Five years ago, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation on the St. Clair River near Sarnia, Ontario made national headlines for their birth rates: between 1999 and 2003, only one third of babies born in the community were male. From 1995-2003, the male birth rate was still only 41% according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. The reason? Aamjiwnaang reserve is situated next to one of the most polluted areas in Canada…
Tag: Legal Issues
Tories deserve praise for scrapping “human rights” law
I never expected to say this, but for the first time during Stephen Harper’s reign, I’m happy he has a majority. You see, last week, while we were all focused on Harper’s undemocratic budget bill, the Conservatives were busy strengthening our democracy. Conservatives voted unanimously to repeal section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act with no help from the opposition, save one Liberal…
Bill 78 Denounced as ‘police state stuff’ by McGill professor
In the opening line of his analysis of bill 78, professor Jacob T Levy ( McGill University, political theory professor), makes a puzzling statement about this extreme measure. “Special law is every bit the contradiction in terms that ‘student strike’ is. Emergency decrees and bills of attainder aren’t laws, and I won’t be referring to Bill 78 as a law except in scare quotes.”
Montreal artist Rémy Couture’s trial set to pit artistic freedom against state censorship
How to describe the bizarre case of local artist Rémy Couture? Some in the media seem to have coined a new and disturbing term for it: art crime (also the title of a sympathetic documentary on the subject). You see, arguably, Coutures only ‘crime’ is that he is pushing the boundaries of good taste with his horrific images of women being dismembered and people being crucified…
The truth about proposed anti-mask laws unmasked!
With all the protesting going on these days, Montreal has become a veritable political theatre for all manner of agitprop and self-expression. Of course, no anti-whatever rally would be complete, these days, without the requisite Guy Fawkes masks, bandanas worn as masks, balaclavas (aka ski masks), etc. What do all of these things have in common? Wearing them may soon be a criminal offense punishable by jail time (up to 5 years!)…
Oasis juice gets slammed by the court of public opinion!
Though a simple copyright infringement case might not seem like the stuff of civil rights, a closer examination of the circumstances in Ms Deborah Kudzman’s legal struggle against the Lassonde Corporation (makers of Oasis fruit juice products) illustrates perfectly how access to justice in our system is definitely rigged in favour of the rich. The facts of this lawsuit may strike you as banal at first blush. Ms. Kudzman was served, back in 2005…
Craig Scott: The NDP’s brand new MP and public intellectual
As a New Democrat, nothing makes me prouder than to hear that the latest edition to the team blew his nearest rival (Gritty Grant Gordon) out of the water, in his resounding victory (nearly twice as many votes!) in Toronto-Danforth’s recent by-election. Jack’s spirit can rest easy knowing that his riding is still in good hands, and that his successor will continue his valuable work there. As a academic constitutional/human rights lawyer I couldn’t be more proud…
Big Tobacco’s Big Mistake
Few corporate so called legal “persons” are as heartless a big tobacco. When it comes to crushing their opponents, there is no low they won’t stoop to in their legal tactics, or, for that matter, their threats of violence towards whistle blowers (see The Insider, a movie about former tobacco company executive Jeffrey Wigand) and others who dare cross them. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprising when they dispatch a army of high priced lawyers to a small claims court in Rimouski Québec with the intention of scaring the shit out of the plaintiff…
NDP’s Pat Martin gets SLAPPed in the face by RackNine
Of the all the absurd recriminations of the past week regarding the now infamous Harper government robocalls situation, my personal favourite was this: RackNine (the hucksters who operated call centres for several Conservative election campaigns, but which is not currently under investigation) is suing Pat Martin and the NDP…
Spanish Judge Garzon Subject of Kafkaesque Trial
People love to invoke the name of Franz Kafka for the slightest fucking absurdity in their lives. Example: I waited in line at the post office for an hour. Then I was told by the clerk that I would have to put my own envelope in the mailbox! WHAT A KAFKAESQUE TWIST OF FATE! In truth, very few situations in our humdrum daily lives would actually make good material for one of this Czech/German/Jewish writer’s novels or short stories…