Free Republic

Greg Elliott faces up to six months in prison. His crime? Disagreeing with "two Toronto female political activists, Steph Guthrie and Heather Reilly," three years ago. Elliott has already lost his job since his arrest. It is not alleged that Elliott threatened Ms. Guthrie or Ms. Reilly in any way, nor is it alleged that he sexually harassed them. The original source of the arrest came when Ms. Guthrie tweeted that she wanted to “sic the Internet” on a video game programmer who created a game in which virtual people punched a feminist. Guthrie contacted employers to tell them not...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "A Federal Court judge ruled Friday that the final terrorism suspect being held in Canada on a national security certificate be released. Justice Richard Mosley ruled Hassan Almrei, who has been in custody since October 2001, can no longer justifiably be detained." SNIPPET: "Almrei, a Syrian, came to Canada in 1999 as a refugee claimant. He was arrested in Toronto in 2001 after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service alleged he was part of a Sunni extremist network. He initially denied the allegations against him, but later explained he had taken part in paramilitary activities in Afghanistan...

You know the mission to denormalize Canada's corrupt and abusive human rights commissions has reached a certain level of success when the HRCs are the punchline in popular jokes -- or, in this humour column in the Globe and Mail, the basis for a whole satirical "human rights" trial: Rudolph vs. Santa. Some excerpts: In December of 2006, this rights commission was asked to investigate claims of discrimination based on physical disability with regards to a reindeer, Rudolph. ...Rudolph suffers from a facial disfigurement. ...The commission finds this case to be troubling from start to finish. Its members note with...

The scandal-plagued Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has had a rough year — and it just got rougher. On Monday, Richard Moon, a University of Windsor law professor, released his report on the CHRC’s troubling penchant for Internet censorship. Moon had been hand-picked by the CHRC to review its conduct, so the whole arrangement had at first looked pretty cozy. In the past, Moon had written favourably about government limits on free speech. That, plus a large payment for his brief report, made Moon’s review look like a PR stunt, especially since the CHRC simultaneously hired the pricey lobby firm...

August 28, 2008 Natalie Dagenais Canadian “Human Rights” Commission 344 Slater Street Ottawa, ON K1A 1E1 Dear Natalie, Re: Rob Wells v. Ezra Levant I received your letter dated August 8, 2008. At first I wasn’t sure it was yours, because you didn’t write your name on it, and your signature was illegible. I can understand your shyness. It has become an embarrassment to publicly admit to being a “human rights investigator” in Canada, because Canadians have caught on to what you really do: you don’t actually protect human rights, you violate them. At least you didn’t sign it as...

WINNIPEG — A Jewish human rights organization says it is being unfairly targeted in a discrimination complaint that it can’t possibly defend. Legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada said the organization has been dogged by a four-year-old complaint to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission where specifics of the alleged wrongdoing have not been spelled out and the complainant never witnessed the alleged incident. ‘‘We’re involved in shadow-boxing,’’ lawyer David Matas said Thursday of B’nai Brith’s attempts to defend a complaint of discrimination. ‘‘It’s been 4 1/2 years and we don’t understand why this (complaint) hasn’t been dismissed as frivolous,’’ he...

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a hate speech complaint against Maclean's magazine. Brought by Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, the complaint was the centrepiece of a three-pronged offense against what he sees as Islamophobia in the national newsweekly, with columnists Mark Steyn and Barbara Amiel the main offenders. An identical complaint, brought with the help of three Muslim law students who became the public faces of the complaint, was rejected in Ontario on jurisdictional grounds. The third was heard this month by a British Columbia tribunal, which is now deliberating. Announcing the decision (the...

<p>Oh, yeah, he wants $150,000 in damages, but he is willing to settle this for the bargain price of $10,900.</p> <p>And, to silence them.</p> <p>All under the aegis of "rights..."</p> <p>At least with a common street criminal, you know you are dealing with a crook- he is nothing more than a silk-shirted thief.</p>

...Well, maybe Vigna has calmed down. His threat to sue me was in April, and it's June now. Maybe he has finally found that serenity he sought. Nope. Now my parents tell me that Vigna has been harassing them at their home. Vigna has been sending a private investigator to my parents' house again and again, demanding to see me. My parents, who are far more polite than I am, keep telling Vigna's hired tough guy that I don't live there anymore. I did when I was a teenager. But that was in 1990. The last time Vigna's hired muscle...

The Conservative government has introduced a motion to Parliament's Justice Committee proposing an investigation into the abusive, corrupt practises of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The motion specifically refers to public "concerns" about the CHRC's "investigative techniques" and their "interpretation and application" of the section 13 thought crimes provision. The resolution, which you can read here in both official languages, was put forward by Rick Dykstra (pictured at left), the Conservative MP from St. Catherines, Ontario, with the knowledge and approval of the Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson. Here is an e-mail from Nicholson, sent to a voter just today, in...

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...

Canada goosed By Pete Vere January 9, 2008 SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario An attempt to have a Canadian panel stifle Mark Steyn poses a threat to American freedom of speech, the conservative columnist says. The Canadian author told The Washington Times in a telephone interview that the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) agreeing to investigate a Muslim complaint against him opens a new front on threats to Canadians' press and religious freedom: speech that originates in the United States. "There are attempts to circumscribe the First Amendment, and certain groups have become very adept at using legal and quasi-legal methods...