The human right to watch Al Jazeera TV

Yesterday I wrote about Michael Noonan and his intellectually incoherent Op-Ed in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. Noonan is the boss of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, who compares his battles to the liberation of South Africa from Apartheid.

So what has Nova Scotia's answer to Nelson Mandela been up to? What injustices has he and his team of freedom fighters been fighting?

Well, they just had a very exciting hearing about the human right to watch Al Jazeera TV.

According to this proud press release:

Ahmed Assal filed a complaint in 2003 with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. He alleged that by refusing to permit him to install a satellite dish to receive Muslim and Arabic language programming, Halifax Condominium Corporation No. 4 discriminated against him on the basis of his religion and ethnic or national origin.

So, after four years of investigations and hearings, Halifax Condo Corp. #4 -- that is, Assal's neighbours -- "won". And by "won", I mean, they are out thousands of dollars in legal fees and hundreds of hours of time. With Assal, we have the answer to Shakespeare's question, "what's in a name?"

A condo corporation is a group of people who are united not just by the fact that they live next to each other, but that they contractually agree to details about the management of their homes -- including bans on satellites. It's a property rights issue and a contracts issue. But Assal thought he could save his own legal fees and make it a human rights issue.

The fact that his complaint was dismissed in the end means little; he still hijacked a secular government agency for four years; embarrassed and abused his neighbours; sought to undermine the entire basis of condominium law; and did so all without a dime of his own money. This is the kind of work that Noonan claims is on par with liberating millions of South African blacks. What a fool.