Flip Flop Hudak - The Shape of Things to Come!

The leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative party has backtracked on a key leadership promise to scrap the province's human rights tribunal.

Tim Hudak now says he will "fix" the tribunal to ease a backlog at the agency that is at nearly 4,000 cases.
"Victims of genuine discrimination are waiting a year or more to have their case heard," he said at a recent speech in Ottawa. "This is wrong."

Although no details were provided, Hudak said he will empower the tribunal to dismiss frivolous claims at a preliminary stage. It will also be given new rules to use similar to those in courts.
The change in Hudak's policy represents a reversal of his 2009 pledge to eliminate the tribunal.
That promise was borrowed from his right-wing leadership opponent, Randy Hillier, and immediately drew battle lines between the men and their two opponents.

Conservative leadership opponent Christine Elliott warned at the time the promise would be a "gift" to the Liberals, who would use the pledge in much the same way they framed the Tories' ill-fated plan to fund faith-based schools other than Catholic ones.
That pledge helped sink the Con servatives in the 2007 election.

The tribunal promise proved politically valuable for Hudak, who earned Hillier's second-ballot support on his way to victory.
Hillier would not say Friday whether he sees the policy reversal as a betrayal, refusing a request for comment.

Since it was established in 2008, the tribunal has ruled on several well-publicized cases that critics use to raise questions about its usefulness.
They include a complaint by a Carleton Place man who was asked to leave a health food store after a loud confrontation with its owners. The man, who suffers from numerous psychological problems, including anxiety, complained he was discriminated against because he was accompanied by his service dog, a chihuahua named Dee-O-Gee. After nearly three years, the complaint was dismissed by an adjudicator who ruled the dog owner "provoked a confrontation" with the store owners and was consequently "asked to leave as any customer would be under those circumstances."

More recently, the Superior Court struck down what it called a "fatally flawed" 2009 tribunal ruling ordering a Toronto-area businesswoman to pay $36,000 to a woman who had worked for her for six weeks. The employee complained she felt pressured to wear skirts and heels instead of her hijab.
Lawyers for the complainant obtained an order forcing the sale of business owner Maxine Telfer's home to pay the penalty. Both that order and the decision were overturned in court.

"When you hear about cases like this, it's clear the system is not working," Hudak said in his speech to the Nepean Chamber of Commerce. "People lose faith in the system."
Hudak refused a request for comment Friday.

Liberal minister Bob Chiarelli said Hudak's backtrack was a sign of poor leadership.
"This next election is about trust and leadership and Tim Hudak continues to demonstrate he just doesn't have it," he said in an interview. "He made a deal to appease the extreme right wing elements of the party . Now it turns out that was nothing but a bait-and-switch. He got what he needed out of it and now he switched to a different position."

From the Ottawa Citizen........