Con gov't votes to repeal sections on hate spech from HR cod

[shiva]

http://blogs.canada.com/2012/06/06/harp ... ghts-code/

Conservative government votes to repeal sections on hate speech from human rights code

By Jason Fekete
Postmedia News

OTTAWA — The Conservative government voted late Wednesday to repeal controversial sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act banning hate speech over the telephone or Internet.

In a vote of 153 to 136, the majority Harper government supported a private member’s bill from Alberta Conservative MP Brian Storseth that would scrap Section 13 of the human rights code, which deals with complaints regarding “the communication of hate messages by telephone or on the Internet.”

Storseth argues the current human rights code fails to protect freedom of speech, which is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and believes Canadians are better off if the government repeals sections 13 and 54 — the latter section dealing with associated penalties.

“At every stage, the Conservative caucus has voted for it,” Storseth, a backbencher, said Wednesday in an interview before the vote on third and final reading in the House of Commons.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to have Conservative caucus support.”

Senior cabinet ministers supported the bill during the free vote and the results generated loud applause from Conservative MPs. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is overseas and wasn’t present for the vote. Most opposition politicians voted against the bill, although Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal MP Scott Simms supported it.

Storseth said the current human rights code allows too many frivolous cases to proceed against citizens, when the Criminal Code already covers hate speech that could generate harm against an individual or group.

Acts of hate speech are serious crimes that should be investigated by police officers, not civil servants, he said, and the cases should be handled by “real judges and real lawyers,” instead of a quasi-judicial body like the human rights commission.

Storseth said he has also been speaking with colleagues in the Conservative-dominated Senate in hopes of it quickly receiving royal assent. The bill contains a one-year implementation period.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission says it received 1,914 complaints last year, but has received only three hate speech complaints since 2009. Two of those three complaints were dismissed and one is currently being examined by the quasi-judicial body.

Canadian police departments reported 1,401 hate crimes in 2010, or 4.1 hate crimes per 100,000 population, according to recently released data from Statistics Canada.

New Democrat public safety critic Randall Garrison said Wednesday that, due to the large number of hate crimes, the human rights commission needs to have the power to combat the issue online and force individuals and groups to remove websites containing hateful speech.

Removing the sections from the human rights code will effectively strip the commission of its power to educate Canadians and shut down inappropriate websites, he said.

“We do have a serious problem,” Garrison said. “If you take away the power to take (websites) down, it’s not clear they have any mandate to even to talk to people about it and educate them about it.”

Garrison said the changes to the human rights code are another example of a controversial policy decision the government fully supported but tried to disguise as a private member’s bill.

Conservative party members voted a few years ago at their annual convention in favour of a resolution to eliminate the human rights commission’s authority to “regulate, receive, investigate or adjudicate complaints” dealing with hate speech on the Internet.

The prime minister has previously said that “everyone has some concerns” about the issue and that it’s a delicate balancing act to protect free speech without inciting hatred.

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, somewhat of a victory here, but the fact that it's within 20 shows how far the road has travelled.

[Hodgson]

Let me guess....

#1. Harper's not doing enough.....
#2. Harper is a liberal and this isn't what he truly wants....
#3. The CPC is accidently doing this because they really would rather not......
#4. There is no masterplan, Harper just does whatever liberals want......

What are you whiners going to make of this?
Can't wait.

[WestViking]

Personal opinion - it is too damn little too damn late.

Fortunately, cases still in court still stand as people who were wrongfully prosecuted under CHRA s13 as the law stood at the time. Repeal of s13 does not alter their legal position. Repeal of s13 removes any defence the government may have made in defence of actions by victims to claim damages from wrongful prosecution. This is far from over.

[Connie Fournier]

Shiva, you played a MAJOR part in all of this. Take a bow.

In other news, however, Section 13 Respondent Arthur Topham has been 'disappeared', and his personal possessions, including his computer, have been confiscated and, if history is any indication, copies of his hard drive have been passed around.

WestViking is right. This is far from over.

[LAR]

Storseth argues the current human rights code fails to protect freedom of speech,

And that won't change with the repeal of section 13. It's something I guess. At least it shows Storseth has his priorities in the right place.
To the NDP guy I would say censorship is no way to educate anybody about anything.

[Edward Kennedy]

This is great BUT while I do not criticize the move towards eliminating tyranny and bigotry of the hrc's I would see the whole mess of all the hrc apparatus eliminated, all those who had been persecuted paid reparations, and the inquisitors themselves prosecuted for violation of the freedom of expression Charter rights we have.

The damned lefturds want a murdering terrorist given millions but applaud the murder of babies, and the persecution of innocent people. Once again we see that lieberalism and lefturds are the enemy.

[shiva]

Shiva, you played a MAJOR part in all of this. Take a bow.

In other news, however, Section 13 Respondent Arthur Topham has been 'disappeared', and his personal possessions, including his computer, have been confiscated and, if history is any indication, copies of his hard drive have been passed around.

WestViking is right. This is far from over.

I agree, it's not over. What they give with one hand they take with the other but still something.

We still have all of those opposition MP's who voted against this and that unfortunately is the status quo thinking on these matters in all of our institutions so yes, far from over.

[Faramir]

I assume that since the CPC in the Senate are stooges of the Parliament it will pass the Senate without a problem?

It is telling however that Harper thought this vote so unimportant he didn't even bother to show.

It is a great win though and I have only those few complaints. I am rather surprised that a Cabinet that hates free speech when it comes to abortion actually didn't force its members to keep Section 13.

A great win for free speech, but unfortunately the CPC has burned away whatever good will it had prior to this vote, and I'm not sure it is enough for me to ever actually vote for the party. Sending out an asshole like O'Connor to basically call the pro-life members neaderthrals was the final straw.

[Faramir]

Now the question is will other provinces follow suit? Ontario seems to have dug in its heels with Barbara Hall.

[Ben Kenobi]

Sending out an asshole like O'Connor to basically call the pro-life members neaderthrals was the final straw.

What was that?

[free_life2]

It is good news and I applaud it. as already noted the coward Harper hid himself from this event. Hopefully it quickly passes in the Senate and then the rest of the fronts for free speech can be focused on, we got along ways to go yet in this country.

[Maikeru]

Sec. 13.1 was repealed due to it being ludicrous legislation which should never have been enacted in the first place.

It remains for Provincial governments to follow the lead set by the Federal government, and rescind similar Provincial legislation, such as the infamous BCHRAct Sec 7.1.b - the grandadder of 'human rights' hate speech legislation which first the CJC, and then Harry Abrams, used to censor the views of Journalist Doug Collins back in 1997/8/9.

Canada owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Marc Lemire for his diligence in fighting off the efforts of Richard Warman, and those who aided and abetted the man, from November 23, 2003, when the Complaint was submitted, until this day, when the Clause was repealed.

How bad was Sec. 13.1 ?
It was so gawdawful that even this site, FreeDominion, was subject to a 'human rights' hate speech complaint by one Marie-Line Gentes, who never posted a word here, yet was convinced by CHRC staff that her distaste for the opinions of Bill Whatcott were sufficient cause to 'investigate' this site.

Good riddance to bad rubbish is the best one can say about the repeal of Section 13.1, and the fact that the vote to abolish that nasty bit of legislation was not unanimous shows the sad state of Canadian governance circa 2012.

[free_life2]

Will there be justice for all those Canadians who were persecuted and made political prisoners under sec 13?

Will there be stiff fines and prison sentences for those who stripped Canadians of their rights, censored our free speech and benefited personally?

Pay back is gonna be a bit** you fascists!

We are not going to forget who you are and we wait for justice to come knocking on your door.

[styky]

Jonathan Kay: Good riddance to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act

Jonathan Kay Jun 7, 2012 – 11:59 AM ET | Last Updated: Jun 7, 2012 12:37 PM ET


Five years ago, during testimony in the case of Warman v. Lemire, Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) investigator Dean Steacy was asked “What value do you give freedom of speech when you investigate?” His response: “Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don’t give it any value.”

Those words produced outrage. But there was a grain of truth to what Mr. Steacy said: For decades, Canadians had meekly submitted to a system of administrative law that potentially made de facto criminals out of anyone with politically incorrect views about women, gays, or racial and religious minority groups. All that was required was a complainant (often someone with professional ties to the CHRC itself) willing to sign his name to a piece of paper, claim he was offended, and then collect his cash winnings at the end of the process. The system was bogus and corrupt. But very few Canadians wanted to be seen as posturing against policies that were branded under the aegis of “human rights.”

That was then. Now, Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, the enabling legislation that permits federal human-rights complaints regarding “the communication of hate messages by telephone or on the Internet,” is doomed. On Wednesday, the federal Conservatives voted to repeal it on a largely party-line vote — by a margin of 153 to 136 — through a private member’s bill introduced by Alberta Conservative MP Brian Storseth. Following royal assent, and a one-year phase-in period, Section 13 will be history.

While Mr. Storseth and the MPs who voted for the bill (including Liberal MP Scott Simms) are to be applauded, the fact is that government action on this file is a trailing indicator of popular opinion, which has shifted against human-rights-justified censorship over the last five years for two main reasons.

The first reason: the legacy of 9/11, and the associated realization that speech codes have been actively hampering our ability to respond to the threat from militant Islam.

In 2006, most notably, many Canadians were shocked when Maclean‘s magazine was dragged before Canada’s human-rights apparatus, and forced to justify its decision to publish an allegedly Islamophobic excerpt from a book by Mark Steyn. Till that point in time, it was casually assumed that anyone caught up in human-rights quasi-litigation was a fringe commentator scribbling out unfashionable, retrograde views on race-mixing, or the Jewish “bacillus,” or some such. But Mr. Steyn was an internationally acclaimed commentator writing on a real, modern threat that, in its most virulent form, had destroyed a large chunk of Manhattan, and which our troops were fighting against in Afghanistan.

The second factor that turned the tide against the human-rights industry was the blogosphere....................http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... ights-act/