Box 332,

Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3

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Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director

The Editor,

The Globe and Mail.

Dear Sir:

 Re: “Ottawa football club agrees to drop Redskin name”(Globe and Mail, September 21, 2013).

Whatever use they might have served in the distant past, human rights commissions have outlived their purpose. They provide privileged minorities a tool to harass and blackmail the majority. In a move that may well cost $100,000, the Nepean Redskins will change their name. One Ottawa Indian, musician Ian Campeau, found the name “offensive” and, when the team wouldn’t budge, filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

 It cost him nothing but a letter. The Commission will do the legal work for him, If he loses, he pays no costs or penalty. From the get-go, all the costs are on the team. They must hire a lawyer, present a case, answer motions and correspondence and, eventually, appear before a tribunal. Even if they, win, they are out thousands, likely several tens of thousands of dollars. Human rights tribunal members are often highly biased in favour of minorities. They are part of the human rights industry. The odds are stacked against the victims. .

The threat of burying an amateur team for children with legal costs gives an unfair blackmail hammer to privileged minorities.

Your report notes: “About 550 kids and volunteers run the flag, tackle, touch and cheer programmes with the club. … It left the youth football club facing an expensive transition or a lengthy, high-profile legal battle.” (Globe and Mail, September 21, 2013)

The time has come to rid the province of this meddling and unfair institution. Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak promised to do just that when he was running for his party’s leadership in 2009. So, too, did one of his rivals, and eventual ally in the final vote, MPP Randy Hillier.

 Regrettably, as soon as he’d clutched the leadership prize, Hudak, apparently, heard from the Big Boys and shelved his promise. It’s time, in light of this latest outrag4e, for him to pledge himself to purging this Province of the bullying institution.

 Paul Fromm