Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Lawyers file Occupy complaint with U.N.

A group of Ontario lawyers has filed a submission to the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights protesting against the move by some Canadian cities to evict members of the Occupy Movement.

The move against the occupiers by police and municipal governments is in “violation of the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, peaceful assembly and association,’’ states the brief by the Law Union of Ontario, a coalition of lawyers, law students and legal workers.

Cities are trying “to elevate the enforcement of municipal bylaws related to park use and maintenance above fundamental civil and political rights,’’ according to the submission from the lawyers, which points to occupy protests already dismantled in Halifax, London and Regina, with evictions threatened in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

The brief also takes a swing at the federal government for being supportive of the Arab Spring demonstrators but being “silent as to the Occupy protestors’ fundamental human rights, while municipal governments forcibly remove them and terminate their protests.’’

The lawyers are asking that the United Nations’ special rapporteurs investigate and report any abuses to the U.N.’s Human Rights Council.

Origin
Source: Toronto Star 

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