I want to say a few things that my friends in Canada can’t say without incurring the risk of being persecuted by the nearest “human rights” tribunal.
For one thing, libel law in Canada makes free speech dangerous–unless you belong to one of the “protected classes” who enjoy superior rights. If you don’t, you may be held criminally liable for saying anything–and I do mean anything–which a member of a coddled “minority” objects to, for any reason under the sun. Canadian courts have held that truth is no defense. If you tell the truth, and a gay activist or a Muslim doesn’t like it, welcome to the wonderful world of perpetual prosecution.
Then there’s Richard Warman, perpetual plaintiff. More than half of the free speech-killing actions taken by the “human rights” bodies have been instigated by him. The decisions of these kangaroo courts–where normal rules of evidence do not apply, and the defendant is always guilty (not a figure of speech: the accused really is always found guilty)–have put a lot of money into Warman’s pocket.
Last week a court found the owners of the Free Dominion website guilty of libel against Warman: for calling him names that every public figure in America simply has to live with every day. So if you live in Canada, you dare not speak of Richard Warman unless you’re praising him.
So let me, as an American, say some things that can’t be said in Canada anymore.
*Richard Warman is a bubo on the body politic, and has done much to make a great nation contemptible.
*Richard Warman is a fascist bully.
*He is a liar and a fraud. In 2009, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal criticized him for posting “hate speech” comments on a website and then filing complaints against the site owner for having those comments on the site. They didn’t punish him for it, of course. Without him, they have no reason for existing–at the Canadian people’s expense.
*Richard Warman is living proof that the Western nations erred when they abolished dueling.
*Richard Warman is the biggest schmuck in Canada.
I don’t expect any comments from readers in Canada. It wouldn’t be safe for them to comment–and that is no exaggeration.
You have this one right. Congrats. And let me add this. The complainant in a HRC hearing has his legal fees paid by the gubamint-at least in my province-maybe in all of them. But, the defendant has to pay his own fees. How’s that for justice?
Canada, despite any brief interludes, is an established socialist country, and it was well shoved down that path by the Liberals in the 1960s, and then cemented in stone by Canada’s worst PM ever, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
Dave—- Canada
That is indeed the case in every single province, and at the federal level, too–a free ride for the plaintiff, financial doom for the defendant. There’s no double jeopardy rule in Canada: so, in the unlikely event of the plaintiff losing his case (which never happens), he can just start over again, either at the same provincial “human rights” body or at another one.
As Ezra Levant has observed, “The process is the punishment.” These cases can go on for years and years, completely exhausting the defendant’s resources.
It is a disgrace to Canada.
I emigrated from Canada and immigrated to the USA three weeks before my 50th birthday starting from scratch in a new country, not an easy thing to do just as the US entered the worst economic period in 70 years. I am now a proud American citizen.
I have come to believe that the Canadian malady displayed in the free speech lawsuits and elsewhere is an ingrained inferiority complex that displays itself everywhere in the desire to pander unceasingly to the lowest common denominator out of misplaced compassion and simultaneously to squelch any concept of achievement or excellence; in the words of Shelley Cooper, late of the Bank of Montreal, “cut off the tall poppy”.
For me it become simply intolerable. So I defected.
These sentiments are gaining ground in America. Our ruling class subscribes to them whole=heartedly–a case of making us pay for their sense of self=righteousness. The question is, Where the heck are we gonna go when America catches up to Canada in the race to the bottom?