Rights and the Courts -- Natives' Rights Trump Rights of TROC, Rights Hierarchy -- Any Rights Trump Religious Practice, Child's & Security Rights

Native Rights Supersede the Rights of The Rest Of Canada

Editorial: Tragedy of the commons Apr. 11, 05

This is excellent.

[. . . . ] Last month, an Alberta Court of Queen's Bench justice overturned the provincial court convictions of five native fishermen found guilty in 2003 of violating the province's fish-conservation regulations. Justice Marsha Erb ruled that natives' treaty rights to fish for food trump provincial conservation efforts, and that all non-native fishing -- sport and commercial -- should be subordinated to native catches.

Like judgments on native hunting and fishing such as Sparrow, Badger, Marshall and Delgamuukw, the recent Alberta decision assumes natives have a special, inborn relationship with the natural world that prevents them from threatening game or fish populations through over-hunting or over-catching. Judge Erb -- who, it is worth noting, was until recently the general counsel of the Tsuu T'ina First Nation in Alberta and a long-time advocate of native causes -- overturned the trial judge's sentences in part because he had failed to consider the "aboriginal perspective," and because, she insisted, "aboriginal people see things differently."

Try saying that about any other group. The whole thing is worth reading.




Lorne Gunter on Rights Hierarchy

Gay? Cool. Christian? Not so much Lorne Gunter, National Post, Apr. 11, 05

Hugh Owen, Chris Kempling, Scott Brockie, Dagmar and Arnost Cepica, and Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic High School -- all of these people and institutions are proof that when religious freedom in Canada runs up against fashionable minority rights, religious freedom always loses.

Despite repeated assurances from politicians and learned experts that neither the Charter nor any other Canadian law threatens the right of Canadians to practice their faiths freely, the truth is far different.

Since the adoption of the Charter 20 years ago, courts -- and the well-financed activist groups that use them to advance their causes -- have established a hierarchy of rights. [. . . . ]

This is excellent. He mounts the evidence -- a must read.





Canadians' Right to Security of the Person

Crime is down? Whose rights triumph when criminals roam the streets with guns?

3 shot on Yonge -- GUNMAN OPENS FIRE AT PACKED CORNER Jason Tchir, April 11, 2005, Toronto Sun

TWO INNOCENT bystanders were shot yesterday when a gunman opened fire on another man on a crowded sidewalk at Yonge and Dundas Sts. "It was terrifying; a shooting on Yonge St. when there are families and hundreds of people everywhere," said Denise Lewis, 35, who was shopping at HMV when the shooting started on Yonge at Gould St. around 4:30 p.m. [. . . . ]

The shooter is described as black, 6-feet and 210 pounds. He had dreadlocks and was wearing a black jacket and black pants.

Whose rights did the court protect in this case? Not the rights of the child! Da Silva causes her baby's death by dehydration, gets 3 years and may be paroled in 6 months?


'Dancing mom' gets 3 years for daughter's death CTV.ca News Staff

[. . . . ] Clara Da Silva, 25, pleaded guilty to manslaughter

[. . . . ] Adriana Da Silva was left alone for 33 hours during a heat wave. The temperature in the apartment rose to 35 degrees Celsius, and she had no food or water.

[. . . . ] Da Silva will be eligible for parole in six months. [. . . . ]

Where was the father? How much did Mark Yetman take responsibility? Or is the planting of the seed the end of it? I get so angry that young people have children they don't want -- considering that any library has all the information necessary to those who do not want a baby. The pursuit of pleasure it seems, trumps inconvenience. This woman is 25 years old. She knew what she was doing, surely.

With this precedent, where does this leave the rights of the child?