hrc's* - canadian freedom's no.1 enemy

*hrc's: Human Rights Commissions

ONTARIO

From an August 18/08 National Post article.

"If the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) gets its way, Ontario's doctors will soon be stripped of their right to follow their moral convictions or religious beliefs when treating patients. In other words, doctors will risk losing their licenses if they run afoul of Ontario's human rights police.

If, out of moral conviction, they refuse to perform abortions, refer patients for abortions or prescribe morning-after and birth control pills, or if they refuse to help same-sex couples conceive children, their own governing body will take away their right to practice medicine.

- read entire Forcing our doctors' hands.

From an August 23/08 National Post article:

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario recently released a draft document on a potential new code of conduct for physicians.

Among other things, it states physicians will have to set aside personal beliefs "to ensure that patients or potential patients are provided with the medical services they require." It also said doctors who restrict medical service based on moral or religious beliefs may contravene the Human Rights Code and could be committing professional misconduct....

Don Hutchinson, legal counsel for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said he believes the proposed document was heavily influenced by a letter sent in February this year to the college from the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

In it, the commission said it has concerns that the "religious or moral beliefs of health-care providers can have a discriminatory impacts on [Human Rights] Code rights relating to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status and disability, among others."

It goes on to advise the college that the protection of one right cannot "be based on the total disregard of another."

"While the expression of their religious beliefs is essential for religious officials in the performance of their duties, secular service providers cannot claim that the performance of their job function is an expression of their deeply held religious beliefs."

- read entire OMA fears intrusion into MD's beliefs.

From a September 2/08 National Post article:

Will Ontario doctors be forced to ignore personal beliefs just to please a pompous human rights commission?

The sheer arrogance of human rights commissions will be their downfall (let's hope - and may they fall soon!!): their conviction that they have a superior understanding of rights compared to anyone else and that once they have pronounced how rights shall be interpreted, the rest of us should fall in lockstep with smiles on our faces and cheery tunes on our tongues, content that our intellectual betters have shown us the error of our ways and revealed the path to true enlightenment.

- read entire A handmaid's tale.

SASKATCHEWAN

From a September 2/08 National Post article:

Should a man be forced to pay $17,500 to four individuals who felt offended by the flyers he distributed?

[...] Like the human rights complaints against Maclean's magazine for having published excerpts from Mark Steyn's book America Alone, this case pits Canadians' historic right to freedom of expression against human rights legislation that attempts to prevent hurt feelings.

- read entire There's no monopoly on truth.

Welcome to Canada where political correctness is the greatest virtue - no, it's the only virtue.