The ruling to close the CHRC hearing to the public has been rescinded.
Read more, from Mike Brock;
Rogers Communications, on behalf of Macleans Magazine, has been fighting the tribunal to allow journalists to be present when Commission employees Hannya Rizk and Dean Steacy, will be forced to testify, under oath, of allegations that members of the commission (and Dean Steacy himself) indeed planted racist messages on websites, which were subsequently investigated by the commission.
There are also allegations, that Richard Warman, as a non-commission employee gave inappropriate direction to members of the Commission on how to proceed on cases in which he was a complainant.
Warman and Steacy have long fought to prevent giving such testimony, and recently have fought to prevent having such testimony published, citing concern for their safety.
That is such excellent news. I had a disagreement with my girlfriend this morning. Her take was that the CHRC is above the government.
I think they are about to find out that they are not.
There weren’t any house-to-house fundraising drives for this, and it won’t make most of the newspapers, but this is about as important as human rights get.
Well done by all those on the side of free speech.
Cross post from Reader Tips today:
“I was just going to tell the good news batb’s provided [@ 5:55, topic of this thread]. YEAH!!
“Now, why didn’t the CHRC simply concede this long ago? The good thing is they’ve outed themselves by their ridiculous butt covering. We now know pretty well inside out the CHRC’s decrepit game plan, as well as the duplicity, to the point of, possibly, illegality, of such operatives as Dean Steacy (who, because of the ridiculous posturing of the CHRC, to protect his “distinguishing features”, I now know is blind: in more ways than one, methinks!) and Richard Warman. Let the hearing commence!
“I have to admit I feel like the audience—crowd, actually—must have felt in the Coliseum just before the lions were let out to meet the gladiators, who didn’t deserve their fate, while the CHRC thugs and bullies certainly do. Sorry, but it’s schadenfreude, big time!”
Excellent. The HRC is realizing that its activities are not longer isolate but open to the public scrutiny.
It appears that the date of “May 9, 2008” in pagagraph 10. of this new tuling, should in fact be “May 9, 2009”.
“Exxxxxxcellent, Smithers.”
Er, and Kyla? I think your girlfriend actually doesn’t understand how a liberal democracy’s supposed to work. You might want to correct that little misunderstanding.
Damned right !
Good to hear!
I wrote in.
Wish I could be there.
Thanks for the update Kate.
A good ruling, Kinsella the blowhard is made a fool of again. All that crap he was spewing about the “Threats” to CHRC staff – boy he sure can call em.
Outstanding. Makes me glad that I wrote in. Finally this decrepit institution will be exposed to the public for what it is. Expect shenanigans to go down in the proceedings though; and if Maclean’s reporters will be there to cover it, all the better.
Kyla, if she meant it in a positive sense then get a new girlfriend.
It’s a start. I want these unelected and unaccountable commissions disbanded.
Bright light is a wonderful cure for all sorts of disease, viruses and other assorted stinky crap.
Let that bright light shine for a long time on the Stalinist like HRC Star courts.
The sooner we are rid of such a useless waste of taxpayer’s money and our time, the better.
This is history in the making. Someone will eventually write a book on this, probably more than one.
SDA and like minded blogs and individuals who have fought this guerrilla battle against an oppressive and fundamentally corrupt bureaucracy will be the heroes in that tale. But none will deserve more to be called a hero than the mouth that roared… Mr. Ezra Levant.
I’m sure that some of the HRC staff are getting desperate, realizing that the jig is up, and their witch hunt party is over. I doubt they’ll just cave in though. I wonder what kind of procedural nonsense will take place on March 25th. Or perhaps, because at the end of the day these are just a bunch of cowardly bureaucrats, they will just cave.
Hard to know, but best to be prepared for all options. This is why it is good to have Macleans and a lawyer like Porter on our side.
The key for our side though is to KEEP IT CIVIL!! Keep it rational. Don’t defeat or embarrass the cause by making advocates for free speech look like yahoos and cranks and racists. That’s the freedom fearing HRC activists’ last hope. Deny them!
Blazing, he run out of nazis, he’s after those darn smokers now.
A reasonable ruling. I especially like the slap on the commish for claiming national security….hmmm looks like they have blown credibility.
Also disissed out of hand are the emails that certain supporters of theirs were holding up as incredibly important. Man they were grasping at anything to prevent it from being public.
The tactics are either because they can, in other words game playing….or they really really dont want there to be an audience for fear of the publicity. Methinks they know they have been baaaaaad boys and girls and dont want to face the consequences with Mama…..
Well I look forward to Steyn’s posts, I assume he or ezra will be live blogging it or sending posts.
I wonder if Warren will show up to watch as well, nah didnt think so.
Lori:
I endorse completely the last paragraph of your post. You have generally stood for reasoned advocacy as opposed to juvinile ranting. This was particularly evident in a discussion that took place several weeks ago, the topic of which escapes me. I should have supported you then, but I didn’t because, by the time I encountered the thread, the discussion was somewhat old. I’ll make up for that now.
Thanks RSP. I occasionally have flown off the rails on the blogs, but have always regretted it afterwards. Almost always, anyway. 🙂
But the stakes here are high, and the opportunity to do something really valuable for Canada and for our future does not come along every day.
A lot of people showed a lot of courage to get here. I want it all to be worthwhile and to have lasting impact. The kind of impact that will improve Canada today, and from which the next step can come tomorrow.
I can sympathize with the staff of the CHRC. In the Sec13 world in which they live, they naturally FEEL threatened by all the hurtful comments directed their way on the Internet. Consider the moral equivalence between SDA comments and Danish cartoons. Being exposed to constant ridicule is hurtful and constitutes harassment.
Expect a complaint to be issued against the Tribunal for the lack of sensitivity displayed in his ruling to the feelings of CHRC employees.
Denigrating self-induced feelings is hurtful to masochists everywhere.
/sarcasm
Congratulations everyone. Well done.
Where’s your pet troll on this? Haven’t you been feeding him properly or what?
Slight thread jack; I’d like to thank commentators here for recommending Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale. It’s among the best books I’ve ever read. Took a tad longer, kept the laptop open to look up which parts were real and which parts fiction. Such an engaging imagination. I have a whole list of new words, too many to put here, a separate file in fact. Copyright in 1983, so much is applicable today — a long bit on global warming/freezing, NY newspapers, politicians, etc. His imagined technology in the mouth of a salesman is priceless. His characterization amazing. I’ll never see horses the same again.
Kyla, I’m with RW. Maybe your friend confused “government” with “the law”. No one is above the law, including government and their grotesque offspring such as the Human Rights Commissions/Tribunals.
Anyway, this whole affair is getting to be absolutely delicious.
At the ‘rescinded’ link, under ‘appearances’…won’t
coffee breaks be special!
Wishing I were a fly on the wall…
Steven Skurka: “Hey Douglas; long time no see!”
😉
hopefully there will come to pass when there will be a review of the CHRC’s past rulings, and the riting of some wrongs they have commited
that should send the rats scurrying, we could then expect some resignations at the CHRC
I’d like to see a class action suit on behalf of all those who, outside the rule of law, have been wrongfully convicted and punished by these kangaroo courts.
Let us hope that the CHRC is on it’s deathbed and it’s employees are all given a pink slip.
Let us also hope that charges can be brought against Steacy and Worman for mischief at the very least.
If they are now afraid of physical assault and are living in some sort of fear, I say it looks good on them.
Kudos to Ezra Levant who has led the charge against these villains.
“a review of the CHRC’s past rulings”.
I dislike these Star Chamber Rulings and their disrespect of Due Process. There may still be a place for Human Right’s Commissions but only if the rulings simply refer a recommendation for prosecution back to legitimate courts of law that respect our traditional rights as inheritors of English Common Law.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my MP, David Sweet, who phoned those guys today and asked them why they weren’t answering their mail. I suspect he’s not the only MP who did.
David Sweet is a stand-up guy by my measure, and I’m proud to have him representing me at the Ottawa Sausage Works.
Job well done.
The rest of you disreputable racist/bigot/homophobe Conservatives, get on the blower and either thank your MP or ask them what they were doing that was more important than protecting your right to free speech.
Liberal trolls, eat my blue smoke baby. Democracy and two-strokes rule.
The whole fear of mysterious threats thing is just more of the same old BS from these worms.
They are bullies and cowards who are only capable of bravado in the security of anonymity and the safe company of like minded fools.
Public exposure and real examination of their behaviour?? Not So Much Fun then eh?
Why is it that you happen to be the only ‘big blogger’ who knows the correct manner in which to post links?
Honestly? The rest of em suck major ass.
The CHRC is about as useful as the Wheat Board. They’re in a world of trouble…
“Democracy and two-strokes rule”
ROFL – good one
Wonder if low-watter kinsella is flying the flag at half-staff with this news.
The quicker these star chamber affronts to democracy are dismantled, the better. And Richard Warman might soon have to try working for a living to support himself, and his pie habit.
mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm
Well-done, all!
But the job’s not over; we’ve just begun!
Well Done posters and Kate. Three cheers for Ezra, I can well imagine how very much the HRC is regretting ever taking on that audacious Man who just will not shut up – he just kept roaring. Damn the Torpedoes!
Heh, Shoe is on the other foot now and I don’t think that that shoe is going to be a compassionate boot. I certainly hope not!
hrc’s should be closed and all associated with them fired. unfortunatly these parasites are government controlled. when was the last time the government cut any excess out?
What I find the most interesting is that Maximum Disruption works both ways……for some reason my coffee tastes better this morning.
The stated goals of Mr warman are noble, fighting racism and anti semitism….but the tactics are noxious and the targets misplaced.
My local police fight crime, a noble goal, but if they engaged in entrapment and extra legal activities they would be prosecuted.
Someone else has coined the phrase, moral entreprenuers. Entreprenuers are fine in business but not in morality or use of state power.
Lawyer Margot Blight—love the name!—gave, as one of the main reasons for a closed hearing on March 25th, a fear that one of the witnesses would be physically harmed. Then she provided the following quotes, from an “Edward Kennedy” (spelling mistakes included) sent to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal:
“ and further, whoever posted this topic has made an unforgiveable error,
and Inaccuracy. They used the word -Mr.” before his name, should have used an appropriate word like scumbaU, coward, sneak, tyrrant, etc
“There are some places in canada that a HRC drold could not walk In safety,
“Would love to personally question and especially meet this ahole steacy in
pe~on.
“I want the tainted blood of these sub human HRC bigots to spill freely for the
illegel persecution of many Innocent people. I want the damned apparatus
crushed and lawsuits filed against the inquisitors. Track evel}’ damned one of
these criminals cown ana s/J/)ject them to lawsuffs, imprisonment and pay
compensation to ALL the persecuted people these scumbag criminals
persecuted.
“Then deport the scum to places like Africa to serve in the governments of
fellow scum like mugabe.”
Not very nice, admittedly, but that’s all that was provided as “proof” that the witnesses would be in physical danger. And, as the “writer” suggests that the witnesses be subject to lawsuits, imprisonment, and paying compensation, it would seem that the words “blood spill[ing]” were used figuratively. This Edward Kennedy also, according to Ms Blight, sent these words on March 9, just two weeks before the hearing and LONG AFTER the decision had been made.
The CHRC has shown itself not only to be duplicitous, verging on the criminal, but inhabited by incompetent boobs. What they say just doesn’t add up, whichever way one looks at it. As batb has pointed out, this is just the beginning—of the end, I hope for these blights on our body politic.
I highly recommend Ezra Levant’s web site, where he provides detailed documentation and analysis every day.
Well said, Stephen. And, yes, my coffee tastes better too!
As I mentioned in previous comments I would like to see responses from others who have had their rights ‘messed’ with by the HRC’s. The one in particular that I recall is the print shop owner who was penalised because he did not want to print the gay material.Was Warman involved in that case?There are others…hopefully these people come forward.
I’m late with this scribble. I sometimes need a little time to think thigs through.
We need to be a little cautous with our celebration. I get a strange feeling when an organization with a track record of scullduggary
opens a hearinng. I tend to think these characters have had time to write and practice a script that will cover thier asses.
I sure hope I’m wrong ,but, we shall see.
bluetech, Scott Brockie was the printer. (You might be able to do a search at the CHRC to see if Warman was involved in that case.) I hope Mr. Brockie will be able to benefit from the outing of the HRCs, which, while under the radar, treated him with their usual misplaced and punitive zeal.
At Ezra Levant’s web site, I read another transcript of the May, 2008 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, where the two lawyers for the CHRC sounded like two mentally ill toddlers. Despite the fact that witnesses and lawyers from across the country were ready to continue with the Lemire hearing, BOTH CHRC lawyers babbled on about being unaccountably ill, with no medical certificates, and claiming they could not proceed. They did not inform the chairperson in advance: they showed up and stopped the proceedings with looney-tune excuses I wouldn’t accept from a two year old. Unbelievable.
It’s unlikely the CHRC will be able to try on such puerile, grossly unprofessional stunts on March 25th. Besides the fact that the media will be there, including Mark Steyn—YEAH!!!!—Athanasios D. Hadjis, the Chairman, who had to deal with the CHRC hijinks in May and who will be presiding again in March, seems to be thoroughly fed up.
Yeah, it would be nice if Scott Brockie got some satisfaction out of the CHRC being investigated. Be nice if he got some money out of it too, poor guy’s lawyering costs were ruinous.