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| The Pope, Human Rights and Call Centres By Paul Schneidereit Chronicle-Herald March 23, 2010 http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/9015715.html CANADA -- REMEMBER the public outrage when Ontario dabbled, a few years back, with the idea of allowing Shariah law to be used to settle family disputes? In the end, that province wisely rejected that course, holding (what should have been obvious all along) that there must be only one law — the secular law of the state. The Vatican should now be getting the same message from every country where Catholic priests, aided by a wilful failure to act by their superiors, have been sexually abusing children for decades, if not centuries. The Catholic Church's canon law is no different, in this case, than any other religion's set of internal rules. Whatever canon laws say about such abuse, and whether or not they have been properly applied, is beside the point. When the actions of Church officials have broken secular laws, including the obligation to report to authorities anyone who has sexually abused minors, the state's jurisdiction must take precedence. Pope Benedict, as you may have heard, had a formal letter of apology read out to Irish Catholics on the weekend for the suffering caused by the Church's failure to decisively stop hundreds of cases of child sexual abuse by its priests over many decades. There was nothing, however, to indicate that any of the Church leaders who allowed the abuse to continue would face any sort of discipline. The Vatican, it should be recalled, reportedly refused to co-operate with any of the nearly decadelong Irish investigations into the abuses and cover-ups. The Church's internal rules and procedures don't trump, or even equal, secular laws when criminal behaviour is the issue. Everywhere that the Church's actions, or inactions, allowed this sexual abuse to persist, police should investigate the organization's hierarchy on potential charges of criminal conspiracy. In case you hadn't heard, those tireless champions of politically-correct speech — the government-created human rights industry — are about to waste more taxpayers' dollars in B.C. by holding hearings next week on an admittedly heated exchange between a stand-up comic and a couple of hecklers. Yes, the B.C. human rights tribunal, the same folks who ruled a McDonald's worker's rights were violated because the fast-food chain demanded she wash her hands at work, are about to continue the cruel task of crucifying Guy Earle for making offensive remarks to two reportedly inebriated, gay hecklers at a Vancouver restaurant in May, 2007. Well, it must be serious for the HR police to step in, right? I mean, it's not like comedians performing live get involved in profanity-ridden, extremely politically incorrect exchanges with inebriated members of the audience normally, right? Oh, wait. They do all the time. I'm sure whatever Earle said about the hecklers' sexuality was offensive, but in Canada, what's far more offensive — to common sense as well as to freedom of speech — is that too many folks apparently see that as grounds to haul a comedian before a formal state hearing to explain himself. On top of two years of legal bills, Earle has also said he's found many club owners are now leery about hiring him for fear of being targeted with more human rights complaints. None of which is funny. Recently , I got an email from a call centre worker who was sick of hearing people complain about call centres. The reality on the other side of the line, they said, was call centre workers often have to deal with impatient, foulmouthed, unf air customers. What kind of abuse, I asked. Their answer? • People who call in on bad phones or mumble, then get angry when operators have trouble understanding them. • People who scream abuse if they've waited more than two minutes, though operators do their best to process a backlog of calls as quickly as possible. • People who agree to service agreements they never bother to read, or let services expire that they do need, then blame the operators. You get the idea. It's true that though we all have horror stories about bad customer service, there's also no doubt that those with jobs serving the public at times must deal with appalling behaviour. Politicians aren't the only ones who sometimes have an excessive sense of entitlement. Contact: pauls@herald.ca |
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