The Speechy Bowl! Court Date Set in Warman Vs. Lemire!

December 13 and 14, 2011
Federal Court of Canada
180 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario

Warman  and the CHRC  vs. Marc Lemire hits the court on that date.  I've written tons about this legal battle. Marc Lemire is the white supremacist that Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman brought before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for violating Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act--its hate-speech provision.  The case will have important implications for fighting the spread of hate-speech in Canada. 

Here's what the guys on CHRC side will argue:

The Supreme Court of Canada clearly ruled that s. 13 was constitutional long before the penalty provisions were added to it. As such, Mr. Hadjis should have simply ignored the penalty provisions and applied the appropriate cease and desist order against Mr. Lemire," [Joel Richler, CJC National Honourary Legal Counsel] added.

"This action is known as the doctrine of 'reading out' - a well-established practice endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada under which the portion of a law that may be unconstitutional is edited out but the remaining constitutional elements are applied. Mr. Hadjis should have 'read out' of section 13(1) the penalty provisions and preserved the rest of the section. Mr. Hadjis failed to consider this option, even though the Supreme Court of Canada has been clear that section 13(1) is perfectly constitutional," Richler explained.