Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Canadian Human Rights Commission Has an Obesity FAQ?!


I find the Canadian Human Rights Commission's section on obesity to be rather surprising.

It's surprising in that their FAQ includes this statement,
"There are very few complaints filed about obesity. The number has been constant for many years and remains at 5 to 10 cases a year."
For context, that's 5-10 cases per year in a country of nearly 35 million people.

That's surprising in two ways.  Firstly it's surprising that a condition that the Canadian Human Rights Commission only sees 5-10 times per year would warrant being the only condition singled out for FAQ treatment on the Commission's website.  Secondly it's surprising because given the staggering amount of bias and discrimination faced by those with obesity, if those numbers are accurate, I can't get over how few people in Canada are standing up for their rights.

I guess society's just beat them down too far, too often.