Monday, May 10, 2010

Since When Are Table Manners Classified a Human Right?

This is a story  that I hadn't heard about until yesterday when Roy Green on his show had touched on it. When I heard about it, it just stuck in my craw. It's senseless and it's just one more reason why the HRCs should be scrapped.

Tasha Kheiriddin has so eloquently put it:
Now table manners are a human right?
From Quebec comes yet another case for why human rights tribunals should be abolished.
A family has just been awarded $17,000 in damages because a lunch monitor tried to instruct their then-seven-year-old son to eat with a knife and fork, instead of with a fork and spoon (the traditional Filipino way of eating).  The monitor allegedly told the boy’s mother that her son “ate like a pig” and the school’s principal told her that her son should “eat like a Canadian”.  The boy was also allegedly punished for clowning around during lunch.
So what did the boy’s family do?  File a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission, natch!  Four years later, despite the Commission initially rejecting the claim for lack of evidence, the Human Rights Tribunal continued to investigate the case and has now issued its ruling, fining the school.
The Vancouver Sun writes: