“There was an email making the rounds in Ottawa this week. It was written by an assistant to a federal Conservative Member of Parliament. I don’t know the assistant’s name, or which MP he (or she) works for, but it doesn’t really matter. The note was sent around to all the other assistants in Conservative MP’s offices. It was a simple request, really…”
Good afternoon everyone,
I am wondering if someone might be aware of an issue with the Canadian Human Rights Commission??? I have received a few emails from constituents complaining about the HRC and I don’t know whether this is just a blanket complaint or whether HRC was recently in the news….?
Can anyone help me shed some light on what this issue might be about???
Thanks so much for your help!
“I was absolutely stunned when I saw this email. I had always assumed that people who worked for – and advised – MP’s would be ‘up to speed’ on issues of national importance, and in my mind there are few things more important in Canada today than the threats the various human rights commissions pose to free speech rights. But the email also illustrates what I’ve long suspected.
“While the Internet is becoming a very interesting place for people of like mind to share information, it is also keeping various parts of our society from truly talking to one another. Conservatives, Christians, libertarians, and other free speech advocates can write insightul blog entries till the cows come home. And through the technology of trackbacks and ‘links’ we can be inspired by each other’s brilliant posts for days on end. We can even email the stuff we really like to our friends. But in the end, we’re operating in a closed circle. We’ve created an online ghetto, and all the rhetorical and polemic brilliance in the world ends up being nothing more than
‘preaching to the choir.'”
(Accordingly, NoApologies is launching their own anti-Human Rights Commission campaign. You can check it out here.)
I spoke with an area MP this past Monday and he had not heard of the Macleans/Mark Steyn/HRC issue. He now knows but I did not clearly ask him to do something. I will correct that.
I’ve had a back and forth with my local MP on this issue. He first tried to hide behind ‘maybe’ action is necessary and ‘maybe’ a review of the HRC and its mandate is required. He wasn’t happy when I insisted that he couldn’t hide behind ‘weasel words’ and he directed me to complain to the Alberta HRC and claimed that since Steyn’s case hasn’t been decided no harm has been done. I copied the Al Siebring column to him to further outline the issue.
If our MPs can’t wrap their heads around this simple, fundamental issue, how will they manage more complex and controversial problems? Oh wait, I guess that’s why the CBC still exists and senate reform is a fading dream.
I e-mailed my MP about this a long time ago, he sent back an e-mail thanking me for bringing this to his attention. I suggest others do the same, if your MP does not return your e-mail then you know who not to vote for next time.
I am very fortunate that my MP is Jason Kenney. I have written to him and recieved a very prompt reply. I have written to PMSH and several others .Keep writing everyone and link these articles to all your e-mail list . Keep working hard and we may be rewarded.
My MP’s an idiot–a particularly idiotic–female NDPer who can hardly string a sentence together. If I wrote her, she’d no doubt add my concerns about HRCs to the PLUS side of the debate about whether we should have such bodies in a free country. (A “free citizen”‘s a foreign concept to her, I think.)
“Pearls before swine”, methinks . . .
But I do send my concerns to Conservative MPs I believe will take them seriously and act on them when the time is right.
I sent an email unambiguously supportive of Levant/Steyn to my Conservative MP, usually a very good guy, and received a short, vague, non-committal “thanks for writing and voicing your opinion” type of reply.
I replied to his email, telling him his nothing reply left me wondering and asked him explicitly if he supported the current battles for free speech in Canada… Haven’t heard back yet.
I must say I too am stunned, and terribly disappointed, to hear that there are politicians and political operatives at a national level in Canada who are not aware of this issue.
It proves that we do live in an echo chamber here, and unless we influence the world around us, what we say and do here is nothing but hot air.
I would add MPPs to the list of people we should be mailing. The provincial HRCs are also a problem.
I will be typing letters and mailing them physically this weekend. It is clear that a letter carries much more weight than an email.
The importance of this issue cannot be understated, and I am proud that we seem to be leading the voices all over the world in fighting back creeping Stalinism.
Is it practical (and legal – since the case is still being decided) to take out a full page add in a newspaper to put this issue out in the public’s face? I would certainly donate to such an endeavor.
I emailed my (Liberal) MP about this, and received no response, so I wrote and mailed a letter on the Steyn/Maclean’s topic to the MP’s Ottawa office. Still no response.
In contrast on the same dates I emailed and wrote the PM’s office. Both communications have been acknowledged as received.
I am waiting until the end of January for a response from my MP, if there is none then I will request a meeting at her constituency office. The only way to effect change is to keep the topic front and centre in our politicians minds.
Lori, to the best of my knowledge the Winnipeg Sun and Winnipeg FREE Press haven’t even covered it.
They are happy with socialist censors. Yes I email them.
If you want news go to the blogs, next time they have layoffs at the Wpg sun or Wpg un-free press remember, they deserve to. You reading this is killing an MSM job somewhere.
Romania
Denmark
From Germany I think,
Another thing I’ve been pondering is a flyer to post near MSM boxes saying support free speech msm x doesn’t give a rats ___ about Ezra Levant.
There are excellent points being made in this thread, and I agree with the notion that snail mail may be more effective in regards to MP mailings.
(They do not reqire postage, by the way)
However the internet is the main driving force on issues such as Levant and Steyn at HRC, which Canadas leftist MSM will not touch.
I frequently add Email Copies to MSM, MP’s or other individual journalists putting various entities on notice of what is circulating.
I have emailed Mr. Harper on the issue asking for action.
I wrote mine about a month ago, when the Steyn case first broke. I finally got a letter in the mail from my MP a week ago, with a condescending lecture about what the HRC like I don’t know, and thanks for “voicing my concern”.
Rex Murphy touched on Steyn/Macleans awhile back on the CBC. Guess NOBODY watches that!
‘preaching to the choir.’
Which is why US conservatives are covering it I guess, while Canada’s “Joe Clark” conservatives continue their hunt for the ultimate senate seat or foreign ambassadorship to park their rapidly expanding butts in.
Dear Albertans: I work very closely with TPTB here in the province, and am making darn sure this issue is on their radar. It’s a personal mission with me. Please write the Premier (e-mail or snail mail, doesn’t matter) so that he hears your voice. Keep it polite, but make your outrage clear. He will listen.
THIS
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080118.wbobbyfischer0118/CommentStory/International/home
is what we need to be doing (among other things).
The email was sent by a woman – men don’t punctuate (or think, or speak) like that. And I think Tristan, in an otherwise excellent piece, glossed over that highly relevant fact.
A man working on the hill sending out an email like that 25 years ago would be mocked as an idiot and would soon be looking for another job.
My MP happens to be PMSH and I have not written anything to him as regards the HRC issue. If he sees it as an issue – he will try to do something about it. Nice to see that Jason Kenny is now engaged – which means it has the PMOs awareness.
I hand delivered a letter to the Calgary office of PMSH about a year ago as regards the pitiful decision of a Calgary IRB adjudicator (not to be confused with judge) who released a guy picked up on a weapons charge and wanted in the U.S. The U.S. agents were there to take him away but no – he was released into the public domain.
I did not get any response from this letter so would not expect one now re the HRCs. I’m continuing to focus on the AB HRC situation.
A few months ago this same IRB adjudicator (now in Edmonton it seems) set free a 16 year old wanted in Nashville for murder and in Canada illegally. Thankfully a provincial court judge intervened and the last I heard, he was in the Edmonton remand center. Who knows where he is now.
The more the western MPs become aware of what is going on and are put on the spot – the more attention it will get from Ottawa.
HRCs, IRB (Immigration Refugee Board), basically the same situation. Quasi-judicial patronage agencies that need to be dismantled.
Me thinks someone in the PMO should be made aware of SDA.
That way THEY will be kept abreast of what the hell is going on in the ROC.
Don’t worry. The politicians, and particularly the media are very aware of these cases. The opposition is waiting to pounce on the bigoted, racist Conservatives with their scary, hidden agenda. And the media will jump on it at the moment they can do the most damage to Harper.
How much sympathy do you think Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant( and by extension, all Conservatives) are going to get from the CBC? The Star? The Globe? Regardless of how it turns out, I’m pretty sure the white and black hats have already ready been picked.
I wrote my MLA and received a nice form letter from her assistant – MLA is away for a few days, thanks for writing, we love hearing from constitutents, etc. I also wrote Ed Stelmach and my MP and the response has been crickets.
To be fair, though, Stelmach’s lack of response could be because he and or his assistants are still trying to figure out this innernet thingy.
The best thing to do is get a group together and file a complaint with the Justice minister that the HRCs are operating outside of mandate and in contrevention of Charter guarantees of fundamental justice.
Kathryn, you wrote to Premier Stelmach on Sunday afternoon. I realize that some people think that he just sits at his desk waiting for their e-mail to come in so that he can respond immediately. However, when you get upwards of 1,000 peices of correspondence per WEEK, getting back to people may take a bit longer that a couple of hours, especially if the correspondents want a thoughtful, well-researched response.
I didn’t see anything about this story in the Calgary Herald last Sat/Sun and have been traveling this past week. I was planning on looking through this week’s papers when I get home to see if there has been anything since.
To save time, could anyone out there let me know if the Herald has anything on the EL/HRC affair?
If the answer is no, I plan to cancel my subscription cause they don’t deserve my $300 or so per year.
I’m not surprised.
I’m willing to bet that there are people that work for the various HRC commissions who haven’t even heard about this issue.
I e-mailed my MP Rod Bruinooge when the Stein Case broke …. no direct response from him but Jason Kenney’s comments in the house on that metter came within the week and were nearly verbatim to the text of my letter to Rod.
\i am surprised that a CPC assistant doesnt know, but take it as a good thing that they are seeking updates.
Yes the CPC needs to be careful. Speaking too soon, from a cabinet minister, will prompt the same type of issue that is happening with Gary Lunn. Even though what he did was correct. Independent doesnt mean unaccountable.
Independent means you can make decisions but you still have to answer to “civilian” authorities. Day to day is free from interference but not post decision if it is out of the norm.
To generate the poltical climate necessary then the HRC will have to overstep its bounds.
This is why I hope Ezra loses, which may be his plan, to get it moved to proper courts. The SC will ultimately back up or quash it. Either decision allows the government of the day to do something.
This will be a multi year battle.
Remember, in many cases, when you write or email your MP, that person doesn’t see your letter. It’s dealt with by a low-level clerk, who will often write the response himself/herself.
That’s one reason why there is often no response – the clerk can’t think of anything. Or, a patronizing template totally irrelevant to the content of your letter. I’ve mailed complaints about, eg, multiculturalism, and have received templates back ‘acknowledging’ the ‘heaven-on-earth’ that is multiculturalism.
The bureaucracy is an enormous stumbling block to change. I think of the bureaucracy as a massive alien mass of sludge, as a just-about settled homogeneous morass of cement.
The twittering birds hiding behind them – they are our elected MPs. A few are eagles, owls and falcons, with wisdom and far-seeing perspective. Some are quiet hardworking nestbuilders and new generation raisers. Some are crows, endlessly cawing and screeching to draw attention to themselves – I can think of various Liberals and NDP. Then there’s the sycophant cuckoos who faithfully applaud Dion as he intones his inane ideas. Most are twittering sparrows, gossiping and chattering.
What we can do, is send letter after letter, by email or snail mail, to MPs, to the HRC offices, and to various columnists. And blog about it.
I fear bud is right. It is nearly certain that once this issue enters the public eye in a big way, if it ever does, and if and when the conservatives weigh in against HRCs, there will be immediate opportunity by the liberals and left-wing media to finally attack the Conservatives in the way that the media does best. So far Harper has managed things pretty well in that regard.
I think the grassroots need to do all the groundwork of educating the public on this situation, not expect the solution to come from above. This HRC business is a 10 year project, or longer, not a problem we can solve in the next 6 months.
Let the letter writing and internet battles begin and persist.
You know, for a while I tried to make a sincere effort to break out of the rightosphere from time to time. The problem was, I never found left wing sites I believed were trustworthy. I’d read along until I found the first glaring falsehood or misrepresentation and think, “why bother to read the rest?”
ET and Lori… you are correct in your call for people to write, write, write. I once again reiterate my call to Albertans to write to the Premier about this issue, as it will give me the proof that this is really resonating with Albertans, when I’m lobbyng the-powers-that-be to make it a priorty.
However, please note that you may not receive an immediate reply (like Kathryn seems to expect). But rest assured that your efforts will definitely be worthwhile.
You folks are amazed that even your own elected folks ignore your incestuous trivial pursuits.
😉
I wrote about it in the Toronto Catholic Register. (http://www.catholicregister.org) And the Register has mentioned the Steyn case in two editorials already.
All you freelancers to the print press, get on it!
Just to speed that up for you:
http://www.catholicregister.org/content/view/1462/852/
Writing elected officials is all well and good, but, sadly, most of them only get galvanized into taking action when they feel threatened as in the groundswell of outrage over illegal immigration down here. The backlash was started by bloggers and moved into talk radio. It got very media driven fast.
ET is right that low level clerks handle the email correspondence with lame form letter responses, but, they still understand abnormal volume on a topic and convey that information to the boss. So, fire away in volume.
Sadly, conservative Canadians have less media resources then we do and God knows FOX, the WSJ and talk radio are about all we’ve got as conservatives here.
My MP – Jim Prentice – is a fish.
Anyone want to trade straight up for someone who is concious?
on the inside,
There you go making assumptions again. I don’t expect an immediate reply. To be honest, I don’t expect any reply other than a nice “thanks for writing” and not for a few weeks at the earliest. Why? Because this is a hard issue and politicians avoid hard like it was the plague, especially with a looming election. The very best to be hoped for is a mealy-mouthed “Well, it’s before the courts so I can’t say anything.” and the matter will be forgotten entirely.
Now you can delete my email to Stelmach, if you haven’t already done so, with a clear conscience.
Publisher of Dutch cartoons jailed for three years in Belarus:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/international_belarus_mohammad_dc
Editor gets 3 years for publishing Mohamed cartoons.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/international_belarus_mohammad_dc
Kathryn, well silly me for thinking that your comment “I also wrote Ed Stelmach and the response has been crickets” meant that you thought you should already have gotten a response (even though you sent it only few days earlier.) The sad thing is that we are both on the same side of this issue, which you aren’t grasping.
As far as how we treat correspondence, there is no picking and choosing who receives a response as you imply. Whatever you may think of Premier Stelmach (and you obviously have something againgst him), he is above all else an honest, ethical man.
Huh? I understand he’s a politician….and that son’t converge with ethics, or honesty.
Exactly, hardboiled, which is why Stelmach is such a gem.
I just put up a lengthy post about this at the top of http://www.darrellepp.com
While it is true that few, if any, politicians actually write their own correspondence, it does not mean that they are not made aware of correspondence received. Some even want to see the replies drafted to approve or to reject them.
Also it is indeed very frustrating when the correspondence appears to go into a black hole, especially when your MP or MLA is not conservative. Nevertheless it is imperative that as many as possible continue to bombard them with our views – be it by e-mail or regular post.
My Conservative MP has replied personally to every e-mail I have sent him, stating that he agrees that Mark Steyn’s article in Macleans is neither vile nor hate speech. He states that the government is in the process of reviewing its programs to ensure they do not favour any special interest group. What exactly this means, I do not know yet. I should add that I not only e-mailed him my views but forwarded an excellent overview of the situation. As for my provincial Liberal MLA, I have yet to receive a reply. No matter he will continue to hear from me and others.
For what it is worth there is also an on-line petition to the PM on the subject, which many have mentioned in other posts. It does not do any harm to add one’s name to it. Sorry but I lost the link, but if there is an interest I am sure Kate or someone else will be able to supply the link.
Personally, I believe MP’s can deny until the cows come home; I think they are well aware of the escapades of the HRC, and until they are forced by the public to do something about it, they’re just going to ignore it, hoping it will go away.
Alain – trade you straight up for Prentice….no wait, I’ll throw in 10 bucks and a Starbucks card too….
Hell – what’ll it take man?!?!?
Here in The U.S., I’ve sent three emails to the NY Times and one to CNN, asking them to cover the Levant/Steyn affairs. So far, complete silence. The web page of the Times is inviting questions this week from its readers, and two of my emails were directed to this portal. I notice, however, that the questions they choose to answer run along the lines of “How does the Times manage to do such a great job?”, or, “Why are the answers to last Sunday’s puzzles hidden in the back pages?”. I suppose it was naive of me to expect otherwise.
If we want to break out of the “echo chamber”, I think we need to raise money and place ads in prominent newspapers. I wonder if the Times would give us a special rate similar to the one received by MoveOn.org.
If you want to write, e-mail, or phone a conservative MP about the HRC, just threaten to not vote for them in the next election if something isn’t done about it. Votes matter!
“If you want to write, e-mail, or phone a conservative MP about the HRC, just threaten to not vote for them in the next election if something isn’t done about it. Votes matter!” by me
It goes the same for other parties as well…