Friday, June 05, 2009

Are Whites-Only Signs part of the Conservative vision for Ontario?


According to leadership candidate Frank Klees, apparently yes. He has introduced a private members bill (which you can see here) that would remove the prohibition of such signs from the Ontario Human Rights Code. If there could be any doubt as to what Klees intends to do, it is dispelled by the explanatory note he adds to the bill:
The Bill repeals section 13 of the Human Rights Code which prohibits a person from publishing or displaying before the public material that indicates the intention of the person to infringe a right under Part I of the Code.

Section 13 of the Code has a chilling effect on freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is a core value of democracy from which all other rights naturally flow and without which our political system would perish.
There is, of course, a lot of room for debate about what limits, if any, should exist in regards to freedom of expression. But when it comes to any chilling effect of "Whites Only" signs, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would say "Chill away".