The $52,500 man gets angry

Richard Moon, the Windsor law professor who was paid $52,500 by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to write a 42-page report on the CHRC's censorship powers, is very angry at me.

He was in Toronto testifying before a provincial committee looking at Ontario's human rights commission. But for some reason he felt the need to unburden himself about... little old me!

According to the National Post, Moon "lashed out at his admirers" (what a great line -- it's true, Moon has become an unlikely hero because of his surprise recommendation to scrap the section 13 censorship provision):

He accused them of launching a "smear campaign" against human rights commissions and "baseless personal attacks" against their staff.

"I urge the committee not to be taken in by these individuals. They don't care about the truth. They make stuff up," he said in a submission to an Ontario government committee reviewing the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

..."I'm very disappointed," said Lisa MacLeod [the MPP from] (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.). "I didn't call you in to make accusations and call people liars."

Prof. Moon targeted Ezra Levant in particular, whose blog is a clearinghouse for skepticism of human rights law, and who claimed the day before Prof. Moon's report was released that it had been "redacted by Jennifer Lynch," the chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

"The claim was false," Prof. Moon told the all-party panel. "I was given complete independence, and when my report was released the following day and recommended the repeal of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, the falsity of Levant's claim was obvious. He had just made it up. He thought he knew what I would say and he sought to discredit the report in advance by attacking me and the commission rather than the arguments I might make."

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but I'll say a few things.

First, Moon's review specifically barred him from investigating the unethical conduct of the CHRC -- including, for example, their memberships in neo-Nazi organizations. He simply didn't look into it. Yet he pronounces that those accusations were "made up".

I think he makes a perfect HRC shill, don't you? Don't bother with an investigation -- just issue the conclusions. No ethical problems here!

Second, I think the real reason why Moon is sore at me is because I highlighted his enormous payment for his work, and that embarrassed him. More to the point, I sent him dozens of questions for his inquiry, every single one of which he studiously ignored. So I think I proved his review a sham. You can see my questions here, and his report here.

Third, he says it's false that his report was reviewed by Jennifer Lynch before it was released, and he claims to have had full independence. But his written contract shows that his protestations of independence just aren't true. As you can see here, he was in fact required to run his report by the CHRC, and he was required to accept their changes

Fourth, he says I falsely stated he would whitewash the report, saying I just "made that up". A prediction isn't really true or false when it's made -- it's only later proved right or wrong. And I was delighted that my prediction was wrong, to a degree -- Moon in fact recommended the repeal of section 13 censorship provisions, before spending dozens of pages explaining how more censorship provisions are needed.

But the truth is even more interesting. Moon didn't whitewash section 13 in his report -- but Jennifer Lynch has. The day Moon's report came out, the CHRC's press release about the subject didn't even mention his central recommendation of scrapping section 13, but rather immediately announced further reviews, "do-overs" -- to bury his report.

Part of me envies Moon -- being paid $52,500 to write a short report is a pretty sweet gig. It beats blogging. But I don't think I could sleep at night, if I had recommended selling out my countrymen's freedom for a pile of gold.

I love that he's angry. I don't think he's mad at me as much as he's mad at his conscience. 

UPDATE: Canwest News Service interviews Moon about me -- and cites my blog in rebuttal!