Civil Law, Common Law, and some common sense?

http://www.canada.com/life/Signing+away+individual+freedoms/4181678/story.html

Never having had much interest in politics, administration, academic philosophy or law in my younger years, I was rather surprised at how this article made me mull over some of those big important terms I've always avoided such as: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Constitution, civil law and common law.

Sure, I've always known they're important. But always thought of them as something only truly understood by lawyers, professors and smart people who use big words. It gave me a brief introduction to the history and current standing of the charter, while also spewing out a bit of juicy contriversy over Trudeau's policies around the origins of the human rights commission.

Can "the people" really have confidence in a commission who's goal is to protect human rights from infringement from things like companies, other people, and especially, the government; when this commission was created by the government? How far away is "arms length" really?

On another level, is the commission's current work truly helpful to society at this point? No doubt, they've done some important work. But does it make sense when a commission rules that a 400lb woman was discriminated against because another resident in her 60's with medical injuries refused to give up a parking spot close to the door? The commission ruled that: her neighbours and her condo board had discriminated against her by failing to accommodate her handicap. The commission ordered the neighbour to give the complainent her parking spot. It also ordered the 35 other owners in her complex to get together and pay Ms. Myrand $10,000 for being insufficiently sensitive to her disability.

The author of the article made an intersting point: Sure, the commission solved the dispute. But, is their someone else's responsibility to solve that problem? Or should it really be our own responsilibity first and foremost? It looks at ideas in "Civil law, whereby rights are granted by the state -- unlike in the common law tradition, whereby rights are seen as something natural that pre-existed the state. If you believe the state is the original granter of rights, I suppose it also makes some sense to believe you can put the state in charge of protecting rights."

Hmm..interesting! If the complainent hadn't been able to go to the commission so quickly to solve her problem, would she have been "forced" to find a different compromise? Perhaps something that would be less damaging to human relationships. I can only imagine what the rest of the condo owners feel about their neighbour after being slapped with a fine and then "labelled" as having "discriminated" against their neighbour. Ouch.

So, civil law or common law? Is the commission fundamentally biased and/or a necessity?
Just some food for thought that made me think!

HST Recall Status

It appears that the recall campaign to remove Ida Chong from office has slowed down. It's the last week before the process completes and the last status update, provided a few weeks back, was that only about 8,000 signatures were accounted for in the petition. The petition requires just over 15,000 signatures in order for it to be successful. Since then, the count has been undisclosed and although it may appear unsuccessful at this point, there is still the benefit of the doubt until it is finalized.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Chong+recall+team+tally+deadline+looms/4190407/story.html

NDP Leadership candidates

Happy New Year all! Ok, it's been a good holiday, but I need to get out of this languid mood and back with the watch on what's happening with the NDP leadership race. Below is a list of recent candidates who have emerged and have entered to be the next leader of the NDP. Harry Lali, Dana Larsen, and Nicholas Simons:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/07/bc-ndp-leadership-candidates.html

John Horgan has also announced that he will be joining the competition today:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/John+Horgan+launches+campaign+leadership/4088541/story.html

Also read that the next NDP leader has to be a woman unless a male president or treasurer steps down. This is an NDP gender stipulation that ensures gender equality ought to be represented in the jobs of party leader. This does certainly add to the complexity of how the leadership plays out. Seeing how the current candidates are all male, Moe Sihota, current president or Bob Smit (treasurer) will need to step down and be replaced by a female representative. This would balance the party leadership and meet the gender rule. If a woman is elected though, than Sihota and Smit can remain in their current stead.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/leader+woman+according+obscure+rule/4049617/story.html