Rule of Law Courts

For those who are not registered at the Globe and Mail in Canada, today's Canadian Supreme Court story is worth registering for.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Sikh students can carry ceremonial daggers to class and that doing so does not pose a undue danger to others in the schools.

The top court overturned Thursday morning a Quebec Court of Appeals ruling that had barred the kirpan from schools in the province. The Quebec court had said a limit on religious freedom was reasonable, given the safety concerns from carrying the daggers to school.

"Religious tolerance is a very important value of Canadian society," the top court judges wrote in their decision.

"A total prohibition against wearing a kirpan to school undermines the value of this religious symbol and sends students the message that some religious practices do not merit the same protection as others."

If the kirpan is sealed inside clothing the risk of it being used for violent purposes, or being taken away by other students is very low, the judges said. "There are many objects in schools that could be used to commit violent acts and that are much more easily obtained by students, such as scissors, pencils and baseball bats."

Those Canadian pencils must be more lethal than ours.

On a more serious note, the Canadian Supreme Court, appointed by Liberals for decades, relies on reference to international declarations, such as the Rights of Man from the United Nations embodied in the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to usurp and overrule Canadian-made law. This is what Democrat-Socialists -- the two words need to be linked because they are linked in reality -- would like in this country. While the newspapers are spinning this as an issue of "religious freedom," it is, in the words of the court, based on "Canadian values based on multiculturalism." Their reliance in this case on unelected "Human Rights Commissions" in various cities and provinces and the Canadian Human Rights Commission that assures no citizen input shows how far toward Socialism Canadian courts have gone. A look at the commission members is typical of the makeup of human rights commissions throughout Canada. None are elected. None of their decisions are subject to review. Most of their recommendations are accepted without public debate or input. And their effect is enormous. In Canada, random drug testing was "struck down" as an affront to human rights.

Today's Decision

The human rights commissions in Canada are not unique. They are in most American Democrat-Socialist controlled cities. In Los Angeles, a parallel commission on the police serves the same function - to offer politicians "solutions" that would otherwise be politically untenable and would raise public concern or outcry.

The reality of the "human rights" advocacy can be found in the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations where every despot wants to serve to protect themselves against investigation. The reality of United Nations-guaranteed human rights is 800,000 dead in Rwanda and no one is responsible. The reality of human rights is the murder of white farmers in Zimbabwe and necklacing in South Africa and the genocide that's not a genocide in Darfur, murderous rampage by Pol Pot, and the support for terrorist groups like the Tamil Tigers.

When the Equal Rights Amendment was attempted in this country, I was against it. I am against the United Nations declarations of Human Rights for the same reason. My rights are God-given and immutable.