I, Ashu M. G. Solo, filed the following:

1. Civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor's Office) and Councillor Randy Donauer for prayer recitations at government organized events

2. Code of Conduct complaint against Mayor Don Atchison for potential online campaign advertising violations

3. Civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Saskatoon Transit Services) for promoting holidays from only one religion on city buses

4. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (Executive Committee) for retaliating against me by not reappointing me to the Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee and not appointing me to another civic committee or board

5. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (City Solicitor’s Office) for retaliating against me by trying to deprive me of my right to directly communicate with members of City Council and by telling employees of other City of Saskatoon departments to not talk to me

6. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Office) and City of Saskatoon (Living in Harmony Ad Hoc Subcommittee of Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee) for retaliating against me by not considering my submissions to the Living in Harmony Contest

This site contains my media releases, some case documents, emails to City Council, etc.

I don't waste my time arguing with opponents.

The backlash makes me much more determined to fight against bigotry and shows the need for these civil rights cases, so I'll be filing more civil rights cases. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

MEDIA ALERT: City of Saskatoon is trying to get Solo's prayer recitation case dismissed by Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission



From: Ashu M. G. Solo [mailto:amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us]
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 8:38 AM
To: amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us
Subject: MEDIA ALERT: City of Saskatoon is trying to get Solo's prayer recitation case dismissed by Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission

Dear Media:

I’m attaching a letter from the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission that I received yesterday evening for Ashu Solo v. City of Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office) and Councillor Randy Donauer.  Instead of dealing with the substance of my prayer recitation case, the City of Saskatoon is making a frivolous and vexatious application to get this case dismissed.  This is a disgraceful tactic to keep discriminating against people.  They’re wasting the time and money of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

City of Saskatoon claims that the complaint was made in bad faith or for improper motives or is frivolous or vexatious.  Also, City of Saskatoon claims that there has been a lack of procedural fairness.  The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and I have met all of the legally required deadlines. 

Procedural fairness demands that I be able to see the City of Saskatoon’s application for summary dismissal, so that I can see what arguments they are making and have a chance to respond to them.  I’m going to see if I can get a copy of the City of Saskatoon’s application for summary dismissal from the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

If the City of Saskatoon is successful in getting this case dismissed on a technicality, I’ll just file a new case with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission next time they have a prayer recitation at a civic event that I attend.

Donauer claimed that councillors voted against covering his legal expenses, but this isn’t true.  Mayor Don Atchison and Donauer claimed that Donauer would be responsible for any legal expenses that he might incur.  The truth is an Indemnification Review Committee will decide if any legal expenses by Donauer will be covered.

If you have any questions for me, I can be reached at amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us.  You can also talk to Justin Trottier, spokesperson for the Canadian Secular Alliance and founder of the Centre for Inquiry Canada.  Justin is an advisor to me on this case and can be reached at info@secularalliance.ca.

I’ve asked for Judge David Arnot, chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, to recuse himself from dealing with my cases.  It is a conflict of interest for Arnot to be involved in this case and to be involved in deciding how to proceed with this case.  Arnot and Atchison gave speeches at an event to start the cultural diversity and race relations month in 2012 in Saskatoon.  In these speeches, I learned that Arnot and Atchison are friends and went to high school together.  Furthermore, in Arnot’s speech, he praised Atchison’s record on human rights, despite the fact that he must have known Atchison had been abusing his office to endorse a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast by allowing this event to be named after his office and Atchison had lead the opposition to the contract termination of Chief Dave Scott for doing nothing about aboriginals being dumped outside the city by criminal cops in the Saskatoon Police Service.  Arnot’s long friendship with Atchison could affect his ability to be neutral and unbiased with a complaint that was originally against Atchison, Donauer, and the City of Saskatoon and is now against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office) and Donauer.  For these reasons, I’ve asked the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission to assign someone else to make the decisions on how to proceed with this case. 

However, instead of recusing himself from dealing with my cases, Arnot went on radio twice to talk about them.  Judges and human rights commission employees shouldn’t be talking to the media about cases in progress that they might be involved in.  I wonder why someone like Arnot who had the audacity to praise Atchison’s human rights record would even be in charge of a human rights commission.

Ashu Solo v. City of Saskatoon (Saskatoon Transit Services) for Christmas messages on buses isn’t over yet.  I’m going to take this case to the Court of Queen’s Bench when time permits.  The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission decides whether to pursue cases based only on the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.  At the Court of Queen’s Bench, I can make arguments based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The guarantees of religious equality and multiculturalism in the Charter will give me a much stronger case.

Best regards,

Ashu M. G. Solo

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