Community activist, Khalid al-Wasi is elated over Community Affairs Minister Dale Butler's decision to halt the new policy of means testing instituted by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) until the Government's legal arm has reviewed it.

Before the new policy came into effect, Government would foot the legal bills of anyone the Commission deemed had a case.

The new policy required those people to submit proof that they could not afford to represent themselves and sought to bring the parties in cases before the Human Rights Commission under the same scrutiny as those applying for legal aid in the court system.

But Mr. al-Wasi (Raymond Davis) a former chairman of the Commission's education committee, was ready to sue Government over the change and filed a Supreme Court writ.

He described the new policy as "unjust and contrary to the Human Rights Act".

Speaking from Canada last week, Mr. al-Wasi said he was happy the minister had made this decision.

"The concern over limited funding should not take president over people's rights and more particularly, the role of the commission to defend those rights," he said.

Mr. al-Wasi said more money needed to be put in the Budget for tribunals instead of compromising people's rights.

He added that the real problem was that the HRC seemed to be reluctant or too timid to make a preliminary ruling on cases, preferring instead to pass cases on to tribunals, which was costly.

"If they took a pro-active stance up-front it may cause the offending parties to settle quicker and eliminate costly tribunals," he said.

While in Canada, Mr. al-Wasi said he had discussed the issue with human rights educators from Nova Scotia and they all supported his view.