Photo: flickr/ Joelle Hatem

On some occasions, there is an Alberta Human Rights Tribunal (AHRT) case where the respondent may have been far better off settling the complaint in private, instead of steadfastly denying discrimination occurred, or refusing to settle even after an investigation, thereby experiencing what should be embarrassing publicity inherent in a reported AHRT decision against them. This may be one of those cases. The Director of the Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC) had carriage of the complaint before the AHRT (at para 6), which indicates that the AHRC had previously determined that the complaint had merit and that the parties were unable to settle or unwilling to accept the terms of a proposed settlement.

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Photo: flickr/ The UpTake

Across Canada we have seen many developments in GLBT rights in the past few years. With the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, we might have thought that true equality for same-sex families had been reached. However, some of our provincial family laws have not kept up to these legal changes. In particular, in some provinces, when married gay or lesbian partners have a child, the non-birth parent(s) must legally adopt the child before they have any status as parents.

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Photo: flickr/Daniel Arauz

The Court in R v Canadian Broadcasting Corporation allows the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to maintain pre-publication ban articles on the web, thus allowing access to the identity of a deceased child victim. One of the major purposes of a publication ban is to protect a child victim’s privacy and thereby ensure future victims will come forward with the assurance of anonymity. This case demonstrates that freedom of expression of the media can take priority over a victim’s privacy rights. The case also demonstrates the lack of policy and legal authority dealing with web-based material, the transmission of information, victim’s privacy, and publication bans.

 

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Photo: flickr/Government of Alberta

There are a number of ABlawg posts dealing with the issue of whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) applies to universities (see: Face-ing the Charter’s Application on University Campuses; University Campus is not Charter-Free; Freedom of Expression, Universities and Anti-Choice Protests). Many of these decisions involve freedom of expression, which is considered to be a very important element of university life (e.g., for academic freedom, free discussion and debate of ideas). Recently, I posted about a case involving the University of Victoria (see Does the Charter Apply to Universities? Pridgen Distinguished in U Vic Case) in which the British Columbia Supreme Court did not follow the judgment of Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Paperny in Pridgen v University of Calgary, 2012 ABCA 139. Although the case law synthesized by Justice Paperny was not determinative in Pridgen, her judgment provides an excellent, logical synthesis of how the precedents on the application of the Charter should be applied in various contexts, including universities. This post discusses the BCCA decision on the University of Victoria case.

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Photo: flickr/Privacy Online

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c. F-25 (“FOIPPA”, or “the Act”) outlines the obligations of a public body to provide access to records, including access to your own personal information. The overall purpose of the Act (s 2) is to balance our right to access records in the custody and control of public bodies, like the City, with protecting the privacy of individuals by controlling the manner in which public bodies collect, use and disclose personal information. Although there are exceptions to accessing records, these are limited, and interpretation of the Act should be made with the goal of maximum disclosure. As citizens, we have a right to know what information about ourselves is being held by a public body. For example, if someone is making a complaint about us we have a right to know the details so we can defend ourselves. Disclosure by the public body allows citizens to participate in decisions in a more informed and meaningful way.

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Photo: flickr/Stephanie Watson

From time to time, concerns are expressed about the length of time human rights complaints take to resolve. There are some circumstances where resolution of these cases does seem to take too long. Unfortunately, those who criticize the existence of human rights commissions often take these occasional delayed cases as opportunities to add fuel to their calls for elimination. However, an examination of the circumstances surrounding the delays, which only occur in a small fraction of human rights cases, helps to assess possible alternative solutions.

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Photo: flickr/Freedom House

Canada fulfilled its commitment of providing humanitarian assistance to 25 thousand Syrian refugees in March 2016. This provides an opportunity to examine Canada’s actions to address the crisis in the context of the country’s legal obligations for the protection of refugees. This post suggests further measures to address refugee resettlement more effectively.

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Photo: flickr/ David Bleasdale

This blog post has been reposted with permission from www.ablawg.ca

In an earlier post with Jason Wai, we discussed the decision of the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal (AHRT), in which Mr. Ladislav Mihaly succeeded in arguing that the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) discriminated against him on the grounds of place of origin, when it refused to recognize his education as the equivalent of an engineering degree from an accredited Canadian University, and by requiring him to write certain examinations to confirm his credentials. The AHRT also concluded that APEGA could not justify its registration requirements. Thus, Mihaly was successful in his claim of discrimination and was awarded $10,000 for injury to dignity. The AHRT declined to award lost wages to Mihaly.

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Photo: flickr/Martin Deutsch

The Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act came into force on June 1, 2013. Although the idea of having legislation in Alberta was generally well received, the Whistleblower Protection Act was critiqued as being inadequate and partial. Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre (ACLRC) has gathered the research and commentary on this legislation and has set out the suggestions for amendments to make this Act more effective.

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