City Passes Law Outlawing Rudeness

[matcom]

<snip>

Be nice. It's now the law in one Canadian city.

Calgary, Alberta, has new regulations that ban public fighting, spitting, defecation and urination. Loitering or putting your feet up on public benches are no-nos, too.

Officials said they're tired of the disgusting and disrespectful behavior. Violators can be fined, under an ordinance passed Monday.

But critics charge the anti-rudeness regulations are aimed at the homeless in city parks.

The city council narrowly passed the legislation.

Laurie Fuhr of the Calgary Housing Action Initiative said she and her group tried to quash the bylaw and they plan to continue fighting it, reported The Calgary Sun.

"There's parts of the bylaw ... that are really discriminatory to a certain group," she told the paper. "It effectively makes it illegal to panhandle or even to huddle or sleep outside."

http://www.wftv.com/travelgetaways/10372035/detail.html

[SOteric]

1. I think they're just trying to make sure

the Republicans don't take refuge in Canada when the Democrats seize power.

[justfred]

3. Yeah...the neocons cant go without public urination

They piss on the whole world.

[ohiosmith]

2. Finally, a law to deal with Edmontonians.

[xchrom]

4. oh now see -- i would have said nova scotians.

[fizzgig]

5. public urination/defecation weren't already prohibited?

was this a problem in calagary before this was passed?

[Darth_Kitten]

6. Call me old-fashioned, but I think this is a good idea......

public behaviour is downright nasty nowadays. :)

[u4ic]

9. Did you see Jann Arden

on The Hour last night?

She said something to the effect of "Calgary will make loads of money off this. It never fails, I go to Chinook? Mall and at least once per visit I see some guy holding the one nostril and spewing out the other. There are some pretty disgusting men in Alberta (and then adds "and I've slept with most of them.)

[NC_Nurse]

7. Good luck.

[u4ic]

8. I see they don't include anything that Ralph Klein

(the outgoing premier) would ever be charged with, now that he's moving back to Cowtown.

--Going to a homeless (alcohol and drug free)shelter at midnight, drunk, picking a fight with some of the residents, telling them to 'get jobs', throwing money at them and leaving.


--Insulting disabled people who told him they weren't getting enough from provincial disability program. "well, they didn't look sick - they were smoking and wearing cowboy hats".





--Plagairizing a university essay (he was studying by correspondence), it somehow being 'cleared' and getting a fairly good mark. It was requested he explain that particular incident and essay to the Legislature: "Pinochet came in, Mr. Speaker, and I'm not saying that Pinochet was any better, but because of the only elected communist in Chile, Allende, and the socialist reforms he put in, Pinochet was forced, I would say, to mount a coup," Klein said.

He went on to say that, "as a dictator (Pinochet) was no better than Allende."


--And since the Alberta Legislature is in Edmonton, he doesn't have to worry about throwing documents at pages anymore.


It's YOUR government, you idiot(insert much worse word here), that created the vast majority of the homeless problems we've been experiencing not only since you came in 13 years ago, but especially the past year or two, because of the 'boom'. Finally admitted the province "had not even thought about the problems associated with the boom, hadn't created any task forces or ministry to deal with it".

[pitohui]

10. yes, calgary is very pleasant

i noticed that about them but honestly folks? the other towns in canada never spit, defecated, picked fights or the rest of it either

canadians for the most part don't pull that shit

i noticed in my recent visit that ALL albertans are kind and polite, i don't think they need to pass a law

[mark414]

11. sure it's good practice but shouldn't ever be considered as law

it's not the government's job to legislate behavior...that's going too far