TaichungCanuck Says:
February 10, 2010 at 5:02 pm
According to the article, the complainant weighs 389 lbs, has diabetes, is in a wheelchair, and needs an oxygen tank to breathe.The real question here is: Should she even be driving?
Canada: Where Parking Is A Human Right
February 10, 2010 — Adrian MacNair
Not to invite a human rights complaint of my own here, but wouldn’t walking a few extra metres to the front door help with the whole morbid obesity problem?
MONTREAL — A morbidly obese Quebec woman with various health problems has won her legal fight for a better parking spot.In the decision the Tribunal ordered Jocelyne Nolet, already in her sixties and also disabled, to give up her parking spot. In its ruling, the tribunal noted that the Quebec Charter of Rights gives everyone equal rights “without distinction, exclusion or preference.” So now we know that being morbidly obese is a guarantor of a good parking spot as being an inherent “human right”, and not just a courtesy as we previously believed.
Not only has Marise Myrand won that parking upgrade outside her condominium, but her condo association has also been slapped with a $10,000 penalty for refusing her request.
The move came in a precedent-setting ruling distributed Wednesday by a tribunal of the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
The 57-year-old resident of Sainte-Marie, Que., weighs 389 lbs., suffers from diabetes, needs a wheelchair, and gets help breathing from an oxygen tank.
February 10, 2010 at 4:29 pm Funnily enough, this sort of thing is what the “human rights” commissions and tribunals were supposed to be doing in the first place. They were intended to settle minor disputes and reconcile the parties involved without full fledge lawsuits. It was only later that they got bored with this and decided that it was more interesting attack magazines and columnists.
Although I’m not sure how a $10,000 fine works with the whole “reconciliation” angle.
February 10, 2010 at 4:36 pm Is funnily a word? Damn, apparently it is!
February 10, 2010 at 5:02 pm According to the article, the complainant weighs 389 lbs, has diabetes, is in a wheelchair, and needs an oxygen tank to breathe.
The real question here is: Should she even be driving?
February 10, 2010 at 5:44 pm The Quebec Charter of Rights might give everyone equal rights – “without distinction, exclusion or preference.” as noted by the tribunal, but it does not give the tribunal the right to make such distinction, exclusion or preference either.
If Ms. Myrand was renting the contested parking spot before Ms. Myrand asked for it (as seems to be the case), the tribunal is making a distinction between Ms. Nolet and Ms. Myrand, and it is excluding Ms. Nolet to make a preference for Ms. Myrand.
So to fix one woman’s problem, the tribunal discriminates against another? Outrageous! I hope the decision is appealed.
February 10, 2010 at 5:55 pm I am confused. If the ruling stated that the Quebec Charter of Rights gives everyone equal rights “without distinction, exclusion or preference.” did they just rule that handicapped parking spots are illegal in Quebec?
February 10, 2010 at 6:02 pm Sure, in the human rights commissions universe, everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.
February 10, 2010 at 7:16 pm It is a distinct society after all.