Posts in Family and Gender
The right to what?

A curious story in today's National Post says PEI's Liberal administration will start providing abortions because it doesn't believe it can defeat a court challenge claiming abortion is secretly a Charter right. Frankly it sounds like one more case of politicians using judges as a handy excuse to do something they want to do anyway without the hassle of defending it to voters. Time was ministries felt an obligation to defend existing law in court unless they were willing to stand up in the legislature and urge that it be changed or repealed, which arguably contributed to accountability in government. I'm not sure what was wrong with that system. But there's a deeper question here.

Specifically, how can the Charter mandate abortion so clearly that governments fold like cheap lawn furniture before an activists' challenge when (a) it doesn't mention it (b) many of those who wrote the Charter opposed abortion and would be both astounded and horrified to be told that without realizing they'd secretly written it in?

Alternatively, if it's that obvious, why didn't the brave politicians notice and act on it before the challenge was filed?

This sort of disingenuous legislative-judicial two-step is no way to settle important and contentious questions. Instead, it's one more reason we need a real Constitution, based on popular consent, with a real Charter of Rights that guarantees real rights in plain language even citizens can read and understand, with no invisible ink.

Abortion, Constitution, Family and Gender, Government, Parliament, Politics, Social policyJohn Robson
A stunning ruling

The United States Supreme Court just made a singularly sensible ruling that stun guns are weapons. Duh, what else would they be? Perhaps. But here's the thing. As UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh explains (and by the way I heartily recommend his multi-author blog for the Washington Post, "The Volokh Conspiracy"), what was at issue was a bizarre ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution only protects weapons in wide use in 1789.

Now as Stephen P. Halbrook pointed out more than three decades ago in That Every Man Be Armed, people would be outraged if an American court tried to impose this sort of narrow construction on any other key right. Imagine the outcry, including from Canadians, if an American judge suggested that free speech was limited to the government, as some have claimed the right to arms is limited to state militias, or restricted its application to 18th-century-style hand-cranked printing presses.

By the same token, there's no justification for taking such a view with respect to modern firearms or to "stun guns", often casually referred to by the name of one particular brand, the Taser, which incidentally is an acronym from "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle" from the 10th instalment in the once very popular children's adventure series whose excessive fondness for adverbs accompanying speech acts gave us the "Tom Swifty", of the form "'I'm thirsty,' he said dryly."

There's another point to consider, and one that speaks directly to Canada's incredibly tight restrictions on weapons. The Massachusetts decision in question, COMMONWEALTH v. JAIME CAETANO, involved a woman who was found, in the course of an investigation into shoplifting, to be carrying a stun gun for protection against a violent ex-boyfriend.

Is that so wrong? There is no suggestion that the weapon was used, displayed or mentioned in the alleged shoplifting incident, and if it had been, there are criminal sanctions against armed robbery that would apply. But she did say she'd had to display it to scare off her ex-boyfriend at least once, which sure sounds to me like a socially desirable outcome as well as an action clearly protected by the American Second Amendment.

Now consider that in Canada such devices are prohibited. You just can't have one. Not in your car, not in your purse, not in your house. Only the government can have them.

Why? Does anyone fear a mass tasering leaving dozens dead? Even if you grant the legitimacy of restrictions on certain types of firearms, which I don't, what possible justification exists for forbidding a woman to carry a stun gun for protection against a stalker? To have one in case she is swarmed by hostile men in a public place? Or at least to have one beside her bed in case she wakes up to find an intruder looming over her?

If you can't answer those questions either, stay tuned for our documentary A Right to Arms, where we argue that Canadians' unquestioned historic right to self-defence was sound on utilitarian grounds as well as those of natural law, and should be restored.

Meanwhile, good for the U.S. Supreme Court. They've given the Massachusetts court orders to try again, but with a pretty clear warning that it better come back with a more sensible ruling.

Constitution, Crime, Family and Gender, Freedom of speech, Government, History, Science & Technology, Social policy, United StatesJohn Robson
Skirting the issue

A strange juxtaposition of stories on the front page of today’s National Post. One alleges “a growing outcry over ‘sexualized’ dress codes in the workplace” led by government apparatchiks talking to journalists interviewing sociology professors. The burning human rights issue is women wearing skirts and men wearing pants while working in restaurants. And the solution is men wearing skirts. No. Just kidding about the last part. The solution is of course women wearing pants because men are the template for human beings and “Why can’t a women be more like a man?” is the battle cry of feminism. On the same page we read that Justin Trudeau is… hold me, I’m dizzy… visiting Washington where he will host a reception to which someone has invited the “Grammy-winning Toronto artist” The Weeknd whose “morose blend of profanity, sexism and proscribed behaviour will add to the impression that Canada has changed; that this is not the boring little brother in the attic bedroom Americans have grown complacent living alongside.” So suddenly profanity, sexism and proscribed behaviour make you cool instead of a threat to social justice?

Apparently so. If a woman wears a skirt it’s traumatic, patriarchal and oppressive. But when you sing about… OK. This is awkward. In order to explain the problem here I actually have to quote some of the incredibly obscene, disgusting lyrics that have made this person a star and secured him an invitation to meet with Canada’s Prime Minister. I’d rather not, and if you’re willing to take my word for it don’t read on. But the weirdness, even horror of the juxtaposition of the two stories is precisely that the usual suspects are having PC conniptions about skirts. Yet when this guy sings about… you are warned and here we go… “f**ing b**ches” and “she ride it like a f**ing pony” and “We don't need no protection” and “Let me see that ***/ Look at all this cash/ And I emptied out my cards too/ Now I'm f**king leaning on that/ Bring your love baby I could bring my shame/ Bring the drugs baby I could bring my pain” (do not see the site http://www.azlyrics.com/w/weeknd.html for these and more, without the asterisks, if you have anything resembling good taste) he’s proof that Canada is cool and gets to hang with PM Selfie instead of facing the Ontario Human Rights Commission complaint that might loom if you said dresses look elegant on women but silly on men.

Oh well. I guess it’s all this progress we’ve been having lately.

Arts & culture, Family and Gender, PoliticsJohn Robson