The Petty Tyranny of Human Rights Commissions
July 9, 2007 · By Joel
* TORONTO - Paramount Canada’s Wonderland awarded compensation to a Sikh man after he complained he was discriminated against for refusing to take off his turban and wear a helmet to drive a go-kart.
The amusement park has since asked the provincial regulator to allow it to exempt turban-wearing Sikhs from the helmet requirement, which is standard at go-kart operations throughout the country for insurance purposes.Gurcharan Dran bought tickets for the Speed City Raceway attraction but was not allowed to ride because of a helmet use regulation, the Ontario Human Rights Commission reported last week.
Great choices the Ontario government offers businesses, eh? Damned (by the Human Rights Commission) if you do (enforce helmet laws). Damned (by the regulator) if you don’t.
Nice.
I hope the “payment of an unknown amount” was for the cost of the ticket.
That article is incomplete … what was the tribunal’s ruling? Is it binding? Did they even reach a conclusion?
This is what God created lawyers for.
The human rights commission had no business here, whatsoever, considering it was private business over non-essential services; a go-kart attraction. So what? He couldn’t ride a go-kart. Those public safety regulators are such fascists.
On the subject of Sikhs and their turbans, anyone remember the RCMP uniform controversy. Now maybe there is a way of securing a turban to some officers head so that is won’t come off and all that hair used to tie them in knots, but it seems that in the absence of short hair, prudence would say officers wearing turbans are at a higher risk of injury.
Anyone heard of a Sikh serving on a SWAT team? is it the full kevlar turban for them?
Now I don’t really care that some Mounties get to wear turbans, or not, as it seems to me that they are responsible for the risks incumbent in doing so. I have a real problem when reasonable, non-essential regulations are thrown out for human rights violations.
If we’re going to have human rights commissions, and I don’t think we should, then at least they stop wasting time by appeasing all the whiners.
Remember the human rights complaints against Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary for comments he made about homosexuality?