PEN Canada calls for amendment of the Human Rights Act

PEN Canada has issued a statement calling not only for the immediate dismissal of the human rights complaints against Mark Steyn and me, but calling for an amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act to excise the abusive Section 13 -- the thought crimes provision.

I would call PEN's statement a political landmark on par with the Globe and Mail's breakthrough editorial on the subject, and with Keith Martin's private member's motion.

Take a moment and look at PEN's roster of directors. Its honorary patron is John Ralston Saul; its past presidents include Margaret Atwood, June Callwood and even Haroon Siddiqui. For a month or more the movement to rein in the human rights commissions had support on main street; then it moved to Front Street; now it's positively taken over the Annex and Rosedale. This is the fanciest and politest of social circles in Canada, the most utterly fashionable and politically correct artistes in the country. John Ralston Saul, for crying out loud!

When PEN Canada is on side to amend the Human Rights Act, and every newspaper in the country, even the most timorous Justice Minister has no political reason to delay making such an amendment.