Election win by Conservatives puts issue to rest but for how long?

Alison Redford, Alberta Premier on the phone jubilant at election win(photo credit - Todd Korol / Reuters)

Against the odds and Canada’s top pollsters and media predictions, Conservative Alison Redford has won a decided victory in Alberta’s provincial election.

Canadian human rights advocates can breathe a sigh of relief that Wildrose didn’t take the government. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith announced plans to close down Alberta’s Human Rights Commission, replacing it with a branch of the court system to weed out “frivolous” human rights complaints.  With the threats to human rights activists, including groups that support women’s rights, by the Federal government, the Wildrose platform was sending a chill into the Canadian landscape.

Conservative Alison Redford won 44% of the popular vote taking her party to victory with 62 seats to the Wildrose Party’s 17. The NDP and Liberals won 4 seats each.

As the Premier of Alberta, Canada’s current economic engine, Redford carries the big stick in Canadian politics for the next four years.

The media had predicted a neck and neck race with the ultra right-wing Wildrose party but the Conservatives proved them wrong.

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, shuttering Alberta's Human Rights Commission was on the election platform (photo credit CTV)

Who would decide what’s a reasonable human rights complaint under a Wildrose government? The government will decide who can make a complaint. “Standards will be stricter,” says the Wildrose platform.

“Over the last 20 years, the Human Rights Commissions in Alberta have probably been the single worst offender of Rights: i.e. freedom of speech; politically correct activists have used them to punish religious and right-wing social commentators. Even when found not guilty, its expensive and time-consuming.”

“The commissions have proven that they can’t be trusted to do the job. We need to resolve these issues in real courts, with real judges and rules of evidence
We’ll replace the Human Rights Commission with a new Human Rights Division of the Provincial Court of Alberta, which will adjudicate all human rights complaints”

Aritho Amfoubalela, racial discrimination at French school board (photo credit CBC)

Those statements pander to the worst bigotry in the Canadian psyche. Discrimination against minorities is just below the surface in Canada.  The PEI Human Rights Commission just settled a case of racial discrimination against a black teacher who was forced out of his job by a French language school board. That’s ironic: the French in PEI are a Constitutionally protected minority and they didn’t seem to want a French but black teacher in their community.

Alberta has been a laggard in Canadian Human Rights. At one point Premier Klein openly opposed Canada’s acceptance of gay marriage. Wildrose is known for having a few bigots and racists in its midst. “Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith has offered her staunchest defence yet of two candidates whose race-based comments and anti-gay writings have seized the agenda during the last week of a pitched Alberta election campaign.” Huffington Post

Wildrose’s platform on human rights appealed directly to the right-wing who don’t like progressive moves in society. Human rights protect the minorities against the majority. Human Rights Commissions provide a way to adjudicate human rights issues. Since the complainant’s can proceed without a lawyer, although not always recommended, it make access possible when the victims don’t have money.

Human Rights is a modern concept of western democracy that arose from the ashes of World War II and the Nazi atrocities against Jews, political dissidents, gypsies and other European minorities. When the Nazi government convinced the population that Jews and others were a problem, their elimination by any means became the law.

The United Nations Human Rights declaration stated that all people are equal and should be treated equally under the law. The progress we have made in the 60 years since 1948 is amazing but it didn’t happen overnight and and without firm resistance from the majority.

Majorities can also be the source of minority discrimination. Danielle Smith’s ability to run for election as a woman is a right that was hard-won against male dominated political resistance.

Alison MacKinnon, fired when she got pregnant (photo credit CBC)

That may seem like an old battle, long won, but PEI just had a case of a female employee fired for being pregnant. The Human Rights Commission investigated and ruled in her favor.(MacKinnon v Inn on the Hill) She was fired the day she told her employer she was pregnant. The Human Rights Commission didn’t believe the employer was going to dismiss her anyway.

We all benefit from fair treatment of minorities whether they are our family members, our neighbors and friends. Human Rights protects Canadians with disabilities (1 in 7 Canadians), women (1 in 2), ethnic minorities (1 in 3), visible minorities (1 in 6), of different religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political belief.

When the government can decide whose human rights are important to protect and whose are frivolous, we start moving backward. Let’s say the majority in a Province decide that any given minority can be abused. Round them up, put them in a prison camp. Starve them in the name of the majority and send them to oblivion.

It happens every day in repressive countries around the world when people in power decide they don’t like a certain segment of society. In Rwanda the majority committed genocide in plain view of Canadian peacekeepers.

I’m not saying Human Rights Commissions are perfect. But they are more accessible than the regular court system and are Canada’s only way to make sure the rights and freedoms of the Canadian Charter are enforced.