Rex Murphy: The Case of the Heckled Comic and the Drink-Tossing Lesbians

Rex Murphy fires another broadside at British Columbia's laughable Human Rights Tribunal, and its decision to have a full-blown hearing into the case of comedian Guy Earle, and his response to two drunk hecklers. Rex also mentions the cartoon complaint being prosecuted by Alberta's human rights commissions against me, a 900-day, 15-bureaucrat investigation that continues with no end in sight.

Some excerpts:

...Human-rights commissions are good on cartoons. The one in Alberta, for example, has been savaging Ezra Levant's peace of mind for almost three years because his now-departed magazine published the famous Mohammed cartoons. Chewing on his bank account too. The still unfinished quarry into whether the genial and courageous Mr. Levant is an Islamaphobic hate-monger has so far cost him almost $100,000. Cost to the two complainants so far: zilch.

Incidentally, one of them, Syed Soharwardy, withdrew his complaint 21/2 years in. Did he get a tap on the wrist for instigating so costly and disturbing a process and then – on a whim? on a soul-awakening? out of boredom? – cancelling it? Of course not.

This is one of the less-noticed glories of the Canadian human-rights insanity. Complainants float unburdened like puffballs in a summer breeze – blowing whither they list. Targets – Catholic bishops, Catholic magazines, fundamentalist pastors, genital surgeons, heckled comedians, school boards, fast-food joints, school-prom nights, Maclean's magazine – empty bank machines and call in lawyers while the “leisurely” process unfurls in an eerie, Kafkaesque slow motion.

...And out in B.C., the Case of the Heckled Comic and the Drink-Tossing Lesbians has intervened and obviously offers a more diverting stew. From national newsmagazines to amateur night at the local comedy store, there is nowhere your fearless human-rights commission does not tread.

Incidentally, what are the human-rights protocols governing stand-up comedians in their delicate dance with drink-lubricated hecklers – whether said hecklers be lesbians, heterosexuals or, as is increasingly the case, of indeterminate orientation? Has the International Criminal Court had time to give this explosive area a once-over? Will Don Rickles – finally – be arrested on some international warrant? Is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on some human-rights watch list?

...the comedian in the heckling lesbian case is holding a fundraiser in Toronto tonight [Saturday night].

...They should also avoid any jokes involving sex, religion, politics or global warming. Outside those boundaries, I think they're safe. Chicken crossing the road jokes are safe. Assuming, of course, the fowl pedestrian is free-range and it doesn't meet a vegetarian halfway over. Absent those elements and I fear cries of chickenphobia will rear their squawking heads.

The really funny joke in all of this, however, is not going to come of out the mouth of any comedian. It is the dreary fact that comedians are the latest targets of Canada's human-rights commissions. Did you ever in your wildest dreams see heckling as the subject of a human-rights inquiry?

The mirthless sitting in adjudication over the mirth-makers, telling Canadians what they're allowed to laugh at.

Fire. Them. All.