Here We Go Again

A Tory MP plans to introduce legislation as early as Friday calling for the repeal of a section in the federal human rights code banning hate speech over the Internet.

My guess?  Once again, almost every journalist in the country will support it, and the Federal Government will realise that going ahead with a repeal is to trade their few hundred votes, and the votes of the racist fringe, for the votes of 100,000s of people who actually have steady jobs. 

It happens every time.

Who Says "The Right" Doesn't Use Human Rights Tribunals?

Here's  a story from Lifesite about Damian Goddard, whose messages on twitter in defense of "true marriage" allegedly got him fired from Sportsnet, taking the matter to the CHRT.  Presumably, he will argue that he was discriminated against on the basis of religion, he being a devout Roman Catholic. 

There.  Parity has been achieved.

On The New Head Of The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C. Q. C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the appointment of Shirish P. Chotalia, Q.C., as Chair of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

Ms. Chotalia is an fascinating choice, given the current state of the Speechy conflict. For one thing, in 2003 she was one of the three member CHRT panel that oversaw Richard Warman's very first Section 13 complaint (Richard Warman and the CHRC vs. Fred Kyburz), which resulted in Warman's being awarded $30,000 for death threats made against him by the respondent. (As an aside, one of the witnesses called during proceedings was Karen Mock, a lawyer for B'nai Brith--among other things--and these days the Liberal Party candidate for Thornhill.) And in 2007, Ms. Chotalia attempted to convince Alberta's Attorney General to press hate incitement charges against the diplomats at the Calgary Chinese Consulate for distributing anti-Falun Gong propaganda.

BUT: she has also spoke before the Chumir Ethics Foundation, who currently stand in opposition to section 13 and its provincial counterparts, although they have done so in a manner far more responsible than Ezra and the rest of his crew. And earlier, as a member of the Alberta's Civil Liberties Association, she demanded "a clearer definition of what the RCMP can and cannot do during its investigations".

An interesting resume, and proof I suppose that a real human life can straddle all sides of an issue.