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Enforcement Officers: Rights Act

enforcement officers: A proposed bylaw intended to curtail bullying in Whitehorse has rights experts worried it could end up increasing carding of Indigenous people and curtailing freedom of expression, according to Toronto Star. Rhiannon Russell Russell Knutson, chair of the Yukon Human Rights Commission, said the proposed bylaw appears to trample on both the Constitution and the Canadian Human Rights Act. It's a quandary that has plagued several jurisdictions that try to proactively stem bullying through legislation before the problem crosses a criminal line. If a bully is defined too broadly and the powers of discretion that are in the hands of enforcement officers are too broad, then you set yourself up for the potential of conflict, Knutson said. It also included creating a negative environment and objectionable or inappropriate comments, but excluded nuisance behaviours. The first draft of the bylaw defined bullying behaviour as repeated behaviour intended to cause, or that should have been known to cause, fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress or other forms of harm to another person. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.