Calgary Herald: make Syed Soharwardy pay

Today's Calgary Herald:

Soharwardy told the Herald editorial board Tuesday, "I think freedom of speech is one of the most important benefits of living in Canada, and we should protect it. I think the mandate of the Alberta Human Rights Commission should be limited -- Section 3 (1) (that makes it an offence to publish something likely to expose a person or class of persons to hatred or contempt) should be gone."

Well, well.

There could be an element of enlightened self-interest of course, Soharwardy having made a few borderline statements himself. To compare Palestinian people's travails to the Holocaust, or to characterize Christian relief efforts after a tsunami hit Indonesia as kidnapping Muslim children, is to drink deeply from free speech's well. Those who do so, should by no means try to keep others from the water.

It does leave one bit of unfinished business, though.

Even if Levant feels he has won the argument -- he has, in our view -- it has cost him a lot of money to do it. (Human rights complaints are free to the complainant, but defendants are obliged to fund their own counsel.) As he has remarked, the process is as much the punishment as the ruling.

No less of a chill to the free expression of opinion is the possibility that even if the case is later dropped, it might still be costly to prepare for a defence that will ultimately not be required.

Striking Section 3 (1) from the act should be a priority for the provincial government, whose creature the legislation is. Until that is done, it seems elementary justice that defendants should expect their costs to be met, if the case fails to proceed -- or, if they are exonerated.