After a much needed break to recharge batteries, The Agenda is back tonight with fresh programming. 

We're going to shine the spotlight on two Ontario institutions.

First, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and its chair, Barbara Hall, will be here. In previous years, if you had a human rights complaint in this province, you went to the commission, made your case, and if the commissioners thought you had a legitimate beef, they'd contact the other side and try to figure out a settlement to the issue. 

But the commission now has a new, broader mandate. Rather than dealing with individual complaints (a task now delegated to another tribunal), the commission intends to use its resources as a kind of bully pulpit to speak out on major human rights issues of the day. 

That's how it got involved in the Mark Steyn-Maclean's magazine business, in which Commissioner Hall acknowledged the OHRC didn't have jurisdiction to hear the complaints against Steyn (for allegedly anti-Muslim writings in the magazine), but opined anyway on how the commission felt Steyn was contributing to xenophobia against Muslims.

Touchy stuff. And we'll get into it tonight. 

Plus, five university chancellors, whose institutions represent almost half the students in this province, will join us to talk about the challenges of running post-secondary institutions in this declining economy. 

The chancellors are: David Peterson (U of T); Pamela Wallin, (U of Guelph); Huguette Labelle (U of O); David Dodge (Queen's); and John Thompson (UWO).

It's quite a collection of unviersity powerhouses, who I suspect have never been together before on television. 

So join us at 8 and/or 11 p.m. tonight and help us welcome in the new year with some thought-provoking programming.