By JOSEPH QUESNEL -- Sun Media
Imagine a society where people were free to express their opinions on most subjects, no matter how unpopular, and the only thing standing in their way was the sanction of open debate and public scrutiny.
In other words, it would be a society where adults were treated as adults.
This society cannot become reality as long as human rights commissions exist in their current form.
This transcends ideological lines, as it is not good in any society to always have to look over your shoulder or watch what you say in case the thought police are on your tail.
Created by legislation, these tribunals have become a way for mainly left-wing interest groups to bypass elected legislatures and criminalize opinion they dislike.
At the drop of a hat, a complaint often triggers an investigation that can ruin lives and reputations for the crime of holding dissident opinions. Truth is also not a defence in answering the charges.
These bodies should either be radically reformed or abolished, and the human rights legislation they enforce should be changed. It should not be so easy in this country to haul someone before a tribunal for speaking their mind. Perhaps it is time that courts, with more rigorous standards of due process, handle such claims.
As I write, two cases before human rights commissions demonstrate the need for reform. The first involves Stephen Boisson, a former youth pastor, who faces sanction for writing a letter to the Red Deer Advocate, expressing his opinions about literature on homosexuality in school libraries. Using strong language in making his arguments, Boisson was investigated by the commission after a professor filed a complaint.
Rather than deal with the arguments rationally, the thin-skinned academic decided criminal sanction was the way to respond.
Even Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE), a pro-gay lobby group, has backed off the case, stressing they believe in Boisson's rights to his opinions, even though they don't agree with them.
For this, EGALE deserves credit. Perhaps they realize human rights commissions are a tool that could also be fixed on them.
The other scenario pits a conservative online forum called Free Dominion against an individual who launched a human rights complaint against the site and its owners for daring to allow posts the individual complaining considers critical of radical Islam.
For disclosure, I will say that I post there.
One of the owners of the site, Connie Wilkins, has pointed out that the attack on her forum is an assault against freedom of expression on the Internet.
"It is not a conservative issue. It is not even a Free Dominion issue. The issue here is free speech. The point needs to be made that if the Canadian Human Rights Commission decides to rule against Free Dominion, they might as well just shut down every other Canadian Internet forum right away because they will all be doomed," she wrote.
Even left-wing forums critical of Americans or Evangelical Christians, she added, could face similar attacks.
Let's hope she's not right and that there is time for change.
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