Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law

For over fifteen years, there has been a growing dissatisfaction with the human rights process in Ontario.  This dissatisfaction has been expressed by members of equity seeking communities, by human rights advocates and by lawyers practicing in the area of human rights. During that time, there have been four government-initiated reviews of human rights enforcement systems in Canada, one specifically directed at the Ontario legislation, one dealing with the very similar federal human rights complaint system, and two reviewing the systems in other provinces. Despite the fact that each of these reviews made very similar recommendations for reform of the human rights complaint process, to date no major reform has been undertaken in Ontario. That is, until now.

Cross-posted from www.NewMajority.com (first published July 31, 2009)

The Middle East dispute may seem interminable, but its shadow conflict – the one being waged on university campuses – appears every bit as complex and insoluble.

The latest round in Canada involves Hassan Diab, an Ottawa-based lecturer who for a number of years has had a part time appointment teaching Introduction to Sociology at Carleton University’s summer program. French authorities have asked for his extradition from Canada, accusing him of being the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist that blew up a Paris synagogue in 1980. Four people died in the bombing on Rue Copernic, and the incident signaled a wave of attacks against Jewish targets that brought the ongoing Israeli-Arab fight home to European Jews in a startlingly new way.

One of the most unexpected features of the ongoing revolution in Egypt, a/k/a "the January 25th Youth Movement," is its leadership, or more precisely, its apparent lack of leadership. Accordingly, some have dubbed it the "Facebook" or "Twitter" or more generically, the "Social Media" revolution.  In my view, however, this is not so much a leaderless revolution as it is one with a diffuse leadership.  Certainly, social media and other internet tools of communication enabled this revolution to organize and to reach critical mass.  This structure has not been able, thus far, to transform itself into a formal political interest group capable of managing the transition to a new regime.  As a result, older, more established political groups in Egypt have been given responsibility to negotiate with the regime.  But, what are the political demands of the January 25th Youth Movement?  I was able to find a communique dated February 4 on YouTube in the name of this movement setting forth its political demands.  While I have no way of confirming its accuracy, it has the air of authenticity and is certainly an articulate formulation of what the demands of the movement are, especially in light of what other media has reported. I have set out a translation of this communication below: