Posted on 06/29/2013 8:35:47 AM PDT by ReformationFan
Free speech advocates are hailing a move by the Canadian Senate this week to abolish a highly controversial section of Canada's Human Rights Act which, critics say, has been used to stifle the opinions of right-leaning journalists such as Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant.
The Sun Media Corporation, Canada's leading newspaper publisher, said:
"Section 13 ostensibly banned hate speech on the Internet and left it up to the quasi-judicial human rights commission to determine what qualified as "hate speech." But, unlike a court, there was no presumption of innocence of those accused of hate speech by the commission. Instead, those accused had to prove their innocence."
Commenting on the move, Steyn, who had been a victim of Section 13 due to his writings against Islamism and terrorism, said:
"So victories against the state’s encroachments on free speech are protracted and difficult, but still just about possible. I am honored to have played a small role in a modest victory for liberty in Canada, and I hope my friends in London, ashamed by what their government has done, will take heart."
Steyn's reference to "friends in London" pegs off a recent decision to ban Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, outspoken critics of Islamism and terrorism, from the UK by the British visa authorities, acting on behalf of the Home Office.
The Montreal Gazette reported that:
"The bill from Alberta Conservative MP Brian Storseth passed in the House of Commons last summer, but needed Senate approval. It has received royal assent and will take effect after a one-year phase-in period.
"An 'ecstatic' Storseth said the bill, which he says had wide support across ideological lines and diverse religious groups, repeals a “flawed piece of legislation” and he called Canada’s human rights tribunal “a quasi-judicial, secretive body that takes away your natural rights as a Canadian.
“(Section 13) had actually stopped being used as a shield, as I think it was intended, to protect civil liberties, and started being used as a sword against Canadians, and it’s because it was a poorly-written piece of legislation in the first place,” he said.
Left-leaning supporters of Section 13 are furious at the move.
Excellent news from our brothers up north.
Fight the left.
The Left throughout its history has sought to restrain speech. Criticism to a liberal is like acid poured on their brain. Also to restrain speech is to control.
13. (1) It is a discriminatory practice for a person or a group of persons acting in concert to communicate telephonically or to cause to be so communicated, repeatedly, in whole or in part by means of the facilities of a telecommunication undertaking within the legislative authority of Parliament, any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.
Interpretation
(2) For greater certainty, subsection (1) applies in respect of a matter that is communicated by means of a computer or a group of interconnected or related computers, including the Internet, or any similar means of communication, but does not apply in respect of a matter that is communicated in whole or in part by means of the facilities of a broadcasting undertaking.
Interpretation
(3) For the purposes of this section, no owner or operator of a telecommunication undertaking communicates or causes to be communicated any matter described in subsection (1) by reason only that the facilities of a telecommunication undertaking owned or operated by that person are used by other persons for the transmission of that matter.
Glad to see the sun shining again in Canada after having burned off this chilling, hideous, dark, disgusting cloud of Marxist thought-crime punishment . A disgusting piece of legislation if ever there was one. This is a great day in Canadian history.
It WON’T Happaen Here!Not In PC Heaven!!Even the Russians are way ahead of us with a”Flat-Tax”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joseph Goebbels could have written that law.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
It has taken decades to finally try and get rid of this blot on Canada’s reputation since 1977.
I remember back in the 1980s in which a writer was appalled that his work was censored. The “offensive” part was about a man and a woman attempting to rape a woman, the wrong woman, because she singlehandedly beats up her two attackers before they can harm her.
The reason for the censorship? Because the story “depicted rape”. Which illustrates both the arrogance and irrationality of these unelected “human rights boards”.
The bottom line was they soon became nothing more than a political tool by the left, to harass and intimidate the more conservative Canadian media.
Ironically, these hate speech laws were just a more generalized form of the law against Holocaust denial (as a special type of hate speech). Only marginalized nutters deny the Holocaust — making it illegal has probably done more harm than good.
That IS ironic. It’s also ironic that radical Islamists are the present-day Deniers.
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