Lawyer: Free Speech An Okay Theory, Shutting People Up Is Better

Faisal Joseph in The Jurist:

The media cannot shy away from its contributory role in the discrimination of Muslims any longer.

…

In principle, we could encourage more and better speech to counter the effects of prejudicial and hateful speech. In practice, a review of major Canadian publications indicates that the “more and better speech” is disturbingly scarce. When it comes to Muslims, right-wing journalists across the country have plenty to say. But who is providing the “more and better speech” to mitigate their toxic effects? The “more and better speech” formula fails marginalized minorities – a lesson that Canadian Muslims have painfully learned.

The rest.

But who is providing the “more and better speech” to mitigate their toxic effects?

Hack. You are. The Jurist just published the damn thing on their website. Sure, it’s only American, but someday you’ll make the big time in Canada.

The Human Rights Debate Club

TVO? Your cash. Human rights complaints? Your cash. An opportunity to hear both sides of an issue in a true debate? Worthless.

We’re guessing Steyn and the chickens won’t be sharing the same green room.

Latest proposal from TVO is for me to come on first for 15 minutes one-on-one with Steve Paikin to discuss “the larger ideas”, followed by the Sock Puppet Three on their own for 20 minutes to piss all over me, followed by me alone for a ten-minute rebuttal.

The rest.

We’re Sure They’ve Cleaned Up Their Act By Now

Blencoe v. British Columbia (Human Rights Commission) [2000]

Supreme Court decision:

Following the allegations against the respondent, media attention was intense.  He suffered from severe depression.  He did not stand for re-election in 1996.  Considering himself “unemployable” in British Columbia due to the outstanding human rights complaints against him, the respondent commenced judicial review proceedings in November 1997 to have the complaints stayed.  He claimed that the Commission had lost jurisdiction due to unreasonable delay in processing the complaints.  The respondent alleged that the unreasonable delay caused serious prejudice to him and his family which amounted to an abuse of process and a denial of natural justice.  His petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court of British Columbia.  A majority of the Court of Appeal allowed the respondent’s appeal and directed that the human rights proceedings against him be stayed.  The majority found that the respondent had been deprived of his right under s. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to security of the person in a manner which was not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

…

177   It is true that administrative delay was not the only cause of the prejudice suffered by the respondent.  Nevertheless, it contributed significantly to its aggravation.  It must be added, though, that this delay also frustrated the complainants in their desire for a quick disposition of their complaints.  Finally, the inefficient and delay-filled process at the Commission linked with the specific blunders made in the management of those particular complaints harmed all parties involved in this sorry process.  Its flaws were such that it may rightly be termed to have been abusive in respect of the respondent.  In this connection, I note that my colleague, Bastarache J., despite coming to the conclusion that the conduct of the Commission did not amount to an abuse of process, nevertheless found it necessary to award costs against the Commission in light of the “lack of diligence [it] displayed” (para. 136).  In my view, this further demonstrates the tension in this appeal and the fact that the conduct of the Commission in dealing with this matter was less than acceptable.

The rest.

Pundita Starts Digging

Do I hear a collective groan from M-446 supporters? Yes; getting rid of Section 13 won’t be much help if every Canadian province has a human rights code that contains wording similar to (b), which is virtually the same used in the key phrase in Section 13.(*) 

(The hearing schedule notes that the Section 7 complaint addresses “religion” as the specific area of discrimination in the Elmasry/Habib complaint.) 

This might partly explain the great confidence displayed by Canadian Islamic Congress lawyer Faisal Joseph at Wednesday’s press conference.

“If Maclean’s is ready to consider an opportunity for the Muslim population to have its say, we are ready for reasonable conciliation … One way or another it’s going to be dealt with, either by agreement or by an imposed decision.”

Joseph may not be bluffing. He may figure that even if his clients lose the Section 7 complaint in BC, there is a good chance that the CHRC tribunal will hear a version of the BC complaint under Section 13.

The rest.

The Proposal: Print Writers We All Can Get Along With

“However, in light of the editors’ latest assertion we are making a fair and reasonable proposal today. In exchange for Maclean’s publishing a mutually acceptable response to the Steyn article from an agreed upon author, we would be prepared to settle this matter.”

The rest.

Publicity Stunt

A classic. After several editorials, letters to the editor, and a spot in a CBC documentary, the Canadian Islamic Congress and a gaggle of students are now prepared to make a public offer to Maclean’s to rectify the magazine’s prejudiced views.

We call bullshit.

If newspapers, magazines, and CBC airtime aren’t already “public,” then what is?

THE CANADIAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS
PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

April 29, 2008

ISLAMIC CONGRESS AND LAW STUDENTS TO MAKE PUBLIC SETTLEMENT OFFER TO MACLEAN’S ON HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS

TORONTO – The Canadian Islamic Congress and a group of law students who recently filed human rights complaints against Maclean’s magazine for publishing Islamophobic content, are planning to present a public offer to the magazine’s management to settle the matter.

The rest.

Insensitive Company Tries To Protect Employees’ Lives

[April 1, 2008] Two Sikhs have filed a human rights complaint against a sawmill firm in Canada [Images], saying its new hard hat policy is preventing them from returning to their jobs.

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal accepted the complaint of Kalwant Singh Sahota and Mander Singh Sohal last month and asked International Forest Products to file its response by April 9.

The rest.

The next day, the company tried to protect lives and accomodate culture clash. The answer? Eat me.

Vancouver, April 2 (IANS) A sawmill company, against which its two Sikh employees have moved the provincial British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal for its mandatory hard-hats policy at work site, has offered them alternative jobs.

However, the petitioners and the Sikh leaders, who don’t want to set a bad precedent, met at a city gurudwara to carry their fight to conclusion.

The rest.

Yanks Have A Laugh At Lunatic Canucks

Say Anything:

So when McDonald’s gets sued for causing food poisoning or something along those lines, who gets the blame?  McDonalds itself or the Canadian government?

The rest.

Meanwhile, Overseas…

… a human rights commission worries about saving lives, investigating officials on the take, rescuing children, and telling the cops to do a better job.

From the files of the NHRC/OHRC (India):

1. NHRC to send investigation team to Kandhamal (1)

New Delhi, January 1: The National Human Rights Commission will send an investigation team to Kandhamal in Orissa to get a “first-hand information on the violence against the Christians there”. The commission made this decision after a delegation of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) met its Chairperson, Justice S Rajendra Babu, in New Delhi on Sunday with a memorandum. The memorandum urged for NHRC’s intervention to safeguard the lives of Christians living in the area.

4. Goel to approach NHRC again on Blueline issue (1)

NEW DELHI: Former Union Minister Vijay Goel announced on Friday that he would again approach the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to demand that it take up the issue of the Blueline bus menace in the Capital seriously as the matter involved the life and limbs of millions of people in the city. In a statement, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said the issue of Blueline buses killing people assumed greater significance in the wake of a recent “sting operation” that showed traffic police personnel taking bribes from Blueline bus operators.

6. ‘Abducted’ girl restored to parents, thanks to OHRC (1)

CUTTACK: A minor tribal girl of Nuapada district, who was abducted by a Chhattisgarh-based businessman in May 2007, was rescued by the State police recently and handed over to her parents following the intervention of the Orissa Human Rights Commission (OHRC). The police action came after the rights panel reprimanded them and directed Nuapada SP to personally pursue the case earnestly.

vs:

British Columbia, Canada

Peter Hayes is a pagan and also a sadomasochist and as such felt that he was discriminated against when he applied for a job as a chauffeur and needed a permit from the police. So he took his case to the Human Rights Tribunal.

Police argued that the laws which protect ‘sexual orientation’ do not extend to sadomasochism and paganism and these practices. The court ruled the police action as premature since that was the tribunal’s job to decide.

“How can the tribunal determine if BDSM falls within the meaning of ‘sexual orientation’ if it does not have a full understanding of what BDSM means?” Justice Anne Rowles reiterated.

Update: Perhaps Justice Rowles is correct.

From Xeromag:

“Trickier than it sounds. There’s more to being a dom than telling people what to do. There’s a lot more to it than telling people what to do. Anyone can do that; it no more makes you a dom than owning a border collie makes you a shepherd.”

Don’t Worry, We’re On It

From Law Is Cool:

We have tried to provide some exchange on this site, and hope that more members of the general public investigate the issue further.

Despite declining to hear the issue, the Commission issued a strong condemnation of Maclean’s…

The rest.

When Human Rights Collide

Deborah Chymyshyn and Tracey Smith booked a hall managed by the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic men’s organization, for their wedding in Vancouver in the fall of 2003. Shortly after, they discovered the Knights were not the same as the Elks as they had originally assumed, when their rental was cancelled and their deposit was returned.

The hall refused to host the celebration of what it had discovered would be a gay marriage. The couple complained that invitations listing the hall’s address for their reception had been mailed and the Knights then paid for a new hall rental and more invitations.

Fast forward:

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has awarded damages to two lesbian women who claim they were discriminated against by a Catholic men’s organization when they booked a hall for their wedding reception in the fall of 2003.

However, the tribunal also ruled Tuesday that the Knights of Columbus could have refused to host the party if it was in a manner contrary to its “core religious beliefs.”

But the tribunal said in its judgment that the Knights did so in a way that affronted the same-sex couple’s dignity, feelings and self-respect and should pay them $1,000 each, as well as reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses to compensate for their injuries.

The rest.

More Tribunal Greatest Hits

March 24, 2000:

Kelwona Mayor Walter Gray has been found guilty of discrimination by a B.C. Human Rights tribunal for having refused to use the word “pride” in his proclamation of “gay day”. LifeSite reported in December, 1998 that Gray felt his being forced to add “pride” infringed on his constitutional rights. “Don’t ask me to say I’m proud of the event,” he said…

Provincial Human Rights Tribunals (increasingly identified by critics as “kangaroo courts”) in Ontario and New Brunswick have thus far ordered three mayors to proclaim gay pride days and weeks despite their objections. The Mayors of London and Hamilton were fined $10,000 and $5,000 respectively for their “discrimination.” The court costs and fines for Mayor Dianne Haskett of London totaled more than $70,000.

The rest.

BCHRT Blast From The Past

Ultimately, the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal decided that there was no evidence Dutton had physically seduced Mahmoodi, but found him guilty anyway of “creating a sexualized environment.” He was fined $13,000. His legal expenses are already in six figures.

The rest.

What A Surprise. More Money.

Back on March 13, 2006:

Ultimately, the best thing that the minister can do to advance human rights, is to invest serious dollars into the system.

The rest.

Alan Shanoff on Triple Dipping

And just how is it that the same article can form the subject of complaints in three different jurisdictions? Can Crown attorneys in three jurisdictions start three prosecutions over the same subject matter? Can someone start three lawsuits in three jurisdictions over the same article? The answers are pretty obvious. Multiple proceedings should not be allowed and they aren’t — except when it comes to human rights complaints.

The rest.

And If He Could See?

North Shore Tax driver Behzad Saidy refused to take Bruce Gilmour and his dog from a West Vancouver coffee shop to Gilmour’s Vancouver home in January 2006, saying his Muslim religion prevented him from associating with dogs because they’re “unclean.”

Gilmour then filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

In addition to paying Gilmour $2,500, the taxi company was required to implement a policy for transporting blind people and their guide dogs.

The rest.