Posted on 06/12/2008 1:31:07 AM PDT by Clive
Four years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Thinly Disguised Totalitarianism" for the religious journal First Things, surveying the erosion of Canadian religious liberty under various regulatory bodies, professional associations and human rights tribunals. I wrote then that "there are no restrictions on freedom of worship in Canada today." That's no longer true.
As Ezra Levant details below, the Stephen Boissoin case is an egregious assault on religious liberty, press freedom and freedom of speech. And for those of us who previously underestimated the threat to religious liberty, it serves as a rude correction.
The judgment of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission (AHRCC) against the Reverend Stephen Boissoin, a Protestant youth pastor, is a direct violation of his religious liberty. Whatever his "guilt" --and who is not guilty before the human rights commission? -- the judgment requires him to write an apology abjuring his views on homosexuality, and prohibits him and the Concerned Christian Coalition from making "disparaging" remarks about homosexuals.
It is not specified what the AHRCC might consider "disparaging," but simply reading in public -- as in a sermon -- the Biblical admonitions against homosexual acts is not precluded. Indeed, the scope of the AHRCC order is so wide that it effectively says that Rev. Boissoin may not speak publicly on homosexuality ever again, unless he changes his opinion.
Given that the "offence" was a letter to the editor published in the Red Deer Advocate, the judgment by implication would apply the same restrictions to the newspaper itself. The offence was "causing to be published" the letter, which "was likely to expose homosexuals to contempt or hatred because of their sexual orientation." In order for something to be published in a newspaper, both a writer and an editor/publisher are required. Had the complainant in this case named the Red Deer Advocate in his charge, there is every logical reason to expect that the AHRCC would have slapped a perpetual ban on the newspaper publishing any "disparaging" stories on homosexuality.
Rev. Boissoin is not the only Alberta clergyman hauled before the AHRCC. In 2005, Frederick Henry, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary, was brought before the commission for writing a pastoral letter against same-sex marriage to his own flock. Before the AHRCC had a chance to find him guilty, Bishop Henry clarified his remarks and the complaint was withdrawn. It is now clear that had it gone ahead, the AHRCC would have ordered the bishop of Calgary not to speak about same-sex marriage ever again.
There have been numerous other cases too, including ones against the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Insight magazine. We can expect more after this most recent AHRCC ruling.
Until a real court throws all of this out, the ruling against Rev. Boissoin stands. And it is no sure thing that the courts will not accommodate themselves to restrictions on religious liberty, even as they did on free speech when the "hate" speech prohibitions enforced by human rights commissions were first tested at the Supreme Court in 1990. If the courts uphold what the AHRCC did to Rev. Boissoin, religious liberty will be mortally wounded in Canada.
Rev. Boissoin, as one would nobly expect of a clergyman and citizen of free country, has said he will neither write the apology nor pay the "damages" assessed. Unless the courts overturn the AHRCC decision, he will eventually be found in contempt and imprisoned--a prisoner for religious liberty and press freedom.
About 18 months ago, a journalist friend writing a book surveying trends in world Catholicism called to inquire about whether, apropos of my totalitarianism article, I thought it likely that priests in Canada would, in my lifetime, have to go to prison for preaching their faith. I said then what I believed to be true: No. After the Boissoin ruling, that is manifestly not the correct answer.
The Charter of Rights enumerates freedom of religion as its first freedom. Freedom of the press is its second. As a priest first and a journalist second, I should be comforted. Yet I am not. Those freedoms are at risk in Canada, an attack not only on pastors and journalists, but on citizens of a free country. The enemies of liberty got Rev. Boissoin. They tried to get Bishop Henry. They are going after Ezra Levant. Everyone with a pulpit or a column should ask: When will they come after me?
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I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime, but it had to happen sometime.
I imagine not too many in the press/media are worried about falling afoul yet, because so many of them espouse views which would never raise the ire of the homosexual/Muslim/etc groups which are bringing these cases.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if a Christian brought a case to them regarding the Koran being read, specifically the parts which call for death to infidels, or ban homosexuality. I wonder if we’ll see that anytime soon in Canada-—the Muslims and the homosexuals suing each other for “hate speech”, since Islam strenuously opposes homosexuality.
We are headed in the same direction in this country.
Like you I thought I would never live to see totalitarianism sweep in and freedom be crushed in “free Europe” and “free Canada” - nor in the “free United States”.....
I pray that there will still be strength inside Americans, Europeans, Americans to resist the tide before it overwhelms us all...
The one thing that gives me a little hope-Americans haven’t yet let their right to keep and bear arms be stolen from them. But even that will come to an end one day-i hope to be long gone by that day.
“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”
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Jesus said it would be like Sodom before his return.
I wonder if he could apply for asylum in the U.S. if this happened? Wouldn't that be interesting?
Islam embraces and thrives in the evil new business of “old ageism” and death and “peacefulretirement” or “sercurity”.
The Bible is seen has interfering with the current investments and profits of the Bolshevick death Revolution which started, perhaps, in France during the French Revolution. Being happy “ist verbotten”, especialy happier than the French, so to speak.
Good bye happy settlements and cooperation, hello ghetto hell, Russian roulette and power lottery to the revolutionary total destruction death.
Globalization has replaced settling and is going to cause governance competition and interstrife and hate and despair.
Screw’em all. Let me go and then let them deal with each other, without me as a scapegoat except in some imagination of sorts.
Why should we be surprised?
Liberals have never stopped being Marxists.
They would put us all in concentrations camps if they could.
Coming next - mentioning Christianity in Muslim neighborhoods will be deemed a hate crime. Hasn’t it already happened in England?
Should either Obama or Hillar seize power in NOv -= the right to keep and bear arms will - again - come under immediate and stepped up attack....
They know that this right MUST be ended...in order for their dreams of enslavement here to truly take hold...
I will not go quietly, I will not hope to be long gone when these Rights are taken away. I will hope to be counted among those who worked to preserve the citizenry's “God given Rights” for my future children. I will hope to counted among those citizens who would not let our military fight & die in vain to preserve our freedom.
Now is not the time to acquiesce. The assurance of these Rights for now and the future has always required a price. While the quote says it is in blood, it also requires the efforts of citizens, words, voices, and votes.
A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham (England).
June 1,2008 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024426/posts
When they start trashing normal people, that will be protected speech.
“hate crime” laws were created for the express purpose of putting Whites, Christians, and heterosexuals in jail.
Well said. It seems that the fools of this world run the show now, but bottom line, there is no America without her Constitution. The Communists seek to destroy all that we have been given. It is not to late to fight back.
In the face of injustice from a Kangaroo Court and genuine evil from a hyper-delicate complainer who is pretending to have been harmed by words, truthful words, there is no ethical response other than to stand on the truth. I hope that Boissoin will re-send his letter to the editor, addressing it to the editors of every newspaper in the United States. He should put his original letter in context by explaining that he must publish his words outside Canada now that power-hungry elitists with an exaggerated sense of their own importance have banned him from quoting Bible passages in Canada ... at least those passages that have not been cleared by the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, a higher authority in the AHRCC's view than the original Author.
The AHRCC should be ashamed at having made yet another grab for raw power at the cost of freedom. By the way, in the event that one of their minions brings this post or any other post I have made to their attention, I would be more than happy to identify myself to these dictators and face trial in their Star Chamber, even go to prison for disrespect toward a Kangaroo Court, for having more faith in the Word of God than in the words of the latest generation of big-government Nazi dictators, or for believing that heterosexuality is a normal and natural condition. There are few things that take precedence over raising my children, but standing against pure evil is one of them, and I would be willing to give up time with my family in order to oppose AHRCC. There is no better example I could set for my children than to fight against AHRCC, win or lose.
Yep - what happened to “Merry Old England”?
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