[Canada] Gay rights 1, free speech 0

National Post ^ | 30 March 2004

[MegaSilver]

This week, the Senate is expected to pass an amendment to the Criminal Code that will limit religious freedom and freedom of expression in Canada. Bill C-250, a private member's bill introduced by Svend Robinson, MP for Burnaby-Douglas, will make it a crime to "communicate statements in any public place" that "wilfully promote hatred against any identifiable group," including gays. Observant Christians, and others who view homosexuality as immoral, worry the new law will serve to ban the Bible, the Koran and other holy texts as hate literature and criminalize sermons that condemn homosexuality as sinful. Given the ambiguous wording of Mr. Robinson's bill and the recent willingness of Canadian courts and human rights tribunals to shove aside religious liberty whenever gay litigants complain the dogma offends them, C-250's opponents are right to be worried. Whatever one thinks of gay rights or same-sex marriage, it is unconscionable in a democracy that one side should succeed in using the law to shut up the other.

Originally passed by the Commons last fall over the objections of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and other religious organizations, C-250 died in the Senate when Parliament prorogued in December. The Liberal government of Paul Martin, however, consented to have the law reintroduced where it left off when Parliament reconvened last month. Senators hurried to get it through a series of "public" hearings almost no one knew about. The committee gave most opponents just three business days' warning to appear, then lumped them together on unwieldy panels and allowed each of them 10 minutes or less to speak. Several witnesses said afterwards they were certain senators had made up their minds in advance and merely wanted it to appear as though they had consulted Canadians.

It is true, as Mr. Robinson and other backers of the bill point out, that the Criminal Code was amended when C-250 was before the Commons to exempt from hate crimes prosecution opinions "based on a belief in a religious text." As the CCCB points out, though, the amendment does not adequately address fears that an activist judge somewhere will convict a strident priest or pastor for counselling against homosexuality from the pulpit.

Judges and human rights commissioners have demonstrated repeatedly that laws to protect religious freedom are not worth the velum they are printed on. In an infamous 2002 case, a Saskatchewan Queen's Bench judge upheld a human rights ruling that equated the Bible with hate literature. Hugh Owens, a strident evangelical, ran an ad in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix citing, but not quoting, four scriptural passages that declare the sinfulness of gay and lesbian sex. Next to the four citations, Mr. Owens placed two stick men holding hands. Superimposed on them was a circle with a line through it. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission ruled, and a federal judge concurred, that the "forbidden" symbol by itself was not hateful to gays, but "when combined with the passages from the Bible ... would expose or tend to expose homosexuals to hatred or ridicule." According to the reasoning of the Saskatchewan judge, had Mr. Owens been brought before him under C-250, he likely would not have been able to avail himself of the religious exemption, and so might now have a criminal record courtesy of his Christian beliefs.

Mr. Owens' case does not stand in isolation. Scott Brockie, a Christian with a print shop in Toronto, was forced at about the same time to do printing for a gay and lesbian advocacy group, even though he claimed that doing so would force him to compromise his religious convictions. A board of inquiry for the Ontario Human Rights Commission declared that while Mr. Brockie was "free to hold his religious beliefs and to practise them in his home, and in his Christian community," in public, the rights of gays trumped his religious freedom. And last month, a B.C. court upheld the suspension of Chris Kempling, a high school counsellor, not for anything he did or said at school, but rather for writing letters to the editor of his local newspaper questioning the naturalness of the homosexual lifestyle.

All of these cases occurred before C-250 will make speaking out against homosexuality a crime. Now that the law is changing, many religious Canadians will likely simply shut up, lest their religious convictions land them in jail. This is a sad day for Canada: The enshrinement of gay rights is taking place at the expense of expressive freedoms that civilized nations have taken for granted for generations.

[MegaSilver]

Canada is fast becoming a beacon of militant totalitarian atheism. I fear the future...

[South40]

It's Canada; do you expect any different?

[speedy]

Does this mean if someone says hateful things against Christians or Conservatives, they can be sent to jail? Doesn't this cut both ways? And what precisely is the definition of "hateful" anyway?

[B Knotts]

"Hate" is whatever the left decides it is.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping - It's official. Saying anything negatives about homosexuality will now be a crime up north.

Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.

[Unam Sanctam]

This is frightening. How long will it take for religious and speech rights in our Constitution to be vitiated?

[Spok]

"worry the new law will serve to ban the Bible, the Koran and other holy texts as hate literature'

The only danger is to the Bible. Once terrorists kill a couple more thousand innocents, I'm sure the Koran will become required reading in Canadian public schools.

[oldtimer]

Canada - and I was thinking of emigrating there if Kerry gets elected.

Recently bought a lot on an island in BC area, and ... osht.

[victoryatallcosts]

No one will ever be convicted of saying anything hateful about conservatives or Christians. A few years ago one Liberal MP told the House of Commons that there were "crosses being burned in Prince George as we speak" (or something like that).

Don't be silly: hate laws are only for conservatives. I'm waiting to see how long before they try to criminally prosecute someone. Frankly, I'm tempted to file a crminal complaint that, since a local bookstore stocks the Bible, it is "trafficking in hate literature" just to see if the police would respond. But I'm afraid that the complaint would stick.

Hopefully the US doesn't pass any such law as, until it does, Canadians prosecuted for "inciting hatred" against homosexuals could make an asylum claim in the United States. Or, so I'm told.

[MegaSilver]

This is frightening. How long will it take for religious and speech rights in our Constitution to be vitiated?

With Sandra O'Traitor and her fellow justices illegally conspiring with foreign governments as to how to rule on cases, who knows?

[MegaSilver]

Does this mean if someone says hateful things against Christians or Conservatives, they can be sent to jail? Doesn't this cut both ways?

I seriously doubt it.

[Unam Sanctam]

A few years back some feminazis trashed the Montreal cathedral and wrote hate-filled epithets. The authorities declined to treat it as a hate crime. The left does not consider hate crimes against Christians to be hate crimes.

[backhoe]

I don't have it handy, but I have saved somewhere a letter to the Washington Times, circa 1998 from a Canadian ( Susan Bates, I think ) who warned that "hate crime prevention laws" in Canada "made her a criminal if she pointed out that homosexual sex spreads AIDS." Indeed, she even said that citing statistics to back her claim was criminal.

I've been warning people about this ever since.

[Drango]

Oh Canada...

[speedy]

I did assume that this law is directed only at those who stand to the right of center, and that it never occurred to the people who support it that it could be used against them if applied logically (which it would not be, obviously). Assuming you are a Canadian, my hat is off to you for fighting what must be a lonely battle. Best of luck.

[yankeedame]

Saying anything negatives about homosexuality will now be a crime up north.

Tsk-tsk-tsk, it's not that simple. Its, "Saying anything perceived, assumed, and/or considered negative about homosexuality will now be a crime up north."

[victoryatallcosts]

Though, in one rare case, they were used against an Indian leader. That was rather exceptional.

Of course, he made a speech in which he declared that "Hitler was right" and talked at length about "frying Jews."

That fellow, by the way, was a holder of the Order of Canada. Sort of our version of the Medal of Freedom.

Nice country we have here.

[sergeantdave]

It looks like a few provinces in Canada need to succede. Who's going to stop them? Are the liberal, Maoist females from Toronto going to hop on their brooms and bomb Alberta? Time for the men to show these NOW nags and their girly-boys the kitchen, the pot and the scrub brush.

[DemWatch]

YES! Let's hear it for Canada --- the land where having the "wrong" opinion is a crime...really, who cares about free speech? [/sarcasm] Note to self...NEVER GO TO CANADA.

My sister will be in Québec all next week ... I'm waiting to hear the stories about this trip when she comes back...

[sergeantdave]

succede=secede (geez!)