Section 13 will not go away, and soon will revert to the form found constitutional in the Taylor case.
...which means minus the section 54 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (should this be found to be unconsitutional on appeal).
Even while we're waiting for an appeal of the Hadjis decision, I suspect any new s13 cases will go forward without an attempt at extracting S54 penalties from the respondent, and with greater attempts at "mediation" from the staff of the various HRCs. After all, the point is or should be that the offending material is removed from circulation. And, even without the S54 penalties, once a cease and desist order has been issued by a tribunal, ignoring that order can lead to a finding of "contempt" and, in some cases, jail time.
The s54 penalties are, from the POV of the law's purpose--ie. expunging hateful material--something of a frill. The law would seem to function without them.
Update: Pearl Eliadis agrees.
Just in case you hadn't seen this editorial from the toronto star im passing it on.
ReplyDeleteOn the narrow point of whether the appropriate remedy was awarded in the recent Lemire decision, I must reluctantly concede that you guys have a good case that its only the punitive section which should have been read out of the law, at least based on the constitutionality analysis of the decision.
But the question of what to read-in/read-out strike-out or whatnot after a finding of unconstitutionality is a tough one, and Im not surprised that Hadjis took the easy road.
For the actual law on charter remedies you should check out Vriend and Schachter.
I must reluctantly concede that you guys have a good case that its only the punitive section which should have been read out of the law...
ReplyDeleteWell, given this concession, I will concede that I don't support the punitive remedies. Never have in fact. I thought injunction was enough.
I suspect that Richard Warman really doesn't care much about the financial penalty either in the end. Although the likes of Lemire and Fromm think he's getting rich off of these complaints, I strongly suspect he spends more that he actually recovers. In the end what matters is the cease and desist order.
ReplyDelete