Wednesday, December 11, 2013

OHRT Reform: Randy Hillier Comes Back Small

From his website:

Randy Hillier, MPP for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, introduced a Bill to reform Human Rights Tribunals in Ontario. This Bill would allow the awarding of costs to the defendants in a Human Rights Tribunal if their defense is successful. Currently only plaintiffs are awarded costs. This is inconsistent with all other courts.

Not necessarily a bad idea, though I think the last two statements are incorrect.  Or at least I'm pretty sure that the B.C. tribunal has ordered costs to the defendant, though I can't find the link, and I'm not entirely sure the OHRT is prevented from doing so.  More important, however, is how far Hillier has come in the past four years.  When he ran for PCPO leader he was going to abolish the Tribunal, which inspired a whole orgy of stupidity from the other potentials, including current leader Tim Hudak prior to the 2011 vote.  Years of touting an unpopular cause seem to have evolved Randy towards something approaching civilized thinking, at least on this issue.  Good news, I suppose.

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