Human Rights Commissions just like Hydra
by George Jonas
CanWest Publications
December 27, 2007
Canada's Human Rights Commissars usually keep low in their swamp of political correctness, but this time they decided to stick their necks out. Perhaps it's a good thing. If Greek mythology is a guide, sticking one's neck out is a frequent prelude to getting one's head cut off. It happened to Hydra, the multi-headed monster of poisonous breath, the mythical beast our federal and provincial Human Rights bureaucracies most closely resemble.
True, it required Hercules to finish off Hydra; it was the second of his twelve labours. Does the Herculean presence of Mark Steyn augur well for slaying Hydra's modern edition? I'd like to think so, especially with Maclean's editor Kenneth Whyte ably performing the role of Iolaus, cauterizing the hideous neck-stumps with journalistic firebrands so the decapitated monster can't grow them back.
In case this is all Greek to some readers, last year Maclean's magazine ran an excerpt from Steyn's bestselling book America Alone in which the popular commentator expressed the view that many Muslims are "hot for jihad" and their brand of Islam seems well on the way to a demographic and cultural conquest of Europe. This annoyed some people, including a group of Muslim law students. When they complained, the Human Rights Commission stuck out its neck, parted its lips, and offered to lend the complainant's annoyance some official teeth.
Created in the late 1970s, Canada's Human Rights Commissions were to be the Holy Office of the Inquisition of the ultra-liberal state. This quickly gave rise to a dilemma. Human Rights Commissions always had a problem with a fundamental tenet of liberalism, namely liberty. But what the hell -- the Holy Inquisition always had a problem with a fundamental tenet of Christianity, namely compassion. When zealots are hot to trot, they don't let little contradictions stop them.
Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) came into being to guarantees free speech, press, conscience and opinion. Canada's Human Rights Commissions (1977) came into being to limit free speech, press, conscience and opinion. Together they symbolize the divine omnipotence of the modern state that giveth and taketh away -- whether rights and freedoms, or crass matters such as income and capital gains.
Human Rights Commissions exist for the purpose of limiting otherwise lawful conduct in the name of some higher interest or ideal. Their beat is the ostensibly free zone where people choose their employees, customers, associates and corporate culture, and decide what to think or say. The storm troopers of the state beat up those who cannot be sued or charged because they had done nothing illicit or actionable, yet who, without an institution to compel them, might go wild and say "Merry Christmas" when the state expects them to say "Happy Holidays." The ultra-liberal state can't cope with such rugged individualism, so for the last 30 years we've had the Human Rights gendarmerie to teach a lesson to those who'd take the Charter at its word.
For the record, I'm not a "free-speech absolutist." Actually, I wonder if there are any. Such people would be content to endorse libel, false advertising, or inciting riots because the Charter guarantees people a right to express themselves. But no one, or virtually no one, argues that. The most vociferous libertarian would sue for defamation if you suggested that he was larcenous.
I never shared some of my media colleagues' concern about "libel chill." Libel chill is healthy. A little nip in the air keeps slipshod reporters on their toes. If as a journalist you're shivering, cover yourself in the garment of the truth, and you'll be all right. But no one should ever have to defend a personal opinion against the state, or answer a charge against which truth is no defense.
Ironically, the original architects of "human rights" legislation included civil libertarians. (Lenin was on to something when he said capitalists will sell us the bullets with which we'll shoot them.) Many civil libertarians are now aghast. They say it never occurred to them that liberal tribunals would interfere with liberal notions such as press freedom. It should have occurred to them, partly because Human Rights Commissions started harassing journals and journalists right from the start, but mainly because human rights laws are fundamentally ill-conceived and actually champion human ambitions against human rights. But that's for another day.
Meanwhile, let's help Herculean Steyn, a giant among scribblers, cut a few heads off Hydra. After that he might consider cleaning the Augean stables again.