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TORONTO
- Opposition is growing in the press to the power and
boldness of the Canadian Human Rights Commissions (HRC)
to suppress freedom of expression and to police what
Canadians may say in public. While Christians and social
conservatives in Canada have been under attack through
the HRC's for years, it was not until the case against
popular columnist Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine
that the Canadian mainstream media has picked up the
scent of a threat to their own freedoms.
In
today's Calgary Herald, Rebecca Walberg writes that
the Commissions must be "shut down." Earlier
this week the National Post protested that the Steyn
case is one of "censorship in the name of 'human
rights'". The Chilliwack Times ran an editorial
calling the Commissions and their tribunals "a
powerful ally" in the efforts of some to "further
restrict our right to free speech."
The
case that has garnered the attention of Canada's mainstream
media is that brought by the Canadian Islamic Congress
(CIC) against popular conservative columnist Mark Steyn
and Maclean's, Canada's foremost news magazine. Maclean's
published an excerpt, headlined "The Future Belongs
to Islam," from Steyn's bestselling book "America
Alone" in which he predicts a coming clash between
an increasingly aggressive Islamic minority in Europe
and the shrinking remnants of European post-Christian
social values.
The
CIC complained to the Human Rights Commission of "exposing
Canadian Muslims to hatred and Islamophobia". A
representative of the group claims the complaint is
intended to "protect Canadian multiculturalism
and tolerance".
The
Herald's Walberg writes that "in a country with
Sunday shopping, abortion rights and same-sex marriage...[h]uman
rights commissions are vestigial organs, a historical
correction that no longer serves any useful function."
"The
Canadian Human Rights Commission, though, has the power
to embroil Steyn and Maclean's in paperwork, to force
them to pay for legal representation in this process,
and even the power to fine them and force them to agree
to terms satisfactory to the CIC. The CIC's real goal
seems to be not justice or the pursuit of truth, but
the abolition of public discourse that is critical of
Islam."
Canada's
Human Rights Commissions were started in the 1970's
on the recommendation of activists who said that there
needed to be a cost-free informal court system where
vulnerable people like immigrants could seek redress
in cases of discrimination in matters of employment,
services and accommodation. The legislation bringing
them into existence gives them permission to disregard
the usual rules of legal procedures meant to protect
defendants' rights such as rules of evidence, presumption
of innocence, bias of witnesses or representation. Its
officers and adjudicators do not have to have legal
training but are political appointees, commonly representatives
of special interest groups.
The
HRC's have been used most effectively by organisations
on the far left, especially homosexual lobbyists, to
impose restrictions on members of religious groups and
other conservatives. The defendant in all HRC proceedings
must cover his own legal expenses but the state does
not charge the complainant. This system, many have said,
leaves the HRC's wide open to abuse as a completely
taxpayer paid (for the complainant only) weapon in political
battles that would be prohibitively expensive in the
legitimate court system.
The
Chilliwack Times' John Martin, a criminologist at the
University College of the Fraser Valley, wrote, "[T]hese
commissions have become little more than support groups
for those who would censor and deny any speech they
disagree with. It's ironic that they're referred to
as 'human rights' commissions when, in fact, they have
become the champions of groups who insist others are
not entitled to differing opinions, voices or expressions."
Ezra
Levant, formerly the editor of the Western Standard
that had stood against HRC cases brought by the CIC,
wrote on the Shotgun 'blog that a large part of their
usefulness to lobby groups is the lack of cost. "The
CIC learned their lesson: there's no point suing in
defamation law, where the CIC would have to pay for
their own lawyers, and our lawyers if we won, and where
silly things like the rule of law apply".
"Better
to go to the human rights commissions where the taxpayer
pays for the prosecution, traditional rules of evidence
and procedure don't apply, and free speech is not protected,"
Levant continued. "It still has all of the down-sides
for the defendant -- the hassle, the cost, and a lower
bar for a 'conviction' -- but none of the cost for the
complainants."
Others
have pointed out that the Human Rights Commissions are
so weighted in favour of the complainant that it is
wide open to abuse as a means of making money. Richard
Warman, a far left human rights lawyer based in Ottawa,
is a former employee and investigator for the Canadian
Human Rights Commission. Warman has filed an unusually
large number of complaints with the HRC against groups
on the right and admitted that he files complaints in
his spare time.
In
2006, in a keynote speech to the violent Anti-Racist
Action group in Toronto, Warman described his high volume,
tax-funded activism the "maximum disruption"
approach to leftist agitation. "I've come to the
conclusion that I can be most effective by using what
I like to describe as a 'maximum disruption' approach...If
I think that they've violated the Canadian Human Rights
Act, then I'll look at all of the potential targets
and file complaints against them starting on a 'worst
offender' basis".
He
added, "Sometimes if I just find people to be particularly
annoying this may move them up the list a bit."
Publicly available documents show that Warman has been
awarded at least Cn. $48,500 in "special compensation"
via Human Rights Tribunal complaints since 2003.
Canadian
Christians, social conservatives and others have long
called for HRC's to be abolished.
Click
here: To
find your Member of Parliament using your Postal Code
Click
here: To
search for your Member of Parliament by name
To
contact Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street, Ottawa K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
See
the article in question from Macleans:
"The
future belongs to Islam"
and read Maclean's
editor responds to CIC allegations
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