Blazing Cat Fur

at 10:25 PM

Charles Lewis, National Post

Religious groups providing public services fight for right to stand by beliefs

When Connie Heintz was hired as a support worker at a residence for the severely disabled, she signed a lifestyle and morality statement that, among other things, prohibited gay relationships. But a few years into her employment, Ms. Heintz, a devout Christian, "came to an understanding of who she was and her sexual orientation." Her employer, Christian Horizons, asked her to leave.

Last month, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal told Christian Horizons to pay damages. The ruling is being appealed.

It is a fight that might seem a minor skirmish between old-time evangelical Christianity and a modern view of sexuality, but the case is one of several small eruptions popping up here and in the United States that unveil a much deeper battle between the state's view of individual rights and the rights of religious institutions working in the public sphere to set their own standards.

Catholic charities in Boston have withdrawn from the adoption business because they cannot refuse same-sex couples, and in Colorado, religious leaders threatened to dramatically trim their charitable work after the government proposed a bill that would prohibit them from hiring and firing on faith-based reasons.

The Rest...

at 7:50 AM

Look, I disagree with pretty much everything Jason Cherinak has ever said. I question his political judgement almost every day and some days I question his very sanity. But I think that he's a pretty good kid. I don't question his motives at all. Warren, on the other hand, is the kind of guy who would attack Hitler only after the war was safely over, as is evidenced by his stands on prostitution advertising and the free speech stance of the National Post.

Read the whole thing at enjoyeverysandwich

H/T Jay Currie

at 7:30 AM

Lookin for a date with an Angel? Well you know what they say about Seraphs...

Who: Seraphic Single Hosts Seraphapalooza
What: Seraphapalooza -An evening of Stories and Jazz
Where: The Majlis, 163 Walnut Avenue, Toronto, (Queen West)
When: Saturday May 24th 7 PM
Why: Because the weather will be delightful making this a perfect evening out

Featuring: Seraphic Single & the Song Stylings of Alisha Rui

Entrance is free with a receipt for or copy of The Widow of Saint-Pierre. You can buy a copy here. Bring your receipt to the show! For more information, please email me at seraphicsingles@yahoo.com.

Update: The jazz singer's accompanist is coming up from New York City, by the way! Big Apple glamour--yes!

7:23 AM · at 7:23 AM

Nigel Hannaford, Calgary Herald

The irony of the Muslim world is that to exercise basic human rights, such as freedom of religion, conscience and speech, Muslims have to leave Islamic states. Saudi Arabia, for instance, is not a place where people agree to disagree over the finer points of Islam. Nor is Pakistan, or Iran: And, while the Taliban had control, neither was Afghanistan.

So, it makes you wonder why anybody who has left these places to start a new life in Canada (or any of the other liberal democracies) would want to establish in their new home, what they left behind in their old.

The Rest.

at 5:49 PM

Hey … I just post the stuff.

Our Way or the Highway

After reading a mention of a new book that questions the wisdom of allowing continued immigration from Muslim countries I can’t resist any longer. I’ve been toying with some ideas on the subject for quite some time and it’s time to put pen to paper (so-to-speak). There are a number of issues I wish to address, but the overall question is this: is it time to place restrictions on Islam and Islamic organisations in the West? I believe the answer is affirmative. Canadians have a right to protect both themselves and their values. Militant Islam is a threat to both lives and liberty.

The rest.

at 4:18 PM

Honor system abuser, BigCityLib, aka Michael J. Murphy of Toronto reports that he in fact did NOT make the [Oregon Petition Project] list. By his own admission he lied about his background and falsified documents to try to have his name added, but apparently the petition screening process found his deception and denied his application.

Heh.

at 3:55 PM

"Mark J. Freiman, a former honorary counsel of the Canadian Jewish Congress, stops short of Mr. Borovoy. On Wednesday, he offered a spirited defense of Section 13(1), conceding only that '[the section] does require restrained and cautious application' and that 'the agencies administering and applying Section 13(1) must be staffed by people well suited by training and ability to carry out their sensitive work.'

"Ay, there’s the rub, to keep quoting the Bard. The agencies aren’t staffed by people sensitive to Mr. Freiman’s concerns. They’re staffed by people who believe that 'freedom of speech is an American concept' (as one of them put it)..."

The rest.

at 12:05 PM

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is succeeding in making us the laughing stock of the free world.

Click, er follow the Cubanada Flag

at 11:43 AM

Thank You Charles Enderlin and France2-

We have to admit we were angry with you for libeling Israel that we wanted to get you to take it back. It wasn’t just anger. We wanted to make it impossible for you to ever release such a tidal wave of violence and blood on us again. After the disastrous aftermath of your al Durah report, so many people suffered and died, we have come to think of you more as a war criminal than just an unethical journalist...

Read the Rest.

Breath of the Beast has requested our support, please link to this post by Beast,

at 10:19 AM

Here.

...

Finally some good news on the Human Rights Front: Underwear - it's your right!

at 8:48 AM

Ezra has all the dirt on the weird habits of Lucy Warman outlined in the Free Dominion Statement of Defence.

From 5FofF - Anyway, like Ezra, I was stunned to read some of the stuff in this statement of defense. Here's my "favourite" -- frankly, I was shocked by this:

42. Under the false identity "Axetogrind," the plaintiff [Richard Warman] posted in 2004 a copy of a confidential letter sent to the CHRC by a young woman, [EL] in settlement of a complaint the plaintiff made against her and in which she expressed her shame and denounced her previous [presumably neo-Nazi] beliefs. The plaintiff [Warman] posted the letter on the neo-Nazi VNN with the preface "With friends like these..." He did so without any regard for her safety or consequences she might suffer.

Shocking to think this man is considered a"hero" by the CJC.

Hmmmm I hope David Ickes requests Intervener status at the upcoming Section 13(1) Constitutional Challenge.

Remember folks, Kathy, Kate, Ezra, Free Dominion & Jonathan Kay & The National Post need our financial support to fight the Canadian Human Rights Commission menace and their proxy's.

Donate to each individually or buy a "Dear Mr. America, Tanks!" T-shirt, all profits go to the Freedom 5 defense fund.

at 7:43 PM

...

"Let’s face it: The United Nations’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is an internally contradictory piece of propaganda for one-world socialism, a concept which has been so thoroughly discredited by reality over the past few decades that surely, by now, we can relegate it to the garbage bin of history."
...

Read on, Good stuff.

Ms. Selick has lots of Free-Speech & Property Rights Goodies here.

at 9:42 AM

Stephen J. Gray - Canada Free Press

...

These HRCs have become a weapon to suppress and oppress the people of Canada. Yet, a “conservative” government is an intervenor against free speech. Is this why they sent out a memo about being “noncommittal” about, “Liberal MP Keith Martin’s motion M-446 which would put an end to the growing and dangerous abuse of human rights commissions….?” Are they political hypocrites who say one thing and do another?

...The Rest.

at 8:57 AM

Paul Zollmann - Letter to the Editor, Ottawa Citizen

...

Canada is, indeed, sliding inexorably into the pit of self-negation and the tolerant accommodation of intolerant communities. It is not their fault -- most of them come from homogenous and, to a greater or lesser extent, intolerant societies.

For example, many of us believe that Jesus did not exist. I may be frowned upon but accepted as one of those odd atheists. But if I said that Muhammad did not exist, I would be accused of blasphemy and, in some countries, be sentenced to be beheaded.

...The rest.

at 8:45 AM

In recent months, erstwhile ideological allies have been fighting a nasty battle over the issue of censorship in this country. The flash point is Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which--along with its provincial counterparts -- has empowered human rights commissions to investigate, and sometimes censor, conservatives who are alleged to have incited contempt against minority groups. These include Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant, both of whom have been accused of "Islamophobia" by complainants.

The rest.

The Post is right Section 13(1) must go,period.

In other news - Canada continues to be turned into the laughing stock of the Free-world thanks to our Stasi-like Human Rights Commissions.

Moreover, Canada is the country that ought to be voted "Most Happy to Persecute in the Name of Tolerance." Just last week the Orwellian "Human Rights" Tribunal of Ontario ruled that Christian Horizons, a charity that runs homes for developmentally disabled adults, engaged in illegal discrimination when it tried to ensure that its employees were practicing Christians who accepted Christian sexual teaching on adultery, fornication and homosexual sex. Worse than the $23,000 fine is a government edict that the organization submit to a re-education plan to change the group's attitudes.

...

Jennifer Lynch reemerges with the thriller 'Surveillance.' How appropriate! Oh wait it ain't CHRC Koffee Kommissar Lynch.

at 6:49 AM

Limit Muslims' access to Canada, book says

Update: Reader Sanwin says the book may be downloaded here.

....

Large influxes of Muslims, the failure to integrate foreigners and an overrun immigration system make Canada a "threat to North American security."

These are some of the findings published in a new book by the right-wing Fraser Institute called Immigration Policy and the Terrorist Threat in Canada and the United States.
The book says Muslims, as a group of potential immigrants, should be given limited access to Canada.

"It would be prudent, from a security point of view, for Canada to review its immigration policy in relation to the admission of immigrants from Muslim countries that are known to produce terrorists," the book says.

Co-author James Bissett, a former head of the Canadian Immigration Service, says Canada needs to better screen potential immigrants from Islamic countries to ensure they are non-violent and respect "Western values".

...

The Canadian Islamic Congress responded immediately to the arguments in the book.

"This is a racist argument and doesn't stand academic and rigorous research," said congress spokesman and well known Jew Hater Mohamed Elmasry.

at 7:58 PM

Some of you may remember the original History's Losers Unite - A Festival of Treason, That momentous meeting of the pseudo-left and Islamists, well welcome to this years model!

“A World in Revolt” – Tri-National Conference set for Toronto, May 22-25

All the usual suspects will be in attendance:

Co-sponsored by Socialist Action-Canada, SA-US, and the Socialist Unity League (LUS) of Mexico, the gathering will feature writer, scientist and foremost Cuban proponent of Trotskyism, Celia Hart. It will also showcase Esteban Volkov, Mexico City-based grandson of Leon Trotsky; Bryan Palmer, Canadian biographer of the founder of American communism, James P. Cannon; Gerry Foley, international editor of SA newspaper; Jeff Mackler, SA National Secretary and co-coordinator of the Campaign to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Christine Gauvreau, prominent U.S. east coast anti-war movement leader; LUS leader Ismael Contreras; Khaled Mouammar, President of the Canadian Arab Federation; plus socialist activists from Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Ontario Labour unions, the feminist movement, the NDP, Palestine anti-apartheid solidarity, environmental struggles and many other areas.

...

And oh what a range of topics for discussion!

Was Che Guevara a Trotskyist? - beats me, I thought he was a murdering bastard who even Castro couldn't get rid of soon enough.

Wow! There will also be a special lunch time encounter with Celia Hart and Esteban Volkov. - It's like Batista's Havana all over again! Where's Fredo?

Good luck guys but I think I will pass.

Update: From Secret Agent XJ7

Socialist Action is a dedicated "entryist" groupuscule, which explains the NDP reference (by this I mean they follow the Cliffite tradition of burrowing within the British Labour Party). Socialist Action is quite active in the NDP (they're the "Cuba Tours" crowd) and they function mainly within the NDP's "Socialist Caucus."

They're so effective that their candidate back in 2000 (?) got more than 100 of the 750-ish votes in the NDP convention leadership race, where Macdonagh was eventually elected. Since the NDP went one-member, one-vote, they haven't come close to that kind of internal success with the rank and file. But they're very, very active as party cadre, making up a significant element of the NDP activist base in Toronto, especially.

See this picture? That's the leader of Socialist Action, Barry Weisleder, who is also co-chair of the NDP Socialist Caucus. To his right are Tony Crawford, NDP Oakville candidate, Cheri DiNovo, NDP MPP, and to his left is Pete Cassidy, Hamilton East NDP executive. The NDP Socialist Caucus has its own website: http://www.ndpsocialists.ca/

As you might imagine, they're dedicated Israel-haters.

at 5:53 PM

Blazingcatfur gets the best reader mail! Dr. Mark Mercer of St. Mary's University who penned this mornings Chronicle Herald piece " Bad times for free speech", sends along an unabridged version of a piece he wrote on the Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant controversy for The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, entitled "Close the human rights commissions" a sentiment with which I heartily concur.

Before we get to the good stuff, he also sends along this reply to redoubtable reader WLMR: I read the comments. If you know WL Mackenzie Redux, assure him or her that I take a back seat to no one in my free speech absolutism.

...

Close the human rights commissions:

Ezra Levant, the publisher of the now-defunct Western Standard, was recently interviewed by an investigator from the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Levant was interviewed in connection with a complaint that by reprinting in the Western Standard the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, Levant exposed Muslims in Canada to hate and discrimination.

In a few months, the publishers of Maclean’s magazine will be interviewed by an investigator from the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The people who lodged the complaint contend that an article Maclean’s published in 2006 exposed Muslims in Canada to hate, and that generally, Maclean’s is biased against Muslims. The British Columbia and Ontario Human Rights Commissions have agreed independently also to investigate these complaints.

The very best thing for Canadian society that could happen in these cases is that the commissions find that the Western Standard and Maclean’s did indeed expose Muslims to hate and then punish them for doing so. Findings against these magazines might, finally, mobilize Canadian opinion against our human rights commissions and, with luck, move our politicians to close them down. I’m not optimistic that findings against these magazines would in fact eventually bring down the commissions. Nothing less, though, I fear, stands any chance of setting those events in motion.
Human rights commissions in Canada stand strongly against freedom of expression. They have shut people up and closed down papers, magazines, and websites. (Peace, Earth & Justice News, an on-line journal, recently removed dozens of articles sympathetic to the Palestinians and critical of Israel just in response to the BC Human Rights Commission’s receiving a complaint.) Beyond harming their victims, that human rights commissions are willing and eager to shut people up has created a chilly climate for expression in Canada. Our human rights commissions are a national disgrace.

Should the commissions dismiss the complaints against Levant and Maclean’s, they and their supporters will claim vindication. They will point to these judgements as evidence that the commissions are fair and reasonable and not out to suppress expression or to stifle debate, but only to protect people from hate and malice. Human rights commissioners and their investigators will draw confidence and prosecute their evil work with renewed vigour. A victory for Levant or Maclean’s will be a victory for the commissions.

The complaints against Levant and Maclean’s will, most likely, be dismissed, as nothing Levant or Maclean’s has done is even close to objectionable or hateful. Perhaps, in the aftermath of these dismissals, the commissions will change one or another of their ways. Right now the process followed by the commissions is blatantly unfair to the accused and tailor-made to serve those who like nothing better than to vex others. Perhaps the process will be improved. The commissions might even enact a policy against some of the dirty tricks they currently use, entrapment, for instance. However the commissions change, though, they will be stronger for it and nowhere will the root problem be addressed. The root problem is that the commissions suppress expression, censor expression, and punish expression.

There are two broad reasons why expression should be left free. The first is just that we like for ourselves and others to be able to say what we want without fear of state interference. The second is that leaving expression free brings us many benefits—and, perhaps more saliently, that restricting expression brings us many woes. The first reason, sadly, appeals only to a few of us; the second, though, appeals to almost all of us. Almost all of us think complete information, diversity of opinion and value, and candour in discussion are terrific instruments for creating and implementing sound social policy. (Fear, pandering, lack of imagination, and lies, we think, do not lead to sound social policy.) Human rights commissions, though, have evolved into agents of the closed society, a society in which information and opinion is controlled and authorities decide behind closed doors. Merely to reform the commissions would be to put makeup on authoritarianism.

—But doesn’t spreading hate hurt us?, one might ask. —Perhaps, despite their costs, restrictions on hateful expression carefully applied will make us all better off.

If it were true that restrictions on hateful expression have good effects, then maybe wisdom would counsel trading a bit of freedom for these good effects (but why think these good effects can come only from restrictions on expression?). If it were true—but there’s no reason to believe it is true. There’s no good evidence that restrictions on expression promote social justice or protect the disenfranchised. (See 5.5 of The Hateful and the Obscene, by L.W. Sumner, 2004.)

So why have Canadians tolerated human rights commissions? There’s the name, of course—who could be against human rights? (I mean other than the human rights commissioners themselves.) As well, the commissions have done some good work in cases of discrimination in employment and housing. The main reason, though, is that most Canadians (wrongly) think they would never have anything to say that a commission would consider hateful, and, moreover, they don’t mind not having to hear from bigots, homophobes, and racists. That the commissions protect nothing other than people’s ears doesn’t matter—at least they protect people’s ears. Were these people to learn that the government thinks their pleasant weekly news magazine is an organ of hate, I conjecture, the free expression constituency in Canada might well gain a host of new members and begin to stir.

The free expression constituency is small, but it hasn’t been entirely immobile the past couple decades. Unfortunately, few at the CBC or the Globe and Mail or the Chronicle Herald are members of this constituency; that’s why few Canadians heard the little noises it made in the cases of Ernst Zundel, Jim Keegstra, and others, or in the cases of Marc Lemire or Peace, Earth & Justice News right now. We should all have stood with the bigots, homophobes, and racists then and defended freedom of expression. Now our best hope is that Maclean’s loses just as they did.

I don’t actually want the complaints against Levant and Maclean’s to succeed. Nothing is worse than that the innocent are punished. Good luck to both of them, and to Lemire and his ilk as well. Should the complaints be dismissed, though, the struggle will be that much harder. In fact, I suspect, closing down the human rights commissions will then be next to hopeless.

...

Thank you Dr. Mercer

at 11:45 AM

From Yaacov at Breath of the Beast - The Worm Turns

I have watched as a group of bloggers- friends and allies of democracy- have been besieged by unprincipled, self aggrandizing, professional litigants who, using the Human Rights Commission, which was meant to be an instrument of help and shelter for the vulnerable has been turned around and made into a weapon to harass honest people into silence and to prosecute those who disagree with Progressive group-think. It is as if they woke up one morning to find the invisible worm nestled into their ears, toward their brains, telling them what not to think- what not to say, forcing them to fight an ominous but valiant struggle against the erosion of free speech in Canada.

Visit Yaacov and thank him for his efforts and his support.

at 10:21 AM

H/T Ghostofaflea: A fifteen year old British boy faces prosecution for calling Scientology a cult.

England's blasphemy laws just took yet another turn for the worse.

at 8:44 AM

As a supporter of Israel it pains me to see that the CJC has become ensnared in the controversy surrounding the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the anti-democratic Section 13(1).
In today's National Post the CJC parades their latest "expert" apologist from among the dwindling cast of Section 13(1) proponents. It's nothing new, simply a rehash of the same tired and discredited arguments put forth by previous CJC alumni and supporters, with only passing mention of "procedural errors" rather than the true nature of the CHRC's corrosive misdeeds.

The time has come to stop pulling punches. The CJC has effectively used Section 13(1) and the Canadian Human Rights Commission as its own private "law" enforcement agency in a misguided effort to make the world safe from the non-threat of Basement Neo-Nazi's. It has become clear from the records disclosed by the CHRC to date that the relationship between the Canadian Jewish Congress, Richard Warman and the staff of the Canadian Human Rights Commission has stepped beyond the reasonable right of citizens to lobby a government agency on behalf of their private interests. The relationship has progressed to what may only be described as collusion. The result of this manipulation has been a travesty of justice; abuse of process, misleading testimony under oath, evidence tampering, entrapment, repeated efforts to censor the web, the hacking of a private citizens internet account and now, the obscenity of the recent Hadjis rulings - a brazen cover up effort.

The larger impact of the CJC's efforts has been to seriously jeapordize the Charter right of all Canadians to Freedom of Speech, the lesser impact has been to corrupt the Canadian Human Rights Commission with a culture that condones the notion that "the ends justify the means". That the CJC, a once venerable agency, that has done so much good for its members and for Canada, has become enmeshed in this burgeoning scandal marks a sad day in our history.

The CJC is unwilling to admit to the facile abuse inherent to Section 13(1), perversley they also refuse to acknowledge the extent of the genuine fear that good people, in fact the majority of their fellow citizens, have of this sinister law and the lessons history has or should have taught us all: Tyranny and Holocausts are borne of states that deny the right of Free Speech.

Section 13 (1) has been and will continue to be abused, it is bad law that no amount of "fine tuning" will ever make right. The CJC's virtual "privatization" of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, along with the latest threat posed by the Islamist Lawfare Jihad has served as a wake up call to the dangerous ease with which this law and in fact the entire human rights machine can be turned against the very citizens it was designed to protect. The CJC has engaged in behavior usually associated with the corruption of Banana Republic strongmen and committed a grave disservice to Canada. It may be legal, that doesn't make it moral.

Sadly what the Canadian Jewish Congress will eventually & reluctantly admit to, later rather than sooner I suspect, is that this episode, their blind support of a bad law, has stained their reputation to a degree that will not be quickly forgotten or easily forgiven by their fellow Canadians.

The CJC must be called on their actions and made to understand in no uncertain terms that Free Speech is the right of all Canadians and it is paramount that this right be defended for all citizens. None of us are free if the rights of the least desirable among us are abused.

at 6:42 AM

Chronicle Herald - Mark Mercer

...

A person of sense in 1990 could easily have predicted that s. 13 would soon be used, as it has indeed come to be used, to bully people away from saying what sitting commissioners happen not to want to hear.

The Supreme Court had three people of sense on it in 1990. The Court upheld the constitutionality of s. 13 by a mere 4-3 majority.

The Justices who got their way discounted their colleague’s fears. As long as authorities remember that hatred and contempt are extreme feelings, they said, and keep in mind that the purpose of the Act is to overcome discrimination, and not to censor speech, Canadians have no reason to fear that a chilly climate for opinion will descend on the country or that s. 13 will be used to control the expression of opinion and emotion. These Justices neglected the sage advice never to make a law that requires intelligence or goodwill on the part of those who administer it.

...

The rest - a good read.

at 11:58 PM

Here's the video link, Thanks to Mike Duffy.

Check out the CHRC's version of Baghdad Bob who opens the clip with a less than convincing declaration of innocence.

Send Mike an e-mail of thanks! duffy@ctv.ca

at 11:32 PM

Hijab don't!!!!

Other tips for you dhimmi infidels: HIJAB APPROVED : VICTORIA’S SECRET

...

7 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU WEAR THAT OUTFIT:

2. Am I trying to make someone jealous or envious of me by wearing this?

OK enough sensitivity training, it's back to bidness as usual.

at 10:30 PM

Xanthippa Socrates asks - Is this a trickle of reason?

...

But, perhaps the best news comes from Europe! Czech Republic is a nation of reason (fully 59% of Czechs describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or non-believers) and their scepticism extends to other areas, as well. Lubos Motl, one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, writes that Vaclav Kaus, the President of Czech Republic, has vetoed an ‘anti-discrimination’ bill. His justification?

“I consider the bill to be a useless, counterproductive, and low-quality bill while its consequences seem to be problematic….”

Good on you, Czechs!

You can read the full, well reasoned and excellent speech here. Mr. Motl writes that, ironically,

“Because the bill has been “ordered” by the European bureaucrats and the country may face sanctions (let’s say it: the Czechs may be discriminated against) if the anti-discrimination bill is not approved”

The rest, Fabulous News, a voice of reason in government!

at 9:00 PM

From Australia 24.7 News

Wednesday May 21, 2008
By Mischa Popoff
Osoyoos BC Canada

If you serve food you must wash your hands. Surely nothing could contravene such a basic rule, right? Well you don’t know Canadian human rights commissions. Before we get into the gory details, answer this: what’s one thing Australia has in common with Canada besides speaking English and a proud history of British Common Law? The answer is that both of us suffer under the extra-judicial hegemony of human rights commissions. And recently things have been getting a little strange for us here in Canada.

The rest.

Update: Who do the Aussies turn to for direction? Well it better not be me or God help us all;)

VISITOR ANALYSIS

Referring Link
http://www.steynonline.com/content/blogsection/14/128/
Host Name user.counselschambers.com.au
IP Address 218.185.94.182 [Label IP Address]
CountryAustralia
RegionNew South Wales
CitySydney
ISPUecomm

at 6:52 PM

Stillman is embarrassed.

"It is hard to tell what part they found hardest to believe. I really don’t know if it was the fact that truth is not a defence. It could well have been the way in which procedure is stacked against the defendant from lack of discovery or the absence of legal aide. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what was most shocking to them; it’s all appalling. "

The rest at sleepy ol'bear.

....

From the comments by Jan:

Yes, something similar happened.

The other day, I was explaining it to my mother. Were she not respectful of the fact that I have followed politics for the whole of my adult life, she also would not have believed me. Her comment, "Thank God I won't be alive to see the end result of this."

What a lovely comment as legacy to our political tradition.

at 4:06 PM

Jay Currie "Internet Scold About Town", notes an interesting argument put forth by the BCCLA in their request for intervener status at the Section 13(1) challenge hearing.

"One very interesting note: the BCCLA is arguing that s. 13, because of the large potential financial penalty, is, in fact a criminal statute without the standard criminal protections. It is not an argument I've seen before and has significant potential to render the section unconstitutional."

Read more at Jay's.

However we must temper this encouraging development by remembering that "Hands of my sinecure" Hadjis has just refused the Canadian Constitution Foundation their requested application for 3rd party status. Hadjis has decided he is a God like being and will brook no further dissent. More on the Hadjis stonewalling as it develops.

at 2:31 PM

Aw crap it's not the Lying Jackal's faux-punk loser band after all. Just once I'd like to see evidence of justice being done.

Content warning - protective glasses mandatory - Judy Rebick photo may appear in article banner.

at 12:40 PM

Update 1: Lemire is unable to make the interview, Ezra may take his place -Yay!

Update 2: The BC Civil Liberties Association just applied for interested party status in Lemire Case. Interesting given that Hadjis the Tribunal Kommissar just denied the Canadian Constitution Foundation interested party status. Hadjis issued the CCF refusal last Friday hoping to minimize damage to the CHRC & CHRT - how's that workin for ya Hadjis?

More as this develops folks, stay tuned. Nice to see the MSM take notice. This relates to the allegations of the hacking of a private citizens internet account by Canadian Human Rights Commission staff.

Steyn has more on the hackers.

Ezra has the rest.

at 9:27 AM

Update: BC Civil Liberties Association applies for 3rd party intervener status in section 13 (1) court challenge.

In a sure sign of desperation The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal released two rulings late Friday before the long weekend in a pathetic attempt at damage control by hoping to limit public scrutiny.

Both rulings illustrate the contempt these out of control bureaucrats have for the public and further display the anti-democratic nature of the Canadian Human Rights Commission & the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

Release No. 1 : Athanasios D. Hadjis Denies Intervener Status to Canadian Constitution Foundation in Lemire Case - says he is not interested in allowing further dissenting opinion.

Release No. 2 : Hadjis refuses disclosure requests in what may only be described as an unseemly effort to limit further damaging revelations of CHRC & CHRT wrongdoing, and limit exposure of the current allegations of corruption at the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Tribunal.

In possibly related news - The Canadian Human Rights Commission spys on blogger on long weekend after Tribunal decision revelations;)

at 6:10 AM

Update: In a spirit of public minded concern for the public good Blazingcatfur has been supplied the e-mail of the officer investigating the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Concerned citizens are invited to e-mail the Officer, Stephane Turgeon, with helpful information: stephane.turgeon@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

High-profile investigation

“A” Division’s federal law enforcement role has expanded significantlyover time. Today, the division carries out criminal investigations offederal offences such as drug importation and trafficking, smuggling,government fraud, white-collar crime, high-tech crime, money laundering,war crimes, immigration and passport, fraud, organized crime, andnational security threats.

source:http://www.rcmp.ca/ottawa/review_2005-2006_e.htm

Anyone who has information concerning a person(s) who may be involved in the commission of an offence in relation to the above is invited toreport their concerns to the nearest office of the Royal CanadianMounted Police or contact:

RCMP Federal Investigation Unit
N.C.O. in Charge
A Division - Federal Investigation Unit
155 McArthur Avenue,
Room 523
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada K1A 0R4

Telephone: (613) 993-6884
Fax: (613) 998-2906
source:http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ottawa/ottfis_e.htm

.....

The RCMP are investigating the Canadian Human Rights Commission regarding recent allegations of corruption at the publicly vilified rogue agency. CHRC Staff, some of whom are admitted members of the Neo-Nazi Hate Site Storm Front, are alleged to have hacked into a private citizens internet account in order to access the site.

Further revelations have shown that CHRC staff have used membership at hate sites in entrapment efforts of dubious legality. The hacking incident under investigation by the RCMP, it has been alleged, is related to an effort to tamper with evidence presented at a tribunal hearing by members of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

These are just the most recent in a flurry of corruption allegations that have been levelled at the Canadian Human Rights Commission of late, among them collusion, and allegations of CHRC staff members providing misleading testimony under oath. The public has become increasingly alarmed at the growing body of evidence that the CHRC has been manipulated by outside organizations to further agendas that oppose the public good.

Ezra has the rest.

Steyn has more.

at 11:13 AM

Tom says if Dick publishes Harry's book because he likes it, then if Tom doesn't like Harry's book, Dick must publish Tom's book whether he likes it or not.

If you agree, apply for a job with a Human Rights Commission (HRC). They're looking for people like you. If you disagree, you might want to let Naseem Mithoowani, Khurrum Awan , and Muneeza Sheikh know.

The rest.

at 10:56 AM

From Dime a dozen: On "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

As a Canadian Conservative, I’m morally required to hate anything Margaret Atwood commits to paper. If she wrote me a cheque, I’d have to spit on the signature. That said, this book is legitimately excreable. Big bad corporations destroy the world, and the last survivor becomes a prophet for the GM’d chimeras. Freaking hippy. Use a tracer round with this one, so it’ll burn too.

The rest.

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