Human rights complaint over comic's lesbian remarks (Canada)

CTV News (Canada) ^ | July 26, 2008

[Stoat]

 Human rights complaint over comic's lesbian remarks

Updated Thu. Jun. 26 2008 11:13 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A Toronto comedian facing a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal hearing says offensive comments he made to two Vancouver lesbians were simply an attempt to stop them from heckling him on stage.

"I don't hate anybody based on their sexual orientation, or whatever, but I do hate hecklers and sometimes I get a little vehement," Guy Earle says in a radio interview posted on YouTube.

Earle said he was hosting a weekly open-mic night in a restaurant on March 22, 2007 when the two women moved up to the front of the audience and began swearing at him.

Earle said he asked them to stop and be quiet, but they refused. That's when he responded.

"I said, 'Come on, you're fat and ugly -- you're not even lesbian,'" the comedian said, adding he then made some remarks that had to do with oral sex and the use of a sex toy.

The exchange wasn't recorded but Earle admits that his response was brutal -- a tirade of derogatory comments targeting the women's sexual orientation.

"If anybody has seen my comedy, don't heckle me -- I get rude," Earle says in the interview.

The comedian says his comments were simply jokes, but most of the audience members left and started booing him.

When Earle got off the stage and walked past the women, one of them splashed a drink in his face.

Earle says he got back up on stage later to say goodnight and that when he walked past their table a second time, the same woman splashed another drink in his face and then stood in front of him as if she wanted to fight.

"I lost it for two seconds, and this is the part I do apologize for ... I pulled her sunglasses off her head, and right in front of her face, I broke them in half," says Earle, who admits he was "half-drunk" on vodka.

The comedian said when he showed up at the usual time the following week, there were picketers outside the restaurant, some holding signs that read, "Hate speech, not free speech."

Earle says Canadians are too politically correct.

"They pissed me off so I said some rude things. Does that mean I should go to court because ... they were based on some kind of minority or discrimination or something-something?"

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal will decide whether Earle's comments, which the complainant Lorna Pardy claims were "homophobic," violated the Human Rights Code on the basis of her "sex and sexual orientation."

Earle is now looking for a lawyer and he's hoping his newfound fame might help pay his legal bills. He's planning a comedy fundraiser for next month.

A preliminary decision released this week says both parties are far apart in their recollections of the incident and the amount of alcohol involved.

[Stoat]

A video report, including an interview with Guy Earle, is available at the CTV website.

This matter may remind readers of Mark Steyn's current free-speech related troubles:

CTV.ca Writer says he wants to lose human rights case

 

[goldstategop]

Telling a joke is now a crime in Canada. They used to outlaw them in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Its a measure of how far the benighted Dominion Of Canada has fallen, that telling a joke now can get you ensnared by the country's political correctness police.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[A_Former_Democrat]

What a waste of time and money, not to mention the chilling effects on speaking one’s mind.

[Ratblaster]

So these two lesbians walk into a bar...

[sono]

Don Rickles ... Please call your office.

[wilco200]

Is truth an absolute defense in Canada?

[massgopguy]

Meanwhile, Don Rickles was put on trial for Crimes Against Canada for his use of the term Hockey Puck as an insult.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Sticks and stones...

[andy58-in-nh]

So these two lesbians walk into a carpet store....

[Stoat]

Here's the YouTube interview with Guy Earle that's mentioned in the article....it runs for over 12 minutes.

BAD LANGUAGE ADVISORY

YouTube - Guy Earle's Vancouver Lesbian Controversy

[driftdiver]

So these two lesbians are mad because he was making a joke about mad lesbians.

[atomic conspiracy]

“Is truth an absolute defense in Canada?”

Given the record so far, they treat it as an aggravating factor.

[Anti-Bubba182]

More Human Rights Tribunal action.

[tlb]

Human Rights Tribunal hearings are an insult to a democratic society, but I’d hold off on taking sides between the comedian and the two ladies. This story smells wrong.

Consider, normally when a comedians slaps down a heckler, the audience LOVES it. Here the audience sided with the women. The crowd got up and walked out. Does that sound right to anybody? The story is incomplete.

[atomic conspiracy]

I considered emigrating to Canada when I left the UK in 1969.

I chose the States instead and I am more thankful every day that I did.

[snarks_when_bored]

Human rights complaint over comic's lesbian remarks (Canada)

Guy Earle should file a counter-complaint against the two female hecklers on the grounds that they were creating a hostile work environment for him. Then the whole case will become one of "Insulted Lesbians versus Insulting Lesbians".

[Stoat]

The crowd got up and walked out. Does that sound right to anybody? The story is incomplete.

I've gotten up and walked out of venues before when the performance wasn't what I wanted....but I didn't engage in a physical altercation with the performer or lodge a criminal complaint with him thereafter.

Guy Earle admits in the linked interviews that he 'may have lost the audience that night'.

[atomic conspiracy]

Breaking! CHRC has dropped its persecutioin of Steyn and Maclean's.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission, like any petty tyranny, has a strong instinct for survival. As I predicted last week on the Michael Coren Show, that instinct would cause them to drop the complaint against Mark Steyn and Maclean’s. And so they did.

With an RCMP investigation, a Privacy Commission investigation and a pending Parliamentary investigation, they’re already fighting a multi-front P.R. war, and losing badly. Not a day goes by when the CHRC isn’t pummelled in the media. Holding a show trial of Maclean’s and Steyn, like the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal did earlier this month, would be writing their own political death sentence.

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for pinging your list  :-)

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping Anti-bubba.

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for pinging your list  :-)

[Stoat]

WOW! very nice....thanks very much for posting.

Perhaps sanity is coming back into fashion?

[ClearCase_guy]

1) People who go to a comedy club may hear routines which they do not find funny.
2) People who go to a comedy club may hear routines which they find offensive.
3) People in a comedy club who are unhappy with the performance should find a better club.

4) Professional comedians may be heckled by patrons who are not amused and/or offended.
5) Professional comedians who cannot handle hecklers without losing control should find a new line of work.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[atomic conspiracy]

On FR: Canadian Human Rights Commission Blinks

[Paleo Conservative]

Telling a joke is now a crime in Canada.

But when you consider they just dropped their investigations of McCleans and Mark Steyn, they'll have a hard time justifying investigating this comic.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission blinks
Ezra Levant.com ^ | June 26, 2008 | Ezra Levant

Posted on 6/27/2008 7:19:17 AM by fanfan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037255/posts

[MWS]

This is sick.

A true human rights organization should only be able to deal with abuses by governments against their citizenry.

Individuals whom are seperate from the government cannot violate human rights - individual actions are regulated through government laws. I see nothing here that is worthy of being labeled as a “crime”.

It deeply scares me how international organizations that were once intended for purposes of protecting individuals from governments are now being turned on individuals themselves. That was, of course, the game plan all along... but it sure is ugly when you see it.

[Sertorius]

who admits he was “half-drunk” on vodka.

Hah, “absolut Canada!”

[KosmicKitty]

Two things:

1) Why is it some people need for the whole world to know their sexual orientation?

2) I haven’t heard anything about this case except for the article posted here on FR, but I get the feeling this could be a set-up.

[FormerACLUmember]

Canada is definitely losing its civil liberties. Not as badly as the loss of democracy in Venezuela or Zimbabwe, but a human rights disaster nonetheless.

The Canadian “Human Rights” commission are pure Orwellian misnomers.

And don’t think for a second that it could not happen in the USA, especially if Obama wins.

[fanfan]

My pleasure.

:-)

[kromike]

Canada is definitely losing its civil liberties.

Not necessaritly. Homosexuals and Muslims are merely privileged perpetually-aggrieved minorities now. If you limit all criticism & jokes to white people, Christians, conservatives, and President Bush, then there's nothing to see...move along.

[reagan_fanatic]

"I don't hate anybody based on their sexual orientation, or whatever, but I do hate hecklers and sometimes I get a little vehement,"

That's right - choose your words carefully, my friend. Before long, you'll be thrown into prison for saying anything derogatory about gays and lesbians, the new privileged and protected class.

[Stoat]

Two things:

1) Why is it some people need for the whole world to know their sexual orientation?

•     They know that it's a sledgehammer that they can use to simultaneously place themselves on a public pedestal as well as silence any contradictory statements.  In their diseased minds, it makes them special and unique.  Some may also not have anything else, such as intelligence, talent or skill, going on in their lives and this is the best that they can do.

2) I haven’t heard anything about this case except for the article posted here on FR, but I get the feeling this could be a set-up.

• A Google News search for keyword phrase 'guy earle' currently returns about a dozen different articles on the matter

- Google News

Two things:

1) Why is it some people need for the whole world to know their sexual orientation?

•     They know that it's a sledgehammer that they can use to simultaneously place themselves on a public pedestal as well as silence any contradictory statements.  In their diseased minds, it makes them special and unique.  Some may also not have anything else, such as intelligence, talent or skill, going on in their lives and this is the best that they can do.

2) I haven’t heard anything about this case except for the article posted here on FR, but I get the feeling this could be a set-up.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

But it’s still OK to be offensive to comics and assault them by throwing alcohol in their eyes.

[wolfcreek]

“When Earle got off the stage and walked past the women, one of them splashed a drink in his face.

Earle says he got back up on stage later to say goodnight and that when he walked past their table a second time, the same woman splashed another drink in his face and then stood in front of him as if she wanted to fight.”

Is it illegal to defend yourself in Canada? He was essentially assaulted. Twice!

[BooksForTheRight.com]

Straight, so automatically guilty.

[Squawk 8888]

Sure the story’s incomplete, but there’s no justification in prosecuting someone for being obnoxious.

[Jeff Chandler]

Breaking! CHRC has dropped its persecutioin of Steyn and Maclean's.

Bad news. A conviction of Steyn would have signaled the beginning of the end for the Commission.

[Stoat]

Telling a joke is now a crime in Canada. They used to outlaw them in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Its a measure of how far the benighted Dominion Of Canada has fallen, that telling a joke now can get you ensnared by the country's political correctness police.

An Obama Presidency (bite my tongue right off and flush it away) will bring the American legal system closer to the Canadian model, in my view.  May God help us if this comes to pass.

[Stoat]

What a waste of time and money, not to mention the chilling effects on speaking one’s mind.

Socialists delight in manufacturing problems where none would ordinarily exist.

[Stoat]

I considered emigrating to Canada when I left the UK in 1969.

I chose the States instead and I am more thankful every day that I did.

I'm glad that you did too  :-)

I considered emigrating to Canada when I left the UK in 1969.

I chose the States instead and I am more thankful every day that I did.

[Maverick68]

Wait...I thought it was America that had lost all its freedoms.....

[Old North State]

So these two blind lesbians walk into a fish market...

[LuxAerterna]

Is truth an absolute defense in Canada?

Unfortunately, no.

[Ramius]

Is truth an absolute defense in Canada?

That's part of the travesty of these "Human Rights Commissions" in Canada. In a real court, for something like Slander, there is still due process and the truth is an absolute defense. But the HRC are not courts. There is no due process, no presumption of innocence and not even any rules of evidence. They just make it up as they go along and do whatever they want to do at the time. But they do have the power to levy enforceable penalties (usually fines, I think).

It is exactly as much a Kangaroo court as it seems. Moreso than one could possibly devise.

Maclean's magazine and Mark Steyn were actually hoping to lose their case because they were going to full-court press in the appeals process and try to get the whole system tossed out, which probably would have been successful.

But the HRC backed off from Steyn. Probably because they sensed what would happen. So it lives on and somebody else is going to have to do it. Or Steyn just needs to write another column. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Anti-Bubba182.

[AU72]

He got called on the carpet, jokes.

[Liberty Valance]

Lesbitarians are usually pretty easy going. Good thing he didn’t mention their comfortable shoes.

[vpintheak]

So let me get this right. This guy says a bunch of things that makes these dikes upset, and he is in hot water. Meanwhile, one or both of these dikes actually physically assault him (yes it was just a drink) and there is no problem with that? What the heck?