Monday, February 07, 2011

Sorry, Philosophical Ideology is Not on the List

The Legislative assembly was having a debate this morning about Bill C-389, which is the private member's bill that suggests the terms "Gender Identity or Expression" should be added to the list of things we are not allowed to discriminate against a person because of.

Despite some weak and sad objections about how this will turn everyone gay and cause complete societal breakdown, the plan to add it is pretty solid. Transgendered individuals, as one MP pointed out, are in danger of discrimination, harassment, or even assault, by people that can not seem to expand their world view past a few  micrometers. If adding an amendment can help alleviate even a little bit of this discomfort in the lives of people who already have a lot of difficulty, carry on.

The bit I fail to understand is the precise wording of the discrimination ruling. It suggests pretty clearly that you are allowed to discriminate against people unless your motivation for doing so is one of the privileged reasons they outline. Imagine if we applied this principle to other areas of law: You may not kill anyone for these reasons;  no-one shall speed because they are late or pregnant; no donations of more than $500 shall be made to a political party in the hopes of bribing them. It seems a strange direction to approach prohibition from; permissive with exceptions.

Anyway, I scheduled sometime to be sick today (3pm to 8pm), but I am still being shoved onto the trucks to work for my wage tonight, so wish me luck!

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