A DEFENSE OF "RATIONAL" PERSONNEL SELECTION, AND TWO NEW METHODS

This paper presents two new techniques for use in personnel selection. One is a simple graphical technique which non-technical personnel can use to help in deciding how many minority applicants to admit to an institution. The other is a large-scale computer technique which an institution can use to increase personnel diversity on many variables (including culture) simultaneously. Both techniques appear to have major advantages over the particular technique this author advocated previously (1971). However, the new techniques are based on the same general view the author has expressed earlier (1971, 1973): that personnel selection questions concerning culture must be handled rationally—that is, by human judgment—rather than by mechanical formulas. Early sections of the paper summarize and defend that view.     

Who Will Censor? BC Tel and the Oliver “Hate” Web-Site

The Internet has been described by many critics as providing a friendly home for racist web-sites, whose number has been steadily growing. Many of these sites display vicious anti-Semitic, anti-black, and anti-gay propaganda. However much they disgust most people, in the US they are protected by the First Amendment. Canada, by contrast, has hate discrimination provisions in its Criminal Code. Canadians seem to be much more willing than Americans to abridge freedom of expression when the speech is hateful. Various European countries take a stronger stand than Canada in their determination to combat racism. In this talk, I will explore the Canadian position in the context of the case of Oliver, BC. It was the location of an Internet Service Provider (ISP), Fairview Technology Centre, accused of hosting a number of hate sites. Attempts to deal with this accusation constitute the central part of the paper.