Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Manitoba - New Potential Looney Bin of Canada

Leadership Candidate Pledges To Go Down Weary UK Road

Manitoba NDP Leadership candidate Steve Ashton has pledged to bring in the Dignity Act if he becomes party leader and therefor Premier of the province.

The Winnipeg Sun reported it here.

He wants racist or other derogatory comments or behaviour to be an offence.

He said:

"I want to see Manitoba become a model for human rights," Ashton said. "We want a zero tolerance approach to racism and other forms of discrimination."

Ashton, who is totally out of touch with reality said he wants the bill to be based on the British Race Relations Act, which is a cause of great turmoil in the UK.

Although he is still working on the details, he said in a press release that it would:

"make employers, governments, unions, organizations and individuals in positions of authority responsible for promoting equality and improving race relations by eliminating unlawful discrimination, promoting equality of opportunity and promoting positive relations between people of different racial groups. The bill will also ensure similar provisions for gender and sexual orientation."

Mr. Ashton wants to go "one step further" than existing laws like the Manitoba Human Rights Code and the hate crime provisions of the Criminal Code, since Manitoba does not currently have a "likely to expose to hatred or contempt" clause like the one that is currently being struck down at the Canada HRC, and will fall in Alberta after the Boissoin decision.

As Mr. Ashton says:

"It's common sense. It's when you're inciting racial hatred, that will be the legal test," Ashton said. "The key to the future is getting along, working together, and putting aside some of the things we've seen in the past."

"I want to make sure we nip it in the bud."

I hope someone nips him in the bud. But, Mr. Ashton can be forgiven for his political posturing. He has been away for the last while camping out in the woods, I assume, away from contact with other human beings.

I am waiting for someone to put a test together for "likely to expose to hatred or contempt". If they can do that, then his "inciting racial hatred" should be a piece of cake. Apparently the black flies in Manitoba, where Mr. Ashton must have been camping carry some dread disease that addles the brain.

We have nuts on the left coast, and nuts in Ontario, some pretty wacky behaviour in La Belle Province, and now, looniness coming from Manitoba.

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