Politic?

Inexplicable Human Rights Defences

"It's been very stressful -- I couldn't understand why I had a complaint against me."
"When it comes to inviting someone into your home to look after your children you should be able to ask any question necessary."
Danielle, Edmonton mother [last name withheld]

The written human rights complaint filed in April 2019 by James Cyrynowski of Edmonton. (Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms)

"We believe that there's no human right to babysit another person's children and that the anxiety that these kind of cases are causing to parents is something that should and can be avoided."
"It's just a question of basic information about a person and for someone to view these questions as prohibited, or for the Human Rights Act to be interpreted in that manner, certainly goes against common sense."
"It goes against the rights of parents to make reasonably informed decisions about the care of their children and it really is an intrusion violating freedom of expression."
"It is a sad state of affairs when numerous Alberta parents are subjected to the stress of the Alberta Human Rights Commission process simply for seeking to make informed decisions for the care of their own children."
"We encourage any parents facing these complaints to contact us to receive help free of charge in defending against this state overreach into their personal lives."
Marty Moore, staff lawyer, Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms

A woman in Edmonton became yet another victim of James Cyurynowski who has filed numerous complaints of discrimination based on gender or other grounds with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. He had applied for babysitting jobs on previous occasions, and when his application had not been accepted, he has resorted to filing human rights complaints on the basis of gender discrimination. Because employers are barred from rejecting a job applicant based on their family status under the province's rights law, this man has taken advantage to file claims against unsuspecting victims.

On the basis of one of his complaints a mother was ordered to pay this man $1,500 in damages. A court battle ensued over the order and the mother won her case, but not before she had suffered the indignity of being charged with discrimination and human rights abuse and suffered through a period of anxiety and victimization of a human rights code gone badly awry. The latest complaint this congenital sociopath has lodged with the Commission is against a single father of young children.

In filing a discrimination suit against Danielle he cited her advertisement on Kijiji of her need to hire someone to care for her children, two to eleven years of age, between the time she had to leave for work and when they were expected at daycare. When Cyrynowski responded citing his early childhood education certificate, a car and the previous nine years looking after children citing his experience experience, she asked whether he had any children of his own.

She explained that she would have had more confidence if he'd had children of his own, that he would be able to care for her children: "like I would relate to another parent easier". In the end she chose someone else, since the other person lived in her neighbourhood, close to the daycare facilities her children attended. Two months on, Cyrynowski reported this woman to the Human Rights Commission with the terse note: "I was asked if I had children. I do not. I didn't get the job." It is beyond mind-boggling that a rights body can contests a parent's right to select who will care for their children.

Danielle discovered she was in the commission's cross-hairs when she received correspondence informing her the complaint had been accepted, and she was alerted to the official need to defend herself.

Five years earlier in the case of another mother whom Cyrynowski complained to the commission about for similar reasons, because she had advertised for an "older lady" ideally to look after her children, and he hardly fit the bill, but that this was an instance of gender discrimination against Cyrynowski. When the commission director and chief commissioner overruled the finding to accept that case, the Alberta Court of Queen';s Bench and Court of Appeal upheld their decision, while the Supreme Court of Canada refused Cyrynowski's appeal.

In her 2017 ruling, Queen's Bench Justice Dawn Pentelechuk stated it was reasonable to find that having a gender preference was "a bona fide occupational requirement" for services such as babysitting, with the chief commissioner pointing out that the parent-child bond was "one of the most revered relationships recognized in society and law".

That the Alberta Human Rights commission continues to accept this man's string of complaints over parents turning down his applications for child-minding unbelievable in itself. That he has been permitted to torment people in this manner is incredible. This absurdity has been taken up by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a conservative NGO that has been championing the rights of parents to determine who will look after their children as their temporary proxies.

That this man's search for victims to harass and righteously alert the Human Rights Commission to gender bias in such a sensitive area as people's trust in who will be entrusted with their children's welfare is unspeakably vile. The role of the Human Rights Commission in this errant search for social justice is beyond absurd in their perception of what constitutes an abuse of human rights. For in actual fact, the situation is entirely reversed; this predator is abusing the human rights of parents to make concerned choices for their children's welfare.

The single father of a five- and eight-year-old was searching for someone reliable to care for his children. Ten people responded to the advertisement he had posted on line; one of the respondents was James Cyrynowski. All respondents were asked their age and gender, obvious questions any parent would want to know. In the end no one was hired when the father, identified only by his first name of 'Todd', to protect the identity of his children, realized he had no need of a sitter after all due to changed plans.

Soon afterward an employment discrimination complaint under the Alberta Human Rights Act was filed by Cyrynowski, which stated: "I applied for a job on Kijiji involving babysitting two boys. I got a message 10 minutes later asking for my age and if I’m male or female. I told him I’m male and 28 years old. I never heard back from him since". And so was launched yet another episode of malicious mischief masquerading as a human rights complaint by this serial abuser of human rights.

"I was shocked and bewildered by the complaint", Todd explained of the complaint filed in 2017, processed in May of 2019, and Todd notified officially last month. "I realize now I have to be careful in what I say. I was just trying to get to know the potential babysitters a bit first and would have to do a more detailed follow up later. I ended up not needing a babysitter though, so more follow-up never happened."