Hossain Won't Be Charged

...but hate crime complaints will be expedited in Ontario.

Somehow I missed this one (from early in the month), but Ontario AG Chris Bentley has reconsidered and confirmed that he will not press charges against Salman Hossain, a Bangladeshi-Canadian who claimed to enjoy watching "blood flow from the western troops" and suggested that Jews be deported.

On the other hand, he has proposed several changes in protocol that would hasten the processing of hate crime complaints within Ontario. For one thing, any requests for charges under the hate propaganda sections of the Criminal Code will quickly be brought to the attention of the Attorney General [rather than being pre-screened by the local crown attorney], and that decisions on formal requests for charges will be made within 60 days. Indeed, Mr. Hossain's case languished for months before it reached the AG's desk, and this might have had something to do with its eventual dismissal.

For another thing, the Minister has appointed:

Leibovitch, Deputy Director of the Crown Law Office – Criminal, as a liaison for police, the public or other interested parties in hate crimes cases.

Interesting developments. Human Rights activists like Warman and (I believe) Abrams have long complained about the difficulty in getting charges laid under the criminal code, and argued that the HRC/HRT apparatus plays an important role of catching stuff that probably meets the cc requirement but which, for whatever reason, the police/AG combination have chosen not to pursue. These procedural changes may make the criminal code a more useful instrument under such circumstances.

Also, The Standing Committee On Justice and Human Rights will be meeting this afternoon, with University of Law Professor Richard Moon (author of the semi-famous Moon Report) being among the witnesses. Moon, though an opponent of Section 13, gave a stem winder of a lecture recently, reproduced here in the NP, in which he accused CHRC opponents (Ezra Levant primarily) of dishonesty. Hopefully he will tell the subcommittee the same thing.

Bernie Farber's Statement Re Salman Hossain

In response to my question: in the Salman Hossain case, should the AG refuse to reconsider, would the CJC consider (is it considering?) launching a section 13 complaint under the CHRA?

Mr. Murphy:

For attribution

The facts of this case and the allegations against Mr. Hossain are of such a serious nature that it properly belongs, in our view, a matter under Canada's hate laws. We are hopeful that the Attorney-General will review this matter thoroughly. There remain a number of other potential legal possibilities that are currently under discussion by CJC's legal committee.

Best

BMF

Bernie M. Farber
Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Jewish Congress
4600 Bathurst St.
Toronto Ont.
M2R 3V2
416-635-2883 ext. 5186
PLEASE NOTE NEW EXTENSION
bfarber@on.cjc.ca

Meet Salman Hossain, Poster Boy For Section 13

From The NP:

A Toronto man who had posted messages on the Internet supporting terrorist attacks in Canada and the deportation of Jews will not face criminal charges, police said on Monday.

The CJC is not happy, and has asked that the

Ministry of the Attorney General to conduct a review of statements alleged to have been made by Salman Hossain to determine if charges should be laid under section 319(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada.

They are also asking for a meeting with the AG himself (Chris Bentley) so that they might "discuss this matter in greater detail".

Interesting to see what transpires. Human Rights activists like Warman and (I believe) Abrams have long complained about the difficulty in getting charges laid under the criminal code, and argued that the HRC/HRT apparatus plays an important role of catching stuff that probably meets the cc requirement but which, for whatever reason, the police/AG combination have chosen not to pursue.

Mr. Hossain's writings would be a perfect occasion for a section 13 complaint, and we'll see if the CJC makes any moves in that direction in the coming few months, should all else fail.

Just as an aside, Dawg has a good post on similar topics from last night. I'm feeling lazy today, and in any case I might do a post on Stephen Boisson at a later date, so I'll just note that I reject Dawg's equating the writings of Abou Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus Al-Hayiti with those of Stephen Boisson. I've given these reasons before, but here they are again:

I am unimpressed by the latest CHRC "scandal", and particularly unimpressed by the comparison of Mr. Al-Hayiti's book (L’Islam ou l’Intégrisme?), which the CHRC argued did not meet the Section 13 standard, to the writings of Stephen Boisson, which were judged to have met that standard. Most of my arguments get hashed out in the comments (ignore NAMBLA-Dick) here, but the short version is that Boisson's letter to the Red Deer Advocate triggered a real incident of gay bashing by one of Mr. Boisson's associates, and it is pretty easy to interpret his letter in context as a concrete call to action against the local homosexual community (as opposed to Mr. Al-Hayiti's book, in which the offensive language is rather vague).

Incidentally, at the time I was able to contact Mr. Al-Hayiti, and he wrote back to me:

Maybe the complaint should have been against the Qor'an, the Word of God! Or maybe even against the bible also! Do you think the commission should censor God? Everything I said in my book is from the revelation, not from me! I have nothing else to say.Thank you!

...which didn't impress me at the time, but now seems to bear out the argument made in Dawg's comments that Al-Hayiti is describing what the Qor'an says about, for example, gays--that they shall be punished by Allah, at some point--not demanding that people should run out and start beheading them. Still offensive, sure. But missing several of the properties that give something up to the S13 standard.