Rights and Liberties, Spring 2007, Volume 12, No. 1
Board Development Committee Update
The goals of MARL's Board Development Committee are to define the composition of the Board in terms of needed skills and community representation, recruit sufficient members to the Board to maintain a complement of nine Directors, and provide education and training opportunities to maintain Board competence. Over the past few months, the Board Development Committee has been focusing on the first two of these three goals - defining Board composition and recruiting Board members - leaving the third goal for after the AGM and the election.
Apathy, indifference - enemies of rights and liberties
Increasingly, I fear that I am becoming more and more dull witted, sedentary and workaday: passing my time trying my best to succeed at my job and striving, as the sellers of self help slogans would say, to balance my life. All too often, I fail to make time to keep up with the ideas, the news stories and even the court decisions that are informing and shaping civil rights and liberties issues in Canada and the world.
President`s Message
We are lucky to live in Canada. We live in a democracy that respects the basic rights and freedoms of everyone. We can freely elect our leaders. We can criticize our politicians openly, without fear of repercussion. We have the right to practice (or not) any religion we choose. We have the right to be free from discrimination based on personal characteristics such as race, ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability. We can associate with whomever we choose. We are free to express our opinions and beliefs, even if controversial.
Education Committee Update
MARL's mandate has always been to educate individuals on the need to be active participants in the protection of their essential human rights. To support this direction, MARL is very excited to announce that we are in the process of designing two high school education programs for implementation over the next two years.