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The Voice of North and West Vancouver since 1965 WWW. nsnews.com ( FREE

Court sends Collins back to rights tribunal

Katharine Hamer News Reporter

FORMER North Shore News columnist Doug Collins has lost his judicial appeal to have a sec- tion of the B.C. Human Rights Code declared unconstititutional.

Madam Justice Georgina Quijano ruled yesterday in the B.C. Supreme Court thar a final judgment on constitutionality should be sent back to the Human Rights Tribunal for consideration, because their assessment remained incomplete. “i conclude,” stated Quijano, “that it is well established that an adminsitrative tribunal may decide constitutional issucs while discharging a function assigned to it by its legisla- tion.” Collins is now alleging that the decision is politically motivated. “The decision seemed quite ridicu- lous,” he said Friday. “The adjudicator at the Human Rights Tribunal already _found us guilty of having offended against the law, What chance dovs any- one stand going back to him? It’s an NDP-organized kangaroo court.” Collins and the News were co- respondents to a charge carlier thi year of discrimination and the likeli- hood of exposing “Jewish persons to- LOST appeal: Doug hatred and contempt,” develled by Collins intends to contin- Victoria resident,Harry Abrams. _ ue his battle. Abrams was upset by a series of columns written by Collins published in the News in 1994. One of those columns, Hollywood Propaganda, was also the subject of an earlier tribunal hearing, foilowing a complaint by the Canadian Jewish Congress, On Feb. 2, the Human Rights Tribunal found Collins and the News had viclated section 7 (1) (b) of the Human Rights Co f ' the publication of any statement that “indicates” di ni ination or is “like- s = pity . ly” to expose a pevson or group or class or persons to hatred or contempt. : . - : = , The News vis ordered. to publish the rext of the tribunal's Feb, 2 deci. NEWS photo Cindy Gooumal sion in fall, and paid, on behalf of Coilits, a conipensation fee af $2,009 H . h t d d to Abrams for “injury to his dignity and feelings of self-respect.” ig Ss ani ar §

Collins filed his appeal in April in the continued belief thar the tribunal NINE-year-old Jordan (left) and five-year-old Marisa Arnold read a book together. A recent Ministry

of Education assessment show that girls continue to outperform boys in reading comprehensior. See Ex-columunist page & See story page 26.