Rob Breakenridge on the CHRC's bias

Rob Breakenridge is one of Canada's leading advocates of free speech. He has a popular radio show, called The World Tonight, where he's talked about the subject a dozen times this year. And he's written about it in his Calgary Herald column almost as much.

Here's his latest Herald column on the subject of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and its continuing bad behaviour. Here's a brief excerpt, contrasting the CHRC's "see no evil, hear no evil" approach to a bigoted Montreal imam, but their obsession with prosecuting a mainstream conservative website:

Section 13 and it's provincial cousins are bad enough as they are, but it becomes even worse when it appears as though some individuals are exempt -- a licence to hate, if you will.

As we've seen repeatedly this year--from Ezra Levant to Mark Steyn to comedian Guy Earle--there are many who are very clearly not exempt from the reach of federal and provincial human rights commissions.

That would include the conservative website Free Dominion, which has been under investigation for several months now by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The CHRC interest in Free Dominion goes back even further: a complaint filed against the site in September of 2006 was later withdrawn.

The operators of Free Dominion, Mark and Connie Fournier, filed an Access to Information request to try and shine some light on why and how they were being investigated.

A few days ago they got their response--23 pages of heavily redacted documents, save the names of more than a dozen CHRC employees working on the file, and the pleasantries exchanged as they e-mail back and forth about the case.

It presents a most glaring contrast--the CHRC would appear to be going out its way to not investigate a fanatical anti-gay, anti-Jewish imam, but seems to be going out of its way to investigate a conservative political website.

I agree with Breakenridge's thesis: despite the groundswell of opposition (especially on the Internet), 2008 was actually an awful year for free speech in Canada. But what 2008 did was to set up 2009 as the year for reform.

It goes back to the simple two-step strategy:

1. Denormalize the commissions; and

2. Press legislators to act.

2008 was the year of denormalization. Let 2009 be the year of legislation.