Canadian official calls medmj rights complaint “frivolous”
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 10:46 am | By: Radical Russ
ottawasun.com – Ottawa and Region – Right to puff sparks tiff
A federally licensed medicinal marijuana user is fuming after receiving correspondence from his city councillor telling him to “Quit taking up taxpayers’ dollars” with a “frivolous” human rights complaint.Russell Barth lit up a joint in on the lawn of Ottawa City Hall this weekend as he relayed his disgust at an e-mail he received from Coun. Gord Hunter in response to an e-mail of his own.
“I am not asking for anything special except the same rights that tobacco smokers have,” he said between puffs. “I don’t think I should be forcing my smoke on other people, but I offer tobacco smokers and non-smokers far more courtesy than most tobacco smokers do.”
Barth e-mailed Hunter on Friday asking to meet in person to discuss his assertion that his human rights were violated when a cigarette smoker outside his doctor’s office building “asked me to move along.”
“Tough luck on you that you feel you had your human rights violated,” Hunter responded in an e-mail. “Tough luck on the taxpayers of Ontario that you feel this is a serious matter.”
“Bully for you that you can legally smoke dope. I do not feel that gives you the right to shove it in anyone else’s face,” Hunter writes.
In a phone conversation on Sunday, Hunter questioned why a councillor’s having told someone what’s on his mind would be considered so rare as to warrant media coverage.
“You can’t actually think this guy has a legitimate complaint to go before the Human Rights Commission because some people say ‘Don’t blow marijuana in my face,’” he said.
“Of all the serious human rights complaints there could be … but his is about the most frivolous complaint that probably has come across their desk,” he said.
Canada’s Human Rights Act is somewhat similar to the US Americans with Disabilities Act in that it requires government to modify laws to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. The complainant isn’t asking to “blow smoke in people’s faces”, but rather that he get the same consideration a tobacco smoker would get, which is being able to smoke outside an establishment in the same areas reserved for legal tobacco smoking.
Councilman Hunter may think it is frivolous, but the right of disabled medical marijuana patients to be able to go out on the town and not have to suffer without their medicine is as serious as having a wheelchair-accessible bathroom. Without those accommodations, we essentially tell the disabled to stay shut in their homes.
Topics: Canada, Human Rights Act, Ontario, Ottawa
