Here’s some odds and sods:
I’ve been working on my webpage, catalystbc.ca
I’m doing it myself and believe me, it’s been frustrating (so don’t mind the bugs still). But I consider it a personal challenge to DIY. I’ve made several web pages through the years, generally just using easy editors, like Geocities or Netscape Composer. There is something exciting and innovative to me to be able to design, envision and create a page that tells the world who I am (a little anyways) and what Catalyst Enterprises BC has to offer.
It’s interesting for me to reflect on how technology took root in my life. I started out completely out to lunch in high school. I’m not ashamed to say I used my feminine charm and friendliness to get some smart fellow student to help me get up to speed. I remember making some sort of program that had a snowman appear, with falling snow. How impressive, eh? Hahaha. Oh heavens, when you think of the ways young people use technology today it’s just laughable.
Next on my technology path I got into local bulletin boards. All of a sudden, this whole network of people were connected around the Lower Mainland. Geek that I am, I pretty much just played an online trivia game. It was fun though, I got to use my brain, create an online alias (Avalon). It also was my first and last taste of online dating too. ;-}
Later as I embarked on my academic career again (university) I upgraded when the Internet exploded and I guess I’ve been a global citizen since. I’ve taught myself pretty much everything on my own, a lot of hours in front of the box learning basic programming, design and a whole bunch of stuff. I’ve completed my education online, and been part of cutting edge innovation and transformation of online programming and culture.
For an information, media & current affairs aficionado, the Internet is an essential thing for me now. It’s just staggering to think that in such a short span of time really, computers have been so fully ensconced in our daily lives, as common as a telephone and cell phone. It is my way of communicating with many, through e-mail, participatory media, blogs, my web page and it’s now part of my business.
Here’s an interesting human rights case being heard by the BC Human Rights Tribunal about a story that appeared in MacLean’s in October 2006: “The future belongs to Islam.” The complainants argue that Mark Steyn, in his story in MacLeans was is in violation of Section 7(1) of the BC Human Rights Code, which states:
Discriminatory publication
7.(1) A person must not publish, issue or display, or cause to be published, issued or displayed, any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that
(a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a group or class of persons, or
(b) is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred or contempt because of the race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation or age of that person or that group or class of persons.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a private communication, a communication intended to be private or a communication related to an activity otherwise permitted by this Code.
Lawyers for Maclean's will argue that publication of the article is part of free speech and open debate, that this isn’t a case of inciting hatred or contempt for anyone.
I always love a good free speech and human rights test of wills. I think this kind of thing reminds me that Canada still takes an interest in a modern discourse about community standards and values, about the power of the media to inform, to bring opinions and perspectives that may be offensive to others within a framework of free speech that is expressed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that makes Canada still a leader in setting out our rights of citizenship, no matter that those are changed over time. The beauty of the law is that it is ever evolving and new cases come along that change where the bar is set, and how we understand our rights and citizenship and expectations of others.
And, on the themes of technology and innovation, Andrew Coyne, editor of MacLean’s is live blogging from the Tribunal. I see in Day 2 Mr. Coyne has already discovered that the BCHRT is an interesting “quasi-judicial” forum, which sometimes pretty much makes things up as they go. This is something that Labourwatch wrote an interesting article, Rebel Workers, about the messy attempt to unionize the foreign workers brought over to help drill the new skytrain line, which ended up at the Labour Relations Board and the BCHRT over the certification. Coyne’s reporting promises to be an informative and public examination of the Tribunal process and decision-making.
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B.C. tribunal hears complaint against Maclean's article
CBC News. Monday, June 2, 2008
CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS & FREEDOMS
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS.
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
Summary of the Human Rights Complaint against Steyn and MacLean’s’ at http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2007/04/c7400.html
