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8/14/2019 MacLeans CHRC
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Interview
121 BONNIE HENRY
Cathy Gulli talks with the
virus hunter about H1Nl.
Columns
91 PAUL WELLS
Stephen Harper won't let
the opposition coalition die.
10 I ANDREW COYNE
Ottawa politics are bankrupt.
111 CAPITAL DIARY
Mitchel Raphael on feline,
as well as political, tweets.
National
141WHAT RECESSION?
The economy's minimal role
in the next election.
17ISHAPE UP
A human rights tribunal at-
tacks its own hate-crime law.
181 CAR VS. BIKE
Howa cyclist died on
Toronto's "Mink Mile."
221 LET'S GO RACING, BOYS
NASCAR and "Mr. Boogity";
library porn; stolen artwork.
World
241 HELPING DEMOCRACYA McGill prof teaches non-
violent protest to Iranians.
M A C L E A N S21From the Editors 31Mail Bag
S1Seven Days 61Newsmakers
S E P T E M B E R 2 1 - 2 8 , 2 0 0 968 IBooks
COVER STORY: Dan Brown's new thriller will
mysteriously sell millions.
721TV
Curb Your E n th u s ias m is Seinfe/d with a moral code.
73 1 Help
Margaret Drabble gets satisfaction through jigsaw puzzles.
74IFilm
George Clooney and Matt Damon fall to earth at TIFF.
76IBazaar
Men are getting into the girdle craze. Stop laughing.
771 Music
Rufus Wainwright on his new opera and kissing up to Toronto.
781Steyn
The wheels fall off the human rights tribunal racket.
81IFeschuk
Funny men are useless after the end of the world.
821The End
Murray Albert Nesbitt; 1951-2009
SUBSCRIBE TO MACLEAN'S ATWWW.MACLEANS.CA
World (continued)
271 MEDIA DIES IN RUSSIA
Journalistic fears; seedy
Barcelona; work kidnappings.
Business
281 GENERATION WAR
Boomers and young workers
vie for precious jobs.
30 I BROKE BRITANNIA
The U.K.'s economic mess.
Nature
321 THE YEAR OF THE RAT
Prepare for a winter invasion.
Society
34 IWWOOFITTravel and organic farming.
371 BEST GRAD SCHOOLS
The top professional schools.
381 LAW
School rankings; making the
cut; justice system in crisis.
441 MEDICINE
Choosing family practices;
prepping for the MMI.
521 M.B.A.
The surprisingly good job
market; volunteering matters.
60 I ENGINEERING
Getting women into the
techie game.
641 REALITY CHECK
What the provinces think of
the Big Five's reform ideas.
8/14/2019 MacLeans CHRC
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13(1).) Both the B.C. and Ontario rights com-
missions told Ma clean' s that the federal stat-
ute is not binding on provincial tribunals,
which will proceed as before.
The Canadian Jewish Congress called for
the ruling to be appealed: "This is one ruling
by one ad judicator," says its CEO, Bernie Far-
defaming. The tribunal can accept evidence ber, adding that Section 13(1) is an "import-
that wouldn't stand up in court. And it doesn't ant instrument" in "protect[ing] the vulner-
have to establish guilt beyond doubt," they able." Indeed, it is highly likely the case gets
wrote. "It's that bad." "Put Section 13 out of appealed-"all the way to the Supreme Court,"
its misery," the Montreal Gazette urged Par- adds Moon. (In 2008, he authored a report
liament, saying the case had exposed the for the CHRC which called for the repeal of
"folly" of an "odious" law. Section 13(l)-a year ago, the section was
The question, f or parliamentarians and . used, unsuccessf ully, to prosecute Ma clean's
the commission itself , becomes: what now? before the CHRC for material complainants
felt was anti-Islamic.)
To Geist, the question should fall to Parlia-
ment to address. Hadjis took a "courageous
stand," says Keith Martin, a Liberal MP who
has tabled a motion for the repeal of Section
13(1). That "members of the tribunal are
expressing deep and profound concern" shouldmotivate Parliament to review the act. Parlia-
ment, however, has been unwilling to touch
the political hot potato. Although Section
13(1) is wildly unpopular with the Tory base
(who, at a recen t policy convention, voted 99
per cent in favour of its repeal), the issue is a
no-win for Harper's minority government; it
risks offending the Jewish community as well
as some minority communities that the party
is assiduously courting.
Other members of the tribunal, meanwhile,
have expressed concern over the tactics of
commission staff . In the Lemire case-which
came at the heels of a five-year investigation-
this included hacking into the email account
of a private citizen, then using it to post racist
comments on the site so it could more easily
be denounced. In a March ruling, CHRT
chairman Edward Lustig called such meth-
ods "disturbing" and "disappointing."
Two years ago, the commission was widely
seen as "the good guys," according to lawyer
and conservative commentator Ezra Levant,
author of Shak edown: How Our Government
I s Underm ining De mocracy in t he Name of H um an Rights. It is now viewed with suspi-
cion "even among editorial board members
of the country's foremost left-wing news-
paper," he says. Indeed, it's a remarkable
turnabout, with PEN Canada, the Canadian
Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian
Association of Journalists and lawyer Alan
Borovoy, a chief architect of Canada's rights
commissions, all concerned with the com-
mission's impact on freedom of expression.
The question on many minds is, when will
the law catch up with popular sentiment? M
The CHRCtellsitself to shape upA tribunal rules itsown hate-speech law
is unconstitutional
BY NANCY MACDONALD· The growing
number of critics of the Canadian Human
Rights Commission received a shot in the arm
last week . In a ruling released Wednesday in
Ottawa, the commission's own tribunal niled
that Section 13(1), a controversial provision of
the Human Rights Act, was unconstitutional.
That is, the tribunal £lady challenged the legal-
ity of its own hate-speech law, concluding that
it violates the f reedom-of -expression guaran-
tee of the Canadian Charter of Rights andFreedoms. While the quasi- judicial body doesn't
actually have the authority to strik e a f ederal
law-that's up to a judge or Parliament-the
ruling has opened a constitutional can of worms /
further undermining a provision that, for two
years, has faced intense public scrutiny. The
surprise ruling has left even legal experts puz-
zling over what happens next. Meanwhile,
more and more scholars, academics and scribes
are lining up against Section 13(1), urging for
its immediate repeal.
The controversy arose last week when the
commission's tribunal dismissed a complaint
filed against Marc Lemire, the f ar-right web-
master behind F r eed om sit e.o r g, which bills
itself as the country's "freedom resource cen-
tre." The complaint, filed by Ottawa lawyer
Richard Warman, alleged that racist and
homophobic material posted to the site was
discriminatory, and "lik ely to expose" minor-
ity groups to "hatred and contempt." Although
the tribunal's vice-chairperson, Athanasios
Had jis, found that Lemire had, in one instance,
violated Section 13(1)-in a post viewed by a
total of eight people-he let him off, deemingthe provision unconstitutional. In a lengthy,
107-page decision, Hadjis noted that concilia-
tion and mediation, intended to be central to
the human rights process, had fallen to the
wayside. (Lemire had removed the of f ending
material af ter getting notification of the com-
plaint.) The CHRC, he said, has instead grown
increasingly aggressive and "penal in nature,"
acquiring the capacity to exact stiff f ines for
opinions that, as its critics say, can fall well
short of incitement to hatred.
Media reaction was swift. It's unsalvage-
able, the Toronto St ar said of Section 13(1) in
an editorial published the next day. "It can
be interpreted to cover stereotyping and
The ruling "cannot be ignored," says Univer-
sity of Windsor law prof essor Richard Moon.
Sure, the commission can "continue to inves-
tigate under Section 13(1) and send com-
plaints onward," he adds-but "if this is the
automatic response, then it's all wasted effort,"
and Section 13(1) becomes, in effect, a dead-
letter law. Even if tribunal members do not
adhere to Had jis's ruling, it is the "elephant
in the room," impossible to overlook, says
University of Ottawa law professor Michael
Geist. (The CHRC says it is "reviewing the
decision," and continues to ref use comment
on the ruling, and on whether it will continue
to investigate and prosecute under Section
For more on the controver sy , see
Mark St eyn' s column on page 7 8.
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It took a 1Nhilebut Section 13is deadThis month, with Judge Hadjis's Marc Lemiredecision, the wheels fell off the CHRCracket
"Nice to see you all," said
Athanasios Hadjis, the Can-
adian "Human Rights" Tri-
bunal's vice-chair (i.e.,judge),
as he surveyed his court-
room in Ottawa last year.
"More of an interest than
there was before."
Indeed. The pack ed benches that greeted
him were a rare sight at a CHRT trial, and
especially at the Marc Lemire trial, where the
prosecutors-the Canadian "Human Rights"
Commission-had demanded that everyoneother than them be banned from the court-
room, including the def endant, who would
be graciously permitted to watch proceed-
ings by video. That doesn't sound quite like
the right to confront your accuser in open
court. But hey, given all the other safeguards
of Canada's judicial inheritance the Domin-
ion's "human rights" regime trashes, what's
one more faggot on the bonfire of liberties?
Judge Hadjis was, by that stage, in the fifth
year of the Canadian state's investigation of
Marc Lemire, webmaster of fr eedomsite.org
and accused Section 13 hate-monger, andappeared from my seat in court anxious to
throw the book at him. "We're done;' he said
at several points during the day, swatting
aside some intervention or other. Jurispru-
dentially, Judge Hadjis was outta there and
eager to add Mr. Lemire's scalp to the CHRT's
trophy room. In that long ago spring of 2008,
the rules were very simple: under the Can-
adian "Human Rights" Tribunal, to be accused
of a Section 13 thought crime was to be con-
victed. In the entire history of Section 13,
every def endant brought before the CHRT
had been found guilty. It would be unfair tocompare this to the justice systems of Sad-
MARK
STEYN
What a difference two years makes. As the
Lemire decision demonstrates, today Section
13 has no friends other than its small band of direct benef iciaries such as serial plaintif f( and
former CHRC employee) Richard Warman,
Canada's self-appointed Hatef inder-General.
"Section 13isn't salvageable;' declared ... well,
go on, guess. Steyn? Ezra Levant? Some right-
wing nut in the National Post ? No, it was Can-
ada's biggest-selling newspaper and h ouse
organ of every moth-eaten Trudeaupian piety,
the Toronto Star. This is a long campaign to
restore ancient liberties that Canada gave up
very carelessly. But, when statist social engin-
eers have lost the Toronto Star, you know the
wind's blowing your way.What explains Judge Hadjis's belated con-
version to the constitutional virtues of free
speech? Less than two years ago, he thought
dam Hussein or Pol Pot, since even those
eminent jurists felt obliged to let someone
off once in a while just for appearances' sake.
Only in Canada was a 100 per cent convic-
tion rate merely reassuring proof of the
Dominion's humane progressive commit-
ment to "human rights."
This month the wheels f ell off the racket.
On Sept. 2, Athanasios Hadjis in effect acquit-
ted Marc Lemire of all charges but one. This
unprecedented verdict is, as Joseph Brean
reported in the National Post, "the f irst major
f ailure of Section 13(i)" in its I:listory. Was Mr.Lemire the beneficiary of a unique dispensa-
tion from the CHRT? No. Judge Hadjis pro-
nounced the accused guilty of a Section 13
infringement on one narrow
charge-an Internet post
headlined "AIDS Secrets"
that (in David Warren's
words) "went on rather ten-
dentiously about blacks and
homosexuals" and was written by someone nothing of imposing a fine and a lif etime
otherthanMr. Lemire. Nevertheless, the court speech ban on Jessica Beaumont, plus a $3,000
declined to punish the defendant even for this award to Richard Warman as his finder's fee,
infraction on the following grounds: for "hate speech" in the same general terri-"I have also concluded that s. 13(1) in con- tory as Mr. Lemire's was alleged to be. Why
junction with ss. 54(1) and (1.1) are inconsis- is Ms. Beaumont on a CHRT leash for life
tent with s. 2(b) of the Charter, which g uar- and Mr. Lemire free to hate again?
antees the freedom of thought, belief, opinion Er, well, um ... As I often observed last year,
and expression. The restriction imposed by under the poorly draf ted and ideologically w
these provisions is not a reasonable limit' interpreted British Columbia "Human Rights" ~: : J
within the meaning of s. 1 of the Charter." Code, Ma clean's and I were undoubtedly 2
When this magazine's difficulties with Sec- guilty. In fact, after the verdict Kenneth Whyte, ~
tion 13 began in late 2007, received opinion this magazine's head honcho, and I had a 2> -
took refuge in the weasel formulation that "of faintly surreal conversation discussing whether ~
course we all believe in freedom of speech but or not to appeal the acquittal: that's how nutty ~
it's a question of striking a balance, drawing a Canadian justice is in the 21st century. ~
line;' and other claptrap intended to appeal Before I attracted the attention of the ~to Canadians' sense of their own moderation. thought police, I wasn't entirely up to speed 6 :
Why is Ms. Beaumont ona CHRT leash for life andMr. Lemire f ree to hate again?
8/14/2019 MacLeans CHRC
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on state censorship in Canada, and I asked
my friend Ezra Levant what he knew about
this Section 13 business. He sent me a print-
out with the history of every single case. Two
things stood out: first, while the plaintiffs
had the costs of the case paid for by the tax-
payer, almost all of the defendants had been
too poor to have legal representation. That's
an inversion of basic justice. Second, one man
had been the plain tiff on every single Section
13 case since 2002-Richard Warman. That
didn't pass the smell test.
The list had been compiled by someone
called Marc Lemire, a man who'd been caught
in the "human rights" crosshairs for half a dec-
ade. You might not care for his opinions, but
that, as they say, isa matter of opinion. That he
has been traduced by the Canadian justice sys-
tem is a matter off act. But he's a dogged type,and he pushed back, and he got the goods on
his abusers. He demonstrated that evidence
exhibits were switched in mid-trial by the CHRC.
He proved that Warman and CHRC investi-
gator Dean Steacywere themselves members
of and posters on white supremacist websites
under various aliases. Indeed, in a remarkable
conflict of interest, Warman, as the plaintiff,
was permitted to stroll into the CHRC, the
investigating body, and share passwords and
Internet aliases with Steacy.
But Mr. Lemire was too obscure a figure
to get any publicity for the CHRC's proced-ural abuses and k inky penchant for playing
dress-up Nazis on the Internet at taxpayer
expense all too long. One day,.as I was rum-
maging agog through what he'd uncovered, I
came across a ruling by Judge Hadjis agreeing
to the CHRC's motion to close Mr. Lemire's
hearing to the public. I stopped, rubbed my
eyes, and reread it slowly: secret trials? In
Canada? Over some unread Internet posts?
Apparently so. Minor servants of the Crown
in dull desk -bound jobs had decided that they
were really cyber-007s whose top secret work
was vital to national security. I emailed Ken
Whyte and said I'd been overcome by a sud-
den yen to attend Judge Had jis's court. Our
counsel, Julian Porter, Q.C., filed a motion
to open up the secret trial. He did what law-
yers are supposed to do-he cited precedent
(eBe vs. New Brunsw ick , Ambard vs. Att orney -
General ofTrinidad and Tobago) and eminent
jurists from Viscount Haldane to Chief Jus-
tice Dickson. In response, the CHRC offered
feverish fantasies insisting that their work
was too dangerous to be exposed to open
court. Judge Had jis caved, and rescinded his
secret-trial order.
So now he's caved again, and the jurist who
thought nothing of lifetime publication bans
is a born-again champion of constitutional
freedom. Whatever.
As for those who persist in seeing "hate" as
a threat to the Queen's peace, at Jay Currie's
website a commenter "pettifogger" pointedout that the sole post that Judge Hadjis deemed
in breach of Section 13~"AIDS Secrets" -was
read by a total of just eight people in Canada,
or nought-point-eight of a Canadian per prov-
ince. However, you've got to reckon that
maybe two to three of those eight views were
from Richard Warman salivating over another
tax-free windfall if he sued for being" offended"
by it; another two to three came from the
CHRC bookmarking and downloading it to
enter in evidence; and maybe the sole remain-
ing view came f rom Mr. Lemire just after
posting to check that it was formatted anddisplaying correctly.
In other words, no one in Canada saw this
post. Yet Her Ma jesty's thought police took
six years to bring this case to conclusion. And,
whether or not it's offensive, there's nothing
in there that should be illegal in a free soci-
ety with robust traditions of vigorous public
debate. That's the point: Marc Lemire is no
threat to Canada. Whereas Jennifer Lynch,
Chief Commissar of the CHRC, and her mob
of statist hacks, social engineers and secret-
agent fantasists are ultimately a very profound
threat indeed. To survive as a free people, Can-
adians need the rough and tumble of honest
TOO MUCH HAPPINESS 1(2)
by Alice Munro
2 THE GIRL WHO PLAYED 2 (7)
WITH FIRE by Stieg Larsson
3 THE WHITE QUEEN 6 (3)
by Philippa Gregory
4 GENERATION A (1)
by Douglas Coupland
S GALORE by Michael Crummey 4 (2)
6 THE BISHOP'S MAN 7 (3)
by Linden Macintyre
7 HOMER & LANGLEY (1)
by E.L. Doctorow
8 LOVE AND SUMMER (1)
by William Trevor
9 THE CHILDREN'S BOOK 3(21)
by A.S. Byatt
10 SOU TH O F BR OA D 5(4)
by Pat Conroy
.. ... . . . ....... . .. ... . .. ...... .... .. .. ......... ...
Non-fiction
EMPIRE OF ILLUSION 1(7)
by Chris Hedges
2 OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell 2(41)
3 WH Y YOU R W OR LD IS 4 (16)
ABOUT TO GET A WHOLE
LOT SMALLER by Jeff Rubin
4 THE CELLO SUITES 3(25)
by Eric Siblin
5 THE EVOLUTION OF GOD 7(8)
by Robert Wright
6 BORN ROUND by Frank Bruni (1)
7 THE BOLTER 8(10)
by Frances Osborne
8. SLOW DEATH BY 5(16)
RUBBER DUCKby Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie
9 GOD IS 6(3)
by David Adams Richards
10 ETERNAL LIFE by John Spong (1)
ON THE WEB: For book reviews,
feature articles, interviews and
recommended reading by celebrities,
check out our new "Books Page" at
macleans.cajbooks
public discourse. Instead, its "human rights"
regime has, quite consciously, attempted to
upgrade unfashionable opinions into illegal
ones. When government bureaucrats forget
they are not our rulers but our servants, that's
always a bigger problem than whatever "crisis"
they purport to be addressing.
For the moment, whatever Parliament or
the Supreme Court does, Section 13 is dead.
The camel's nose of liberty is under the CHRC
tent. Now let's give 'em the hump. M