Human Rights Commissions no friends of freedom

By News on the Net —— Bio and Archives April 2, 2009

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What do human rights commissions and tribunals have in common with true justice, proper courts, equality for all and common sense. Very little it would appear. The more I hear of the absurdities and wreckless decisions these tribunals and commissions are responsible for the more I believe they are run by politically correct zealots bent on forcing the values of special interests groups on society and are in fact enemies of our long cherished freedoms of speech and religion.

Consider the experiences of Ezra Levant and an Alberta pastor with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Mr. Levant was interrogated for ninety minutes by a "human rights officer" because of complaints by the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and forced to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees for publishing some Danish cartoons in his Western Standard Magazine which were little more than mild satires on Islamic extremism. Rev. Stephen Boisson, a pastor in Red Deer, who wrote an article criticizing homosexuality was fined $7000 and ordered to issue a false apology for expressing his religious convictions in the local newspaper. A third absurdity that comes to mind had the Canadian Islamic Congress launching a complaint before Federal, Ontario and British Columbia human rights commissions against Maclean's magazine over a published article written by Mark Steyn criticizing Islam . Human rights used to be a noble idea in combating genuine human rights abuses we readily associate with brutal totalitarian regimes but when some obscure human rights officer decides who can and who cannot express an opinion we are forced to ask what has happened to the Canada we once knew. Gerald Hall Parksville, B.C.