Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Levant's Harassers 'Clean House'

The "human rights" shakedown racket that subjected Ezra Levant to three years of hounding when a sharia-loving Supremo took offense to Levant printing the "blasphemous" Motoons has cleaned house. Sort of. Not really. No, not at all. From the Edmonton Journal via the Vancouver Sun, with my comments in brackets throughout:
EDMONTON — The provincial government has named a new director of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the latest step in an overhaul of the agency designed to speed up and improve the process of dealing with discrimination complaints. (As if the "delay" is the only thing wrong with the Trudeaupian totalitarianism of these "human rights" bodies; as if they don't in and of themselves pose a direct threat to our freedom).

Philippe Rabot, who most recently served in Ottawa as the Commissioner of Review Tribunals for the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Act, was selected to the position following a nationwide search that began in March. (A nationwide seach, huh? Shocking they chose a white male for the job and not, say, an Aboriginal Transgendered parapalegic with a sensitivity to fragrance in the workplace. But I guess the French thing helped.)

His five-year appointment runs until October 2015. (Nice work if you can get it.)

Rabot will serve with David Blair Mason, the longtime judge who has been conducting a review of the agency since being named as chief commissioner last year. (The guy who's the chief commissar is now conducting a review of the joint? In less "human rights"-geared organizations, that's what's known as a blatant conflict of interes. But since he's a "judge" and into "human rights" and all, I guess it's okay.)
A major goal of that review is to streamline the case process so that complaints are resolved quicker. Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett has said he would like to see decisions made within 190 days — the average of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench — rather than the 400 days some commission rulings have taken. (One of the arguments for instituting the parallel "justice" system way back when was that they would speed up the justice process. To say it hasn't exactly worked out that way is the vastest of understatements, and a great argument not to "streamline" them so the shakedown can be--what?--nastier and more intense, but to get rid of them.)
While one of Mason’s main duties is to run the tribunal hearings that result from human rights complaints, Rabot will oversee the day-to-day management of the commission. The vast majority of cases are resolved before they reach the tribunal stage. (They're "resolved" because who on earth wants to go through the hassle of having to go through the next stage of the shakedown--a visit to a star chamber where regular Canadian rules of jurisprudence have been suspended and the "judge" pretty much wings it?)

The province believes Rabot’s experience will help the agency close cases quicker, said Parker Hogan, spokesman for Alberta Culture and Community Spirit. (Can't decide if said ministry sound more Orwellian, Maoist or Kafkaesque. Or maybe--the scariest, most totalitarian place of all in my experience--high school.)

“He has almost a quarter-century of management experience both with the government of Canada and the government of Ontario.” (And that's supposed to be a good thing? I'd feel marginally better about the appointment had he worked in the real world, and had had some experience of the impact the "human rights" nonsense can have on real businesses.)

In addition to Rabot, the province also named four part-time commissioners who will who will (sic) help oversee the tribunals. (Obviously the "human rights" shakedown biz, always and forever a growth industry, is booming, and part-timers are needed to pick up the slack [shudder].)

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