While the left salivates here at home over the possibility of a return of the anti-Constitutional Fairness Doctrine under a Democrat administration, various Canadian “rights” commissions/groups are doing their part to stifle speech up north, as Mark Steyn explains:
As revealed here a few weeks ago, the investigative unit of the Ontario “Human Rights” Commission recommended to the Commissioners that they not proceed against Maclean’s for having the temerity to publish an excerpt from my book. The Commissioners have now released their final ruling and have decided not to hear the case. Of course, being apparatchiks of the pseudo-”human rights” establishment, they couldn’t leave it at that. So they added the following:
“While freedom of expression must be recognized as a cornerstone of a functioning democracy, the Commission strongly condemns the Islamophobic portrayal of Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and indeed any racialized community in the media, such as the Maclean’s article and others like them, as being inconsistent with the values enshrined in our human rights codes. Media has a responsibility to engage in fair and unbiased journalism.”
So in effect the Ontario “Human Rights” Commission, the world leaders in labiaplasty jurisprudence, have decided that, even though they don’t have the guts to hear the case, they might as well find us guilty. Ingenious! After all, if the federal Human Rights Commission hadn’t been so foolish enough to drag Marc Lemire to trial, their bizarre habits of posting their own hate messages using telecommunications fraud and identity theft would never have come to light. If they’d simply skipped the trial and declared Mr Lemire guilty anyway, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in.
So, having concluded they couldn’t withstand the heat of a trial, the OHRC cut to the chase and gave us a drive-thru conviction. Who says Canada’s “human rights” racket is incapable of reform? As kangaroo courts go, the Ontario branch is showing a bit more bounce than the Ottawa lads.
And as Canadian publisher Ezra Levant (who has already survived a prior lawsuit threat over his publishing of the Mohammed cartoons) wrote earlier in the week, he and other conservative bloggers in Canada are being sued by former Canadian Human Rights Commission member Richard Warman who, in essence, wants to shut down Canadian conservative voices on the Internet.
Make sure to read Ezra’s post in full for the details of what’s happening, and then go here to find out how you can help the coming legal costs of the conservative voices who Warman is attempting to silence via government force. By standing in solidarity with our conservative brothers and sisters in Canada, we can help make a difference.
I’d just like to point out that as of this writing, the Wiki page on CHRC gives nary a hint to any lingering controversy regarding the article subject, and neither does the page on Mr. Warman, who comes off as sort of a glorious, kind-hearted legal-minded Nazi hunter acting purely out of altruistic motives.
I would further add it seems the talk pages behind both of those, reveal some promise that something enlightening might burst to the front article pages soon.
It’s understandable there’s a fine line between mentioning controversy and straying out of the narrow realm of encyclopedic information. But the notion that the whole conundrum is solved, in both cases, by simply leaving the controversies unmentioned — I find that shocking. Especially since, it would appear, Mr. Warman seems to be engaging his shenanigans as his new full-time gig, tax free.
Oops, hope I’m still allowed to say that.
Comment by Morgan K Freeberg @ 4/10/2008 - 12:56 pm
I wonder what Mr. Warman will be thinking the moment he ceases to be “useful”.
Comment by steveegg @ 4/10/2008 - 1:34 pm
While true and rarely practiced, would that the OHRC follow suit in spirit at least.
So did the 80 plus signatures at Duke ever get slapped upside the head for their leadership role back then and by example, continue to demonstrate in how this and other cases is/are played?
Comment by forest hunter @ 4/10/2008 - 8:26 pm
Let’s see. The dems have:
Ted “Lady killer” Kennedy
John “ABSCAM” Murtha
Bill and Hillary “Natural Born Liars” Clinton
Jimmy “I love terrorists” Carter
To name just a few.
Right as usual, Howie. I feel sorry for the fish in that picture. I hope he got to wash himself off after Howie touched him.
Comment by NC Cop @ 4/11/2008 - 2:38 pm