Double standard still at heart of matter

Page 5

Dear Editor:

December 10 marked the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was celebrated with much fanfare and speech-making and so it should have been. The acceptance of human rights as universal was a significant step on the road to creating a body of international law.

The rights to free speech and to peaceful assembly are included in the Universal Declaration. They are also listed as two of the four "fundamental" freedoms in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These freedoms are at the heart of the current inquiry into the behavior of police at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vancouver in November 1997. The RCMP Public Complaints Commission is trying to find out whether these universal rights to free speech and peaceful assembly by the students at the University of British Columbia were infringed.

Not all humans receive the same attention to their rights. The handful of unarmed First Nations people who gathered at Ipperwash Provincial Park after it was closed for the season in September 1995 would also appear to have had their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly violated by police. Yet no inquiry has been called into whether their rights were infringed.

The UBC students were pepper-sprayed, strip-searched and dozens were arrested. The First Nations people were beaten, shot at, wounded, one was killed, and dozens were charged. In both cases, the involvement of senior government officials in directing the actions of police is strongly suspected. In both cases, a single police officer is taking the fall.

The students' grievance led, within a few months, to a police complaints commission inquiry. The First Nations people's grievance, after three years, has led nowhere. The students' grievance has generated much ongoing attention across the nation and within the federal cabinet. The First Nations people's grievance has been largely ignored despite the federal government's constitutional obligation to uphold the rights of Aboriginal peoples.

The Ontario government maintains that it cannot call an inquiry into the events at Ipperwash while the matter is before the courts. Yet the APEC inquiry is continuing despite a private law suit by students against the police.

So on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the questions remain: Who is human? Who has rights?

Doug Pritchard

Ontario Coordinator

Christian Peacemaker Teams