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Islamofacists And Big Labor

I note where Rory Leishman has stood up to defend Mark Steyn. [1]

I n a flagrant attack on freedom of the press, the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) has filed three human rights complaints against Maclean’s magazine and its editor-in-chief, Kenneth Whyte, accusing them of spreading “hatred and contempt” for Muslims, by publishing an article by Mark Steyn on Oct. 23, 2006, entitled The Future Belongs to Islam.

The article in dispute is an excerpt from Steyn’s bestselling book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. Consider the implications: By the logic of the CIC’s attack on Maclean’s magazine, the owners and operators of Canadian libraries and bookstores could also be charged with violating the human rights of Muslims by making not just Steyn’s article but also his entire book widely available to Canadians throughout the country.

Frankly this is the kind of nonsense that we warned about here in BitsBlog when ‘hate speech’ laws started showing up. such laws have the singular effect of squashing any debate on a given subject.  That would seem to fly in the face of freedom of speech. But look who else is climbing on with the Canadian Islamic Congress:

The labor unions.

In attacking Maclean’s magazine, the CIC is not acting alone. It has the support of the Ontario Federation of Labour. In a statement backing the CIC, OFL executive vice-president Terry Downey said: “We want to make sure there’s dignity and respect for all individuals in the province.”

That the leaders of the CIC and the OFL betray such contempt for freedom of the press is lamentable, but not altogether surprising. It might be supposed, though, that at least the human rights commissioners of Canada — the purported guardians of our historic rights and freedoms — would summarily reject the CIC’s complaints against Maclean’s.

But not so. At a news conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Faisal Joseph, CIC legal counsel, confirmed that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has accepted the CIC’s complaint and scheduled hearings in the case for June 2-6, 2008. Likewise, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has accepted the CIC complaint, while the chronically dithering Ontario Human Rights Commission has yet to decide whether it will pursue the matter or not. What has gone wrong? How could such a gross violation of freedom of the press occur in Canada — a country that used to have one of the best records in the world for respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms?

Well, that’s what happens when you elect a labor government.

And it’s not like you were never warned about it.

I also note (By way of Stanley Kurtz) [2] that David Warren is also defending Stein, by way of calling for an end to Human Rights Commissions. [3]

For more than twenty years, in this column and elsewhere, I have been writing against the human rights commissions, which have quasi-legal powers that should be offensive to the citizens of any free country. They are kangaroo courts, in which the defendant’s right to due process is withdrawn. They reach judgments on the basis of no fixed law. Moreover, “the process is the punishment” in these star chambers — for simply by agreeing to hear a case, they tie up the defendant in bureaucracy and paperwork, and bleed him for the cost of lawyers, while the person who brings the complaint, however frivolous, stands to lose nothing.

Warren has got this one nailed correctly, of course.

But make no mistake… all of this is about the agenda of the far left, world wide.  For the sake of nothing less than freedom, these attacks must be defeated.

But, hey, Canada… and in particular, Ontario… and the remainder of themore liberal provinces… isn’t it about time you steopped leaning left, stopped electing the labor party, and those even farther left, (Such as the NDP) and started supporting real freedom?