Posted on 04/10/2008 7:55:30 AM PDT by Clive
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) still doesn't get it. The problem isn't the foulmouthed racists being investigated; it's the body itself.
As Joseph Brean reported in Saturday's Post, Ian Fine -- senior general counsel and director-general of dispute resolution at the CHRC -- began a recent interview by reading out loud some of the most poisonous bits of speech the CHRC has dealt with. The idea seemed to be that if the public could be made to realize how vile and mean the material before the CHRC can be, they would end their growing criticisms of the commission.
The defence misses the point. This editorial board and others who have called for an end to the CHRC's power to investigate hate speech are fully aware that much of the writing and speech the commission encounters is quite vicious. But we're also aware that if the right to free expression is to mean anything at all, then controversial speakers are entitled to its protection.
The CHRC might be wise to revisit philosopher John Stuart Mill's warning that when society squelches speech, everyone loses, not just the speaker: "The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it." As Mill argues, the healthiest option for society is to give all opinions an airing, even those that are false and rejected by the majority. Otherwise, we lose out on "the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."
Never does one like to come out against "human rights." Perhaps that is why Canadians have been so patient with their federal human rights commission despite the intrusive and unhealthy limitations it puts on our freedom of expression. But with the recent high profile CHRC cases against Maclean's magazine and former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant -- which have highlighted the lack of due process in the CHRC's procedures -- that patience is finally starting to wear thin.
Unfortunately for the CHRC, reciting all the nasty speech in the world isn't going to win back public sympathy.
Not to mention that the CHRC is itself full of foulmouthed racists who “planted” hate-filled racist rants on targeted sites.
Free speach means that people will say things you don’t like. The only alternative is that you will occasionally be forbidden from speaking the truth. Those are the only two choices the laws of nature permit. Choose one.
Is there any power in Canada who can shut down this Commission?
The CHRCs don’t care about anything other than the ability to “beat up” people and claim to be morally superior. They screwed up and tried to beat up a “big fry.” They are trying to announce to the Canadian public they are happy to go back and beat eat small fries. The Canadian public are foolish if they don’t understand that small fries would include them, Canadian public.
Thus the name of the commission, instead of the more apt Canadian Censorship Board.
As with most government entities, the error was in creating this commission. All such agencies become self-perpetuating. If there is no real grievance to address they will create some to justify their existence.
If headed by power hungry bullies they become a bigger problem but even if run by mild mannered and well intention people the underlying problem, never ending self-perpetuation, still exists and they must find something to do.
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