Alberta Human Rights Commission chief speaks out against racism, intolerance
The chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission is speaking out about racism and intolerance in the province.
Robert Philp cites incidents of racial slurs, verbal attacks against a First Nations family, anti-Sikh and Muslim posters and a burned Qur'an over the past few months.
Philp says this isn't the Alberta that he knows and is not the Alberta in which he wants to live.
He says there is no room for hatred or intolerance in the province.
Philp calls on people to recommit to the principle that all people are equal without regard to race, religious beliefs, colour, gender, physical disability, age, place or origin or sexual orientation.
Philp is a former provincial court judge.
"This is not the Alberta that I know. Nor is this the Alberta in which I want to live," Philp wrote in a message posted on the commission's website Tuesday.
"I encourage all Albertans to live the values set out in the Alberta Human Rights Act and to promote the ideal that all Albertans have the right to live in a province that respects, values and celebrates our differences, which only serve to make us stronger."
The message comes as the Edmonton Police Service announced that its hate crimes unit continues to investigate an ongoing series of anti-Islam posters being circulated across the city.