Miscarriges of Justice to face an overhaul?

Another case of an overturned conviction exonerated by DNA evidence in Ontario. Anthony HANEMEYER spent 2 years in jail before being cleared of a rape charge on the basis of DNA evidence but because he plead guilty in during a plea bargaining arrangement negotiated by his lawyer - he can not recieve compensation from the province.

Two issues arise - say critics:

• The general position of the crown  and police is that they do not make mistakes and anyone who criticis's this does not understand what the job entails, hence anyone seeking to have a wrongful conviction must fight the "crown culture".

• It appears there is a basic conflict in that the same department (Crown Counsel within Justice) prosecutes criminal convictions, then reviews the sentence if it appears there is a wrongful conviction and then determines compensation.    Although the Criminal Conviction Review Group is a separate group within the Justice there has been some discussion if that Canada should follow the UK model and have an independent agency conduct both reviews and determine compensation.  

Four different judges have conducted inquiries over the past 2 years and recommended an independent review agency, similar to what exists in the UK.   Currently the only other group to independently represent the interests of such cases are the group Defense of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC).

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Quebec Human Rights Decision - give-up your parking spot, or else!

Wow - another Human Rights decision that guaranatee's their reformation.

In Quebec, an obese new condo owner - Marise Myrand - wanted a parking stall as close to the front door of her condo building as possible in order to accommodate her over-weight medical condition.  She asked the condo association to give her one but they refused and so she took them to the Human Rights Commission for their failure to accomodate her handicap.  The Commission ruled that the condo board must give Ms. Myrand  the best parking spot and pay a $10,000 fine.

Another example of the government legislating good behaviour.  As Lorne Gunter puts it: 

What the Quebec commission is doing is institutionalizing absolute selfishness. People from favoured groups must get everything they want, otherwise those they are complaining against are guilty of discrimination.

Pierre-Yves Bourdeau, the Quebec government lawyer who represented Ms. Myrand, told reporters, “When you live in condo co-ownership … you’re obliged to help people with physical disabilities.”

No you’re not. A condo is not a commune.

I'll bet this is overturned on appeal to the Superior Court (after a $50,000 legal bill).

Affirmative Apartheid

I couldn't think of a better way to say it.  Under our constitution Aboriginals are able to determine who is considered "native" in order to determine who can live tax & cost-free on reserves.  Until last year the CHRC did not extend to Aboriginal Government.  I'm not sure the policy is all that wrong as I feel the aboriginal reserves are a hold over from settlers treaty's and have created a ghetto of poverty. Any capable and industrious person who wants to raise their families would be better off to leave these circumstances behind if possible.

Maybe Chief Sitting-Bull was right to resist the idea at Wounded Knee in 1890.

Riding Association Follies - The Trojan Horse gambit

There have been a few public bumps in the road for Rob Anders in Calgary recently.    First this article appeared sharply critical of his performance.   Then this editorial comment from a blog by an NDP hack John Baglow - was published.   To be honest, I thought it did shed quite a bit of useful, bright light on the whole topic of Riding takeovers.

The next installment was here in the Calgary Herald, explaining that the whole Constituency Association has quit in protest over heavy handed interference by the party's National Council.  The final installment from the National Post is here.

From this it should be clear -  Ms. Donna Kennedy-Glans is not a Conservative of my liking.  As to "protecting" sitting candidates - I am in favour of it unless or until something merits "recall'. 

He's fended off powerful challengers to his nomination, including Alberta's future justice minister [Alison REDFORD - a feminist liberal in PC clothing if there ever was one], and to his election, including Calgary's future mayor [Bronco], his victory margin growing throughout. Tories in Ottawa are happy to leave him holding the Calgary-West fort, and the party has policies that help protect sitting MPs like him from enduring constant nomination battles in their ridings.

But if the 17 Board members who quit are many of the people who opposed Mr. Anders are the same names that formed former opponent Mr. Hawkes's final, failed election team, that is an unnecessary coup.  The dead giveaway, Kennedy-Glans refused  comment on the "Harper proroguing decision" - she's a Liberal.

Ref:  BigCityLib.

Moral Blindness of the Human Rights Industry

Melanie Phillips in the UK has become one of my favourite columnists recently (but not yet near Barbara Kay).

And this article struck a chord that had been played by Ezra LEVANT.

The civil war in Congo, Krystof writes, has claimed almost seven million lives over the last dozen years.  [And yet] Neither Amnesty nor HRW has issued a single press release or report on Congo so far this year, according to their web sites.

This was the "moral calculus" that explained it:

Since countries of the third world did not subscribe to western cultural norms of respect for human life, they said, we in the west could not judge such countries’ behaviour by those norms. To do so would be an act of cultural imperialism. But since Israel did subscribe to those norms, it was accordingly judged by them; indeed, they added, since the Jews claimed superior standards to the rest of humanity, they needed to be judged by higher standards than those applied to the rest of the human race.

In a comment post, reference was made to this (warning, satire ahead):

UN Streamlines Decision-making by Dumping Democracies

The Green Police

Very funny.