A Canadian court has ruled that the deaf are entitled to expect professional sign language interpreters at all government-provided offices and facilities in the country.
This means that the government must now provide all services in English, all services in French, and all services in ASL.
And, since the court defined this as a right, it means that all Canadians have a duty to provide these facilities.
And that's what's wrong with this ruling.
The deaf community may have lobbied for these services, and our society may have democratically decided to provide them, and that would have been a good, even wonderful thing.
But when the deaf demand this as a right, and a court imposes it on the country, it becomes a bad thing.
If sign-language interpretation is a positive human right, then the rest of us become obligated to provide it; we are no longer free citizens, but slaves to the rights of others and to the Charter and its unelected, unaccountable judges.
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