If you haven't been keeping track of the soft sharia that's creeping up in Canada, then you must read Kathy Shaidle's article on Free Speech vs. Muslim Sensibilities.
You will not believe the kangaroo courts, ostensibly set up to "protect human rights", but which operate to intimidate those who don't accept the ideology of multiculturalism and don't believe that the right not to be offended trumps the right of free speech, the right to practice one's religion and the right of due process.
Sean Murphy of the Catholic Civil Rights League aptly summed up one notorious case, in which, "a Christian printer is ordered to produce business cards and letterhead for an organization that promotes pro-pedophilia essays, is fined $5,000 for having refused to do so and is left with $40,000 in legal bills for daring to defend himself."
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Most Canadians don't realize that these Commissions and tribunals aren't "real" courts. They operate outside the criminal justice system in an Orwellian world of their own. To the CHRCs, traditional rules of evidence don't apply. Truth is no defense. Commissioners can confiscate a defendant's computer without a warrant. Defendants can be forced to apologize to their accusers, even though the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that even convicted murderers cannot be obliged to apologize to their victim's family; that, the Court ruled, would be, "cruel and unusual punishment."
Incredibly, the CHRCs boast a Stalinist 100 percent conviction rate: no one has ever been found "not guilty." Columnist David Warren's chilling description of CHRC tribunals is impossible to improve upon:
"They are kangaroo courts, in which the defendant's right to due process is withdrawn. They reach judgments on the basis of no fixed law. Moreover, 'the process is the punishment' in these star chambers -- for simply by agreeing to hear a case, they tie up the defendant in bureaucracy and paperwork, and bleed him for the cost of lawyers, while the person who brings the complaint, however frivolous, stands to lose nothing. (...)
"That's why you go to an HRC: because your case is not good enough to stand up in a legitimate court of law. And because you don't want to invest your own time and money, but would rather the taxpayer provide officers to do the paperwork, and pick up the tab. Instead, you want a slam-dunk way in which you can victimize someone you don't like, by playing the victim yourself, without any financial or legal consequences, except to him. 'Human rights' commissions were designed to provide just this service, for the use of persons who are both litigious, and lazy."
Two people caught up in the madness that are Canada's Human Right Commissions are Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, yes that Mark Steyn.
Ezra Levant printed the Mohammed cartoons in his magazine the Western Standard.
An excerpt from Mark Steyn's America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It" was reprinted in Canada's largest weekly magazine, Maclean's.
There are existing laws against defamation, death threats and libel that work perfectly well. Neither Steyn nor Levant said or did anything that would make them liable in a court of law. What the Human Right Commissions are attempting to regulate is not a crime but political thought and expression that may offend an individual or a group.
Ezra Levant was smart enough to have his interrogation sessions videotaped which he then put up on YouTube where they were seen by over half a million people and promptly became a hero to me and many, many others for his eloquent defense which can be seen here
Ezra Levant's Opening Statement
Ezra Levant, I don't answer to the state.
His website, ezralevant.com, keeps us informed of the fast-moving events in this case and in another threatened lawsuit by one Richard Warman and the support he has received.
the former investigator for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, who quit the commission in 2004 to become the commission’s biggest customer. Approximately half of all complaints filed under the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s section 13 “idea crimes” provision have been filed by Warman. The CHRC has a 100% conviction rate under that section, and besides ordering the poor shleps Warman complains about to pay fines to the government, they’re often ordered to pay thousands of dollars to Warman himself, too, for his “hurt feelings”. Unlike the paycheque he got when he used to work there, the cash he gets from commission fines is tax free.
Warman and his friends at the CHRC aren’t hitting me with a human rights complaint – not yet, anyways. But he is threatening me with the most bizarre defamation lawsuit I think I’ve ever encountered.
A new website Free Mark Steyn keeps track of the Steyn and Levant cases and the furious debate in Canada and in the blogosphere.
Thanks so much Jill. Spread the word!
While fighting his own battles, Ezra has rushed to the aid of other bloggers being harrassed for the same reasons.
Posted by: Kathy Shaidle at February 27, 2008 6:41 AMSent the following to the National Post today:
Dear Sir:
Marvin Kurz, a good citizen and Legal Counsel for a decent special interest group, writes on the day of our National Budget and asks that we ignore “those who will undoubtedly try to subvert the work of the human rights commissions”. Only, he doesn’t ask for justice, and he doesn’t speak with respect for our Charter of Rights. I can’t remember the last time he expressed friendship for his legal colleague Alan Borovoy, Chief Counsel for the Canadian Civil Rights Association, who has stated that “During the years when my colleagues and I were labouring to create the human rights commissions, we never imagined that they might ultimately be used against freedom of speech”. Now, if Marvin would be a friend of the Canadian people and support, like every major newspaper in the country, the repeal of the vile Section 13(1) of the human rights act, then his enemies would become our enemies, and they would learn to fear him.