The MP wasn’t Prime Minister Stephen Harper, or even Conservative. Despite the current high-profile cases against Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant and Alphonse de Valk, the government has been silent.
No, taking the lead in defense of our traditional freedoms was Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin, a visible minority with a strong record of promoting human rights. It’s too bad he’s also a minority among MPs when it comes to defending the fundamental right to free expression. Dr. Martin has introduced a private member’s motion to repeal the section of the Canadian Human Rights Act that is allowing a quasi-judicial government agency to censor not only the media, but the average Canadian.
“This is a question of freedom of speech,” Dr. Martin said. “As a citizen of a free country, I am deeply concerned and disturbed by the fact that the bar of freedom of speech has been moved, quite significantly, in a way that is a serious violation in a serious democracy. People fought through two world wars to give us freedom of speech.”
Audio at the link.
Contrast this with the yellow journalism on display in this Canadian Press item. (Contact info)
The email for the Senior Supervising Editor Patti Tasko appears to be ptasko@cp.org
“visible minority”
WTF????? Since when? The man is 100% European IIRC; I have never, ever seen Martin or any other Portuguese genuinely refer to themselves as vismin, though the Furtado girl tries. Seriously, are vaguely swarthy Europeans like Italians and Portuguese calling themselves vismins now? In the 20 years Martin has been a public figure I have never heard of him being a vismin. Consider the economic consequences of branding Italians and Portuguese vismins.
Rona Ambrose is a brunette; can we call her a vismin now and get her some affirmative action?
Finally the S#@% has hit the fan, The Liberals, NDP And CBC have, dug a hole for themselves.
Times are going to be interesting!!
Let the debate begin.
The leading news item on CBC Radio this morning was “white supremacists praise proposed legislation”, and bashing Keith Martin for proposing it. Apparently this legislation would be so heinous as to outweigh the situation in Kenya, for example.
All Canadians should take note that the Contact page of the “Canadian Press” List of Editorial Supervisors cannot be reached by email.
If you want to complain about Canadian Press YELLOW JOURNALISM you have to dial up or Fax.
Thanks Kate for bringing to the attention of the world wide visitors to SDA just how the likes of Canadian Press can twist and nuance a story to make it into a neo-nazi sympathizer story .
And all their feeds across the country will echo the story as CP wrote it.
Talk about gatekeeping and news manipulation.
Too bad the Editorial supervisors cannot tell when their own asses might be in the HRC sling.
They are on the wrong side of this speech / gag debate in my view.
As per Kate’s earlier link the Liberal Party of Canada and Stormfront are on the same page with respect to Iraq.
Liberal Party of Canada. Stormfront. Who can tell them apart? Right, CP?
Good move on Keith Martin’s part. Remember: He used to be a member of the CPC…too bad he walked to the other side of the House. THAT was a bad move on his part.
‘Speaking of burkas (Kate mentions them in the Reader Tips post today):
I can’t get the image out of my head of Canada covered in a huge burka thanks to our Human Rights Commissions. All of Canada reduced to the status of Muslim women.
Where’s that artist Christo (and Jeanne-Claude), the environmental artist? Maybe he could contrive to make a burka that’s big enough to cover Canada from sea to sea…It would be a striking symbol of the reality Canada has become.
Maybe he could do it in bright yellow to symbolize the Banana Republic we’ve become under too many years of Librano (mis)rule…
I sent them an email. Martin is a brave guy. He knew they would do this, we did too.
With all the flak Keith is getting, can you imagine if it had been a conservative MP. That is why a liberal had to do it. Wonder if he worked behind the scenes with a conservative. Cheers if he did. Come on Keith, you don’t have to take that BS, sit as an independant, then come back home.
It’s a very important Motion, and I suggest that it’s becoming distorted> As I posted in Reader’s Tips (sorry kate for a double post), I think it’s becoming a political issue about the POWER of identity groups to control what is being said about these groups.
The two groups are the CJC, Canadian Jewish Congress via Richard Warman (and the CJC doesn’t represent the majority of Jews on this issue), and a few Muslims, who again, don’t represent the majority of Muslims. But, they have set themselves up, each of them, to control speech about their ‘identity group’.
So far, the only defense I can see in favour of keeping Section 13.1 of the HRAct, is that it ‘stops Nazism’, which is ridiculous. Indeed, BigCityLib states that the Act itself was “a law designed to catch Nazis”. Heck, I never knew that. I wonder if anyone else did. And why do we in Canada require a law to ‘catch Nazis’? Is Nazism outlawed?
That also suggests that the Left is really aligning itself with the CJC, who have via Richard Warman, extensively used that Section against what they define as ‘anti-semitism’. Is anti-semitism Nazism? And, shouldn’t anti-any-group be either a private matter or, dealt with under Section 319 of the Criminal Code?
That also suggests that this issue has moved out of the area of reason, and into the area of politics. It’s not about ‘free speech’, and the right and duty of people to openly debate, dissent, argue and come to conclusions – conclusions which may require yet more debate and discussion.
It’s not about the freedom to like or not like, people and peoples – which is something that no government can legislate even though the HRC tries to do that.
It’s about political power. The right of groups to control ideas about other groups. You have the CJC on one side, who have, via Richard Warman, won all cases they have taken to the HRC. And now, you have to Muslim groups. In both cases, the defendants are Jewish or have Jewish links, though this might not be relevant.
I think that the issue is the political power of a group to silence criticism against that group.
Notice that the HRC is an act against individuals and in favour of group identification.
The defense tactics of the Left/CJC are to suggest that Free Speech is used only to promote Nazism?! That seems a weak defense; it’s based purely on imagery not facts. I think this issue requires more than that.
And besides, what needs to be made clear to people, and most of the population don’t know it – but we have Criminal hate crime Acts – Section 318, 319 of the criminal code. And these are very specific. They don’t refer to thoughts or speech within debates or opinion. They refer only to speech that incites actual specific acts against people.
So, the argument that free speech permits Nazism is empty. It certainly permits the opinions of Nazism, but so what? That doesn’t translate to actions – which would be covered by the Criminal Code 318, 319.
What I’m wondering is how the HRC is going to get around the problem of its record of always siding with the CJC/Richard Warman – and the two Muslim cases before it now. These two cases aren’t being charged against someone who won’t/can’t take the case to the Supreme Court or who won’t/can’t make an enormous public fuss about it.
Ezra has already stirred the pot – and – the result, on the Leftist Side, has only been the weak bleat that ‘If you permit Free Speech, Then, you enable Nazism. Not much of a defense…
That CP piece is OUTRAGEOUS!
WTF is wrong with these people?
Black is white, up is down, right is wrong. Welcome to the future!
There are more Nazis in the first Indiana Jones movie than there are in the whole of Canada.
PS: Matt nice catch re iraq. I’m stealing your line 🙂
The freespeecher counter-spin is already in full swing…the Trudeaupian soviets hope to link any desire to protect freespeech rights by reforming the HRC act to neo-nazism or white supremist fringes.
This is the special K group’s (Kinsella-Warman-Lib media toadies) mission. Already we see this being offered to the public as a talking point in a Bryden-penned CP hatchet job…and on CBC radio… and we can expect the Librano/dipper red guard to use the nazi stimata to smear Martin’s bill on Monday.
Politics is a filthy ethicless business but what I see the special K forces engaged in take it to a new low.
It’s up to us in cyber resistance to remind them (MPs)that Senator Anne Cools, Keith Martin and Ezra Levant are the furthest thing from white supremists you are likely to find…so the smear is meaningless filth.
No comment really needed, other than the obvious question as to when CP will start applying this “litmus test” every time any elected official takes a stand on anything.
Indeed, I’ll bet somebody could find some fairly repugnant groups or individuals who endorse that very article.
you’ve got to love the way the article lumps conservatives in general in with white supremacists, really honest journalism.
Does the author not realize that this is happening to other journalist?
you’ve got to love the way the article lumps conservatives in general in with white supremacists, really honest journalism.
Does the author not realize that this is happening to other journalist?
“This is not the position of the Liberal Party of Canada or the Liberal caucus or Mr. Dion,”
And this little fascist calls Harper a control freak?
The petition site:
socon.ca/or_bust/?p=630#comment-787
A-HRC charges and penalties were recently brought to light due to charging a western magazine for publishing political cartoons.
There was no Canadian law prohibiting the publishing of said cartoons.
Yet the publisher was brought in for intense questioning by the Alberta Human Rights commission. Was that questioning an effort to discover hateful thinking? No Canadian law applies to personal thinking.
There have been several A-HRC multi-thousand dollar awards made to one party, [ A Lawyer], who complained of suffering hurt feelings due to published opinion.
One could naturally suspect there may be an arrangement between said lawyer and the HRC. I personally do not know, yet it does seem wrong that a government agency can penalize Canadians in secret proceedings with no exposure to our open courts.
Because the magazine publisher insisted in fairness that A-HRC questioning be video recorded, this apparent short-circuit of justice is finally coming into public view.
Human rights are paramount in Canada. Somehow when several multi-thousand dollar awards go to one lawyer, there seems to be a need for public review. =- TG
Kate is absolutely correct to point out the CP “yellow journalism” aspect of this story.
Therefore Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn must remain engaged fully as should Charles Adler, David Frum, George Jonas, Barbara Amiel, Karen Selick et al in the face of the MSM and CP “yellow journalism” in this issue of the toxic HRC reach on speech.
Apparently the only news related to this issue as Warren Kinsellas spin as the CP only saw fit to link to his article and no others.
“Marston said his party has “great confidence” that human rights tribunals can weed out the frivolous complaints from the genuine ones.”
This dimwitted piece of crap is my MP. Aren’t I lucky?
No news here folks. The moonbats/leftards/dippers/libranos have been throwing the nazi moniker around since the early days of the Reform Party. I am sure Martin has heard it all before.
The best thing to do here is just ignore the arsehole, and not to give his site any more traffic than it deserves(which is about zero).
Let’s just keep rolling over those rocks, and exposing the vermin to the light of day.
Well, I have to say that we here in the USA have our “human rights champions.”
IMO, Eeyore has it right: “Black is white, up is down, right is wrong. Welcome to the future!”
Well, I have to say that we here in the USA have our “human rights champions.”
IMO, Eeyore has it right: “Black is white, up is down, right is wrong. Welcome to the future!”
I commented on Kinsella’s letter at the National Post. I linked warren’s comments to his dislike for Ezra Levant.It was up for a couple of hours and then deleted. How about that for free speech?
With all the flak Keith is getting, can you imagine if it had been a conservative MP. That is why a liberal had to do it. Wonder if he worked behind the scenes with a conservative. Cheers if he did. Come on Keith, you don’t have to take that BS, sit as an independant, then come back home.
fancy that maryt imagines herself on a first name basis with ‘keith’.
“Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s office disavowed the motion and suggested Martin will be asked to withdraw it”
As if that’s a surprise. Strephi honks the most predictable croak like he’s tied to a stake on the hi altar of limperalism.
Dr. Martin is visibly male.
Males are a minority (less than 50%).
Ergo, Dr. Martin is a visible minority.
And if you disagree, you are guilty of gender hatred 😉
CP press service is paid for by independent news papers and news services. Make no mistake the right to use CP services runs a company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for this service. And many are not happy about it. Canwest-Global now uses their own internal wire service kicking CP to the ditch at first chance they had. Send a letter to your local publisher (not the managing editor) about the many bias displayed by CP writers and editors may stir the pot a bit.
FOR A LAUGH READ THE FOLLOWING…….
The Canadian Press . . . Our standards
Among the most important of these practices:
1.
Investigate fully before transmitting any story or identifying any individual in a story where there is the slightest reason for doubt. When in doubt cut it out.
2.
Cite competent authorities and sources as the origin of any information open to question. Have proof available for publication in the event of a denial.
3.
Be impartial when handling any news affecting parties or matters in controversy. Give fair representation to all sides at issue.
4.
Stick to the facts without editorial opinion or comment. Reporters’ opinions are not wanted in The Canadian Press copy. Their observations are. So are accurate backgrounding and authoritative interpretation essential to the reader’s understanding of complicated issues.
5.
Admit errors promptly, frankly. Public distrust of the media is fed by inaccuracy, carelessness, indifference to public sentiment, automatic cynicism about those in public life, perceived bias or unfairness and other sins suggesting arrogance.
6.
We can help overcome such public attitudes through scrupulous care for facts and unwavering dedication to fairness. We must not be quick to dismiss criticism and complaints, a trait journalists refuse to accept in others.
7.
The power of news stories to injure can reach both the ordinary citizen and the corporate giant. Our integrity and sensitivity demand that we respond sympathetically and quickly when an error has been made. It doesn’t matter whether the complaint comes from a timid citizen acting alone or from a powerful figure’s battery of lawyers.
8.
Every story shown to be erroneous and involving a corrective must be drawn to the attent
vitruvius – absolutely perfect.
lberia – I suggest YOU take Logic 101. The point was that Canada Press itself set up an equivalence correlation by declaring that BOTH stormfront AND Martin wanted to remove Section 13.1 of the HRAct. That’s a specious correlation. They tried to show that Martin’s perspective is similar to a white supremacist.
So, since Canada Press thinks that correlations show identity, I provided them with another correlation.
Sheesh…talk about dimwittedness…
The timing sucks,(for the LLL) WK is blowing his load, but only has blanks. Three posts to-day, Nazi-Lite is the new moniker for Levant and Steyn. The Shit hit on Friday. The net is two days ahead of Monday’s paper. Chins up guys. We could have an election on this.
Gee… Iberia attempting a leftie lecture on moral equivalency. Dude, I’m amazed you’re still alive. Someone as dumb as you shouldn’t even have the autonomous system responsible for a simple heartbeat.
Sunshine, when it comes to the liberal party and the nazis, the only difference is that the liberals have managed to bamboozle the sheeple into granting them legitimacy. Otherwise, both are for state-control over everything, including thought, and both hate Jews. Please, attempt to refute the preceding statement. I feel like having a large pretzel at the moment.
I have it on good authority that Nazis breath oxygen. No. Really. They apparently love the stuff. Breathing it in with every breath. Each of them, thousands of times a day.
Anyone else here breathing that stuff?
C’mon, fess up?
Show us your true Nazis colors you oxygen breathers!!!
Why thank you, ET, that’s because I’m Absolutely Flawless ~ tinyurl.com/2yfop8 ~ no, of course I’m not serious. That video is meant to make you laugh at me. Because as Wilde said, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you”. Though I do like the lyrics from 1:35 to 2:25 😉
Yet, to be serious, it remains the case that identity politics, as a variety of collectivism, is fatally flawed by its fundamental internal inconsistency, that is: everyone is a member of some visible minority, ergo we are all due special treatment. That works to some degree in the free market, but it is not tenable for a state bureaucracy as it will eventually collapse under its regulatory inconsistencies.
We are seeing some of these identity politics inconsistencies manifested in the current fight between the two leading contenders for the Democratic party nominee in the upcoming US presidential election. We are also seeing them in the HRC cases in Canada. That’s because the identity politics industry has gotten “successful” enough for their inconsistencies to start to shine out.
Speaking as a visible minority of one (for only I look like me) I’m unanimous on that.
vitruvius – absolutely perfect.
Keith Martin describes himself as a “brown man” so he get’s the visible minority status without Vitruvius’ satirical syllogism. And as a visible minority, his opinion is sacrosanct. But will Dion over rule him?
Er, am I the only one bugged by people with medical degrees being addressed as Doctor despite not practicing medicine? Ron Paul had the same schtick. I dunno, I think it’s a bit old-fashioned showing excessive deference especially to people with ego issues.
I’m not being satirical at all, MND. As Ayn Rand noted, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
I’ve never read Ayn Rand. As a defense:
youtube.com/watch?v=xxtUH_bHBxs
Individuals? what a concept.
MND, very interesting about the “Dr.” label.
I hope you don’t mind my noting: you’re British, right? British medical doctors, dentists, and veterinarians are just addressed as “Mr.” in the UK, aren’t they?
I’ve always found THAT strange!
So, I’m not sure I agree with you on this–a very strange, and inconsequential, thing! Maybe your discomfort is cultural. I actually LIKE to know if an MP or other person has acheived the “Dr.” status. But maybe that’s cultural too–and even a little elitist . . .
Cheers!
I will agree, Ural, that Mr. Gungor is pretty funny, yet it remains the case that he is pitting the XY collective against the XX collective. In terms of individual rights, speaking as a male, I’d be more inclined to celebrate this old guy:
video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1886350346915440947
Returning to the topic, should Mr. Dangerfield’s jokes be judged by an HRC?
This is quite unbelievable, free people that want to be oppressed by the government.
As it appears, the ‘journalists’ would like to define freedom of speech to everyone else only because they censor self.
It is clear that they censor themselves, their editors censor them and no doubt the government apparatchiks censor them in a way that is somewhat circular, though the effect is the same. If you note well known fact that they get into incestual relationship with the politicians. As reported many times before, it is ‘I scratch your a$$, you scratch mine’.
Maybe in frustration or in malice they would like for everybody else to just shut up.
This is consequence of education, instead of teaching journalism without restrain, they get the spiel that they are to serve somebody somewhere.
The worst part is that they are restrained and stopped from what they want to say, they would like to call others all kinds of names and liken them to all kind of nefarious sects out of pure envy. They just make it up, does not matter. It matters though that they behave like true fascists/socialists.
As for the NDP which is neither new nor democratic (that must be a prime example of oxymoron, bar none), they never met a totalitarian, they did not like.
Some people will never know what it is to loose freedom to speak your mind. Though if Canadians don’t watch and fight this kind of danger, the freedom of speech will be lost so quietly and smoothly, little bit by little bit, nobody will ever notice.
The socialists know how to go about it, they are the masters of deception.
“Returning to the topic, should Mr. Dangerfield’s jokes be judged by an HRC?”
Although Mr. Dangerfield is a visible minority (male) … I believe I am more of a visible minority because I am male and have blue eyes:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color
So yes, Mr Dangerfield should be hauled in front of the HRC!!!
My bit to Canadian Press
Dear Ms. Tasko;
Having read the Canadian Press report titled, “Liberal MP wins unwelcome praise from white supremacists for free speech stand” I have to express my dismay with the bias evident in your organizatis reporting. Section 13(1) of the Charter is an affront to the very freedoms you so casually use to smear Doctor Keith Martin’s Private Member’s Bill. I’m the furthest person imaginable from a ‘supremicist’ of any kind, a father, a business owner and a loyal Canadian who cares about democracy and the rule of law in Canada. I have written the Prime Minister, all members of Parliament, Senators, the inquisitors of the the Alberta Human Rights Commission and Premier Ed Stelmach to tell them 13(1) must be rescinded.
That you would stoop to smearing the concerns of millions of Canadians by connecting – however tenuously – our deeply held belief in freedom of speech, thought and press with a notorious white supremicist web site is disgusting. I’m frankly tired of the ‘bleeds it leads’ sensationalism of the Canadian Press. Yellow journalism, indeed. I can only assume you don’t feel the need of protection from prosecution by these bureaucratic thought police, because you’d always be careful to toe the line of as determined by these faceless and unaccountable czars of political correctness.
Your complicity in petty tyranny is contemptible.
Posted by: Vitruvius at February 2, 2008 11:17 PM
Dangerfield was a genius, I saw him live once in Montreal and have all his stuff (actually purchased, not downloaded).
Why do we not see comedy and self-deprecating humour from some other cultures?
So, since Canada Press thinks that correlations show identity, I provided them with another correlation.
Posted by: ET at February 2, 2008 8:15 PM
Do you honestly think they care about your overly clever opinion? I think CP correlates you with being a kooky old lady.
I feel like having a large pretzel at the moment.
Posted by: Caveman at February 2, 2008 8:46 PM
Is that supposed to be code for a large bowel movement? Really…no one is interested.
Iberia, here’s another correlation for you:
“Is that supposed to be code for a large bowel movement? Really…no one is interested.”
So, you speak for no one, then, eh?
Ain’t freedom of speech grand?! Important note, tho… free to speak, doesn’t correlate with being literate….
lookout: No not British, but almost. Born in Newfieland just after it joined confederation. My father always referred to Canada as a foreign country, hated the RCMP, hated the CBC. Symbols of Canada. I do feel that we are excessively deferential to doctors and that they learn too early in med school that they are godlike.
Vitruvius: Somewhere you mentioned you were a founding member of the Alberta (?) Libertarian Party. That tells me you are probably over 50 (or amazingly precocious). As an old friend — a former ladies’ man — put it, men over 50 are invisible..
Therefore, I must correct you: you are not a visible minority but invisible, and therefore your status, minority of majority, is irrelevant.
MND: really? Very interesting. And, wrong again, I always thought you were older than I am!
Your observation about doctors is correct, I think. However, I guess because I’m a “people” person, details about what people do are of interest to me.
Hey Skippy, when you figure out how to spell “though”, you’ll be qualified to judge literacy.
Iberia, you truly are an empty vessel…
Dangerfield was a hoot – in person, as well as on scree or stage (and just as neurotic too). I had a staff member who spent a weekend with him once in Florida – he was hiding away at a hotel she was staying at. He used to call her at the office. It winds your day up when you pick up the phone and “I get no respect” is on the other line. She made two other weekend jaunts to where he was playing after that. I never asked any questions. I often wondered if she kept the voice mail message he did for her phone.