Page 5101 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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discriminating society. In Quebec the Quebecois have often been seen to be the people from the boondocks, the disadvantaged people. We have all heard of the Newfie jokes; so it is no surprise to us in this chamber to see that Newfoundland has adopted a definition of social origin.
Mr Berry is anxious to get through this Bill, but this is a very historic debate today and I think some of these things should be put down as - - -
Mr Duby: This is a typical lawyer's argument.
MR COLLAERY: It is not a lawyer's argument. I am setting the basis for Mr Connolly's next set of instructions to the Law Office, or the Chief Minister's. They are well aware of these issues; but they should be converted to instructions, if they are not already, for more work is needed.
The final explanation that has to be made relates to the definition of imputed characteristics that you see in subclause 7(2). That again reflects recommendations received from the AIDS action group. They wanted us to consider imputed characteristics for all grounds; that is, someone discriminates against me because I am thin, drawn and haggard and they think I have AIDS. If we had not drawn it to include a person who presumes a person to have a characteristic, they could dodge the discrimination law. A landlord could say, "You two people who want accommodation look thin, drawn and haggard, and I am going to impute some virus to you and you are not getting accommodation". That is the imputed characteristic test. That is very modern, up-to-date drafting, and it covers a ground that was recommended from other jurisdictions.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.38): I move:
Page 7, line 17, paragraph 7(1)(k), omit the paragraph.
Paragraph (k) states:
any other attribute prescribed for the purposes of this definition.
Mr Speaker, we are moving to delete this paragraph in accordance with the Scrutiny of Bills Committee report on the issue. In the report on this piece of legislation the Scrutiny of Bills Committee referred to this particular part of the Bill as a Henry VIII clause. Apparently, it was Henry VIII who perfected the technique that is embodied in this clause. The clause contains a power to alter the principal legislation without going back to the parliament. There probably was a slightly overzealous approach by us in the original drafting of this Bill.
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