QUEBEC (CP) - A Montreal community health clinic has come under fire for excluding men from their neonatal classes to accommodate the sensibilities of Muslim, Sihk and Hindu women.
ADQ Leader Mario Dumont said the prohibition exceeds the limits of common sense. He said it's unreasonable that a Quebec taxpayer is barred from joining his pregnant girlfriend at a health clinic because his presence would offend others.
Religious and cultural accommodations in light of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms no longer makes sense, Dumont said ahead of a weekend convention of l'Action democratique du Quebec.
He pointed as well to a suggestion by Montreal police that female officers call male colleagues to avoid offending male Hasidic Jews.
"We are completely moving to misusing the Charter and that is starting to worry me."
Dumont said it's not racist for a majority of citizens to defend their own values.
Quebec and Canada welcome many immigrants. They are treated well, offered the same rights as others and given access to health cards and welfare, Dumont said.
"A society doing that can't be accused of racism," he said.
But in exchange for that generosity, new arrivals should respect the values of the society they are entering.
"Quebec police didn't kidnap anyone in the world to force them to come to Quebec."
and...
Tribunal to rule on guide dog vs. religion (Islam, not just any religion)
A case potentially pitting rights of the disabled against religious beliefs will be heard by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal after a blind man from the North Shore who uses a guide dog to get around launched a complaint against North Shore Taxi.
Bruce Gilmour filed the complaint after a cab driver from North Shore Taxi refused to let his guide dog into the cab in January of this year. Gilmour, who says it's not the first time he's been refused service by a taxicab, is complaining that North Shore taxi discriminated against him on the basis of physical disability.
But the taxi driver, Behzad Saidy, is arguing his Muslim religious beliefs will not allow him to take dogs in his taxi, because Muslims can't associate with dogs.
According to documents filed with the Human Rights Tribunal, North Shore Taxi said about half of their drivers are "unable to take animals in their taxis due to medical or religious reasons."
The taxi company asked the human rights tribunal to toss the case against it out. But tribunal member Lindsay Lyster ruled recently it is important that the case be heard, saying the case presents "important and difficult issues" for the tribunal to resolve including both the rights of blind people to equal services and the rights of employees to have their religious beliefs accommodated.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Exclusion of men from Montreal neonatal clinic beyond common sense: Dumont
2) Tribunal to rule on guide dog vs. religion
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