Today the Supreme Court of B.C. ruled against a group of female ski-jumping plaintiffs who sued VANOC (the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee) to have their sport included in the upcoming 2010 Winter Games. You may be shocked to discover that I have absolutely no doubt that Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon came to the best decision she possibly could.
There was always a fundamental flaw in the ski-jumpers' application: they sued the wrong entity.
In the CBC summary of her reasons for judgment, Fenlon J. was clearly sympathetic to the plaintiffs but absolutely powerless to help them.
In her reasons for judgment, Fenlon agreed with VANOC that the issue is an IOC responsibility. While she conceded that women are being discriminated against, the responsibility for eliminating that discrimination is the IOC's, not VANOC's, she wrote.
Fenlon also sided with VANOC in its argument that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply in this case. The IOC is not governed by the Charter nor does it fall under this court's jurisdiction, she wrote.
As for VANOC, it did not breach the Charter by nature of the fact that it had no power to remedy the gender inequity by either ordering either the inclusion of women's ski jumping or the removal of men's ski jumping from the 2010 Games.
"In other words, VANOC is not under a duty to distribute equally what it has no power to provide," Fenlon wrote.
Jumper Katie Willis clearly didn't get the memo. Her reaction was to say the decision "sends a message that, apparently, we need to do more than just this. You know, it's a little harder than we thought ... this does show that, sometimes, gender equity does not take precedence over the Charter."
Le sigh.
I feel like smacking these gals, and much more so their idiot lawyers who decided it would be well worth their clients' money to mount a completely futile court application with no chance for more than some press coverage. People: the good judge didn't say that you weren't being discriminated against. What she said is that our fantastic Charter of Rights and Freedoms can't be imposed on the International Olympic Committee - especially when you don't sue them but VANOC, who has no power over the sports included in the games anyway.
They did nothing to advance their cause, and their lack of understanding of the legal system - their chosen method of attack - doesn't make gender equality in sport look any better either.
I sure hope the press was worth it.
(via cbcnews.ca)
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