Monday, June 09, 2008

The Great White North is a Brave New World   [Mark Hemingway]

On NRO this morning, we have an editorial up where we defend the right to free speech as exercised by our own Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine. It seems almost surreal that we would have to do so in supposedly free country like Canada in the 21st Century, but here we are.

NRO was one of a scant few media outlets that covered the Orwellian "human rights" tribunal of Steyn and Maclean's last week, where a bunch of bureaucrats in Vancouver currently sit in judgment of whether or not Steyn's opinions should be criminalized. As if that weren't bad enough, even fewer media have bothered to report on the Alberta "human rights" tribunal's decision last week — which fully illustrates how absurd and threatening these Canadian "human rights" commissions are.

In June of 2002, a Canadian minister, the Rev. Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper in Alberta condemning the "homosexual agenda." It was in no manner close to what could be construed as hate speech. But for having an unpopular and allegedly discriminatory opinion, two years later an anti-Christian activist brought a complaint about Boissoin was brought before the Alberta "human rights" commssion. In 2007, the Alberta tribunal found him guilty of, well, something. And Just last week they finally handed down their sentence against Boissoin.

The decision can be read here. It's worth taking a look at to see the mockery that the Canadian government is making of basic human rights. Boissoin was fined $5,000 and:

Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.

Further, Boissoin has been enjoined from saying anything "disparaging" about the scurrilous character that brought the complaint against him. That's right, under threat of legal penalty Mr. Boissoin is being told what he can and cannot say for the rest of his life. The Great White North has effectively become a Brave New World.

Ezra Levant, himself the subject of a Canadian inquisition, has more on the decision here.

06/09 10:04 AMShare