The Canadian Human Rights Commision has responded to the growing accusations that they are an affront to Canadian values like freedom and civil liberties, a campaign led by bloggers such as Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn.
According to this story, the head of dispute resolution for the HRC spends his days protecting us from people who dare to have an opinion different than that of the mainstream.
“Savage commie Jews hate European beauty and nobility” being one of the worst things he’s dealt with, along with something “to the effect that “a nigger will try to kill you just for a slice of pizza or a piece of chicken”.
Keep in mind that it it was “to the effect” of that. It wasn’t actually said.
How DARE those people offend us with their evil, evil views?
Later in the article, he said that the opinion that free speech needs to be controlled is actually held by the majority of countries in the world, and America’s ‘absolute’ freedom is really a minority view. And he’s right, really. Just look at all the countries we should be emulating! China, Saudi Arabia, THOSE are the countries that really respect the freedom of speech.
In the same breath, he had this to say: “Freedom of expression is the lifeblood of any free and open society and the commission embraces freedom of expression”. So they embrace the freedom of expression, but they think it has to be censored. After all, Canadians aren’t mature enough to handle opinions that they find distasteful.
Don’t get me wrong. I find these opinions distasteful. But they have just as much a right to speech as I do. You have to take the bad with the good if you want to maintain a “free and open” society. The HRC has no problem with “fashionable minorities” like blacks, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals. But Nazis, white supremacists or, God forbid, Ezra Levant? They get to be “limited”.
igloogirl wrote:
The arrogance of this SOB is mind boggling. As if Canadians want this hack deciding for us! His whole circus MUST be shut down. Listening Conservative Party of Canada? Quit asking me to contribute to your fund until you kick these do-nothings to the moon!
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 12:35 pm | Permalink
C wrote:
The HRC has no problem with fashionable minorities.
Jews are a fasionable minority.
Ezra Levant is a jew.
Ezra Levant is an unfasionable minority.
No, I give up. I don’t follow the logic.
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 1:32 pm | Permalink
Grog wrote:
Ask yourself this: When does someone’s “freedom of expression” begin to impinge upon the rights of others?
For example, should it be “protected expression” to call for violence against an arbitrary group of people? Or, at that point in time, has the “freedom” begun to impinge upon the legitimate rights of others?
I’ve argued before that individual rights - including freedom of expression - exist in a state of tension with the legitimate rights of others.
No right is an absolute, for if it were, it could easily be abused. The real question you should be asking yourself is what is the balance point between the competing rights involved, and how should we as a society achieve that balance?
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 2:13 pm | Permalink
Adam Dyck wrote:
C: The expression of his that is being “limited” could hardly be considered a Jewish activism issue.
Grog: It crosses the line when it stops being words. Not before.
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
Kathy Shaidle wrote:
Personally, I don’t care much for the idea of “society” trying to “achieve a balance”.
What would this balance look like and how would it be “achieved”?
Like “fair” prices and wages, this balance is too subjective to be measurable and controllable. It isn’t like there’s a giant social thermostat…
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 4:09 pm | Permalink
Caveman wrote:
Balance can only be achieved on the free market of ideas. Government has absolutely no business interfering in the free market, be it of goods and services or of ideas. Bureaucrats and politicians are the absolutely worst judges of anything other than their own entitlements to petty power and its rewards. HRCs are an affront to human intelligence, and those who support them are incredibly objectionable cretins whose offspring should be sterilized lest that particular strain of imbecility is passed on to future generations.
Pierre Elliot Trudeau, I hope you’re suffering in the hell expounded by all monotheistic religions from the highest pulpits, because you’ve certainly turned Canada from a sensible country to an incredibly ugly version of politically correct hell by inventing that most despicable of all instutions, the HRCs.
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
C wrote:
Adam: I’m sorry if I misread your intentions in this posting: if you meant to write Jewish ativism issues, rather than Jews, which particular Jewish activism issues did you have in mind as being fashionable?
Posted on 05-Apr-08 at 8:26 pm | Permalink
Adam Dyck wrote:
Things like holocaust awareness: Everyone knows about the holocaust, nobody’s going to take seriously claims that it didn’t happen or that it “wasn’t that bad”, and yet countries like Germany and France have laws in place to prevent people speaking out in that way.
Posted on 08-Apr-08 at 12:13 pm | Permalink