Rights Commission: Rights Act and Enforcement Officers

rights commission: 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, according to The Chronicle Herald. 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's a quandary that has plagued several jurisdictions that try to proactively stem bullying through legislation before the problem crosses a criminal line. 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. Beyond that, it grants an enforcement officer the power to require a person suspected of bullying to produce identification. It also included creating a negative environment and objectionable or inappropriate comments, but excluded nuisance behaviours. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.