Mike Gurstein wrote,
>. . . I had half a mind to
>pursue this absurdity through the Human Rights (agism) channel and would
>still do so if someone wanted to offer some free legal support.
This gets into an issue I discussed intensively with a lawyer last fall (for
free). The government would argue, and the court would almost certainly
concur, that age discrimination is justified because it serves an overriding
public policy purpose. Whatever protection section 15 of the Charter grants,
section 1 removes in the public interest. The government would point out
that youth unemployment _is_ a national problem and that they can't tailor
every program to deal with each local circumstance.
This brings the discussion back to the issue of "targetted" programs, which
Peter Stoyko addressed so eloquently. A cynic might conclude that the whole
point of such programs is to grind people down with their complexity and
unresponsiveness. Sort of like an automated telephone answering system: "if
you're an unemployed youth, live in Cape Breton and are currently collecting
EI benefits, press 1, if you're a laid-off steelworker over the age of 40,
press 2 . . .
Speaking of automated answering systems, they installed one at the Canada
Employment Centre in Vancouver that went in an infinite loop: four
selections after the starting point led the caller inexorably back to the
starting point. It was the most succinct description of HRDC program design
principles I've ever encountered.
Regards,
Tom Walker
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Vancouver, B.C.
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The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
