A champion for free speech

Paul Schneidereit has become a leading voice calling for reform of Canada's human rights commissions. Here is what must be at least his third column on the subject, in Halifax's leading daily paper. Schneidereit reminds us that it wasn't too long ago that the Supreme Court of Canada, in a razor-thin 4 to 3 decision, upheld the section 13 thought crimes provision of the human rights act, but with this proviso:

...[the majority of judges wrote that] there was "little danger that subjective opinion as to offensiveness will supplant the proper meaning." But exactly what the majority said would not happen, in fact has.

That's a keen observation; those who argue that section 13 is a constitutionally valid infringement on speech ignore how the human rights commissions have run wild with the narrow powers granted to them by a narrow decision of the court. It seems likely to me that if Mark Steyn's case or my case -- so clearly outside the small ambit granted by the court -- were to come before the court again, they'd put the commissions back in their place.

My case or Mark Steyn's might just come to that; with a 100% conviction rate at the federal HRC, it's doubtful that we'll be acquitted at the first instance. It is good to know that Schneidereit's views will be represented at any such appeal; he is the past president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, which promised to intervene legally should either of our cases go to a full-blown hearing.