet Merlo claims she was subject to 20 years of sexual harassment while part of the force, including sexual pranks and comments by male supervisors.
Lawyers that filed the suit are now awaiting certification by a judge that the lawsuit is a class action (a process that could take up to two years). The suit follows the widespread allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in the RCMP that became public last fall, and is among the latest stories of unaccountability and discrimination having to do with the RCMP.
More information about the lawsuit can be found here. The notice of civil claim can be found here.
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
Recently, a prominent UK Cardinal, Keith O’Brien, publicly lashed out at nations that have legalized gay marriage – such as Canada – declaring, among other things, that such nations are “shaming themselves.” Oddly, the Cardinal was not only using Catholic dogma to preach his views. He based his arguments on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where, in his view, marriage is defined as “a relationship between man and woman.” These comments come at a time when a debate over gay marriage is raging in the UK, which currently permits civil unions between homosexuals but not marriage. Read more here.
One might ask: If this universal statement of human rights can be used to deny civil liberties to homosexuals and promote inequality, is it serving its purpose?
Le ministre fédéral de l’immigration Jason Kenney a déposé au mois de février dernier le projet de loi omnibus C-31. Celui-ci vise selon le ministre à «protéger le système d’immigration canadien». En fait, cette réforme aura plutôt pour effet de désavantager les ressortissants de certains pays dans le processus pour obtenir le statut de réfugié. Ainsi, le gouvernement prétend s’attaquer aux demandeurs d’asile illégitimes comme les demandeurs d’asile européen qui, selon le ministre, n’ont pas besoin de la protection du Canada puisqu’ils résident dans des pays «démocratiques et sûrs». Cette réforme affecte particulièrement les Roms, des gitans victimes de discrimination et d’actes de violence dans leur pays d’origine, la Croatie. Selon la directrice du Centre communautaire rom (RCC) de Toronto ces gens ont «cruellement besoin de protection» et cette protection doit provenir de l’extérieur du l’Union Européenne. Plusieurs experts croient que le fait d’établir une liste de pays «sûrs» comporte un risque énorme pour les populations concernés étant donné qu’aucune étude n’a été fait quant à la situation politique et économique qui prévaut dans ces pays.
Source: Le Devoir Samedi 10 et Dimanche 11 mars 2012
SCOTUS may hear Smith v Fields, which involves an Eighth Amendment and Equal Protection Clause challenge to a Wisconsin state law prohibiting the use of public funds for hormonal therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for transgender prison inmates. The United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit upheld the district court’s ruling that the law violated transgender prisoner’s right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. The case has been re-listed.
The issues in the case are:
(1) Whether the Seventh Circuit erred by upholding an injunction against a state law prohibiting the use of public funds to finance sexual reassignment surgery for inmates; and (2) whether the Eighth Amendment requires state prisons to treat gender identity disorder with hormone therapy to make an inmate look more like the opposite gender.
The Seventh Circuit judgment can be found at Bloomberg Law.
The Border Land School Division has told teachers at an Altona, Manitoba school that they must take down small rainbow-coloured signs from classroom walls that promote tolerance of gay and transgendered youth. The signs were put up by teachers in some grade 4 to 6 classrooms in the fall. While school officials reportedly initially backed the teachers, complaints from some parents seem to have prompted this changed stance. The school division has said that different anti-bullying signs will be posted in the school instead.
See the story as reported by the Winnipeg Free Press.
EDIT: Here is the story as posted by a local paper, The Red River Valley Echo. The issue is more fully elaborated, including response from the Border Land School Division Superintendent.
Yesterday, during International Women’s Day, local women’s rights groups and their supporters voiced concerns and outrage over a new give-away contest held by Halifax radio station, Q104. The contest, dubbed “The Male is in the Czech”, purports to be giving away a “mail-order bride”. Winners will reportedly be flown to Prague, Czech Republic, to date a “bevy of Czech beauties”. Opponents of the contest note that the “mail-order bride” industry has connections to human trafficking, a reputation for oppression of and extreme violence against women, along with ties to pornography.
In an interview with Chronicle Herald reporter Laura Warren, Laurie Ehler, executive director of Bryrony House, a shelter for abused women and children in Halifax, said of the contest: “It’s quite deplorable… It’s unfortunate that the station is not understanding the bigger systemic issue that this has.”
For a full report on the protests along with further information on the contest itself, please see the Chronicle Herald article by Laura Warren here.
