Jennifer Lynch and the CHRC have disgraced Canada before the world

The Canadian Human Rights Commission and its megalomanaic chief commissioner, Jennifer Lynch, have disgraced Canada on the international stage.

According to the annual report by Reporters sans Frontieres (that's French for Reporters without Borders) Canada has plunged from 13th place to 19th place in the world, in terms of press freedom. Here's a CP wire story on the subject.

Chris Waddell, a journalism professor quoted in that story, attributes part of that plunge to the increasing bullying of reporters by Canada's human rights commissions -- and Lynch's CHRC is mentioned in particular.

You can see the full list of rankings here.

My fellow Canadians, would you ever have believed that Canada's press freedom would rank lower than, say, the former Soviet Republics of Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania? We have an 800-year tradition of freedom; they just emerged from the shadow of Communism twenty years ago. And we are less free than them.

I also note that several of the fascist Axis countries of the Second World War -- Germany, Austria and Japan -- are ranked freer than us, too.

That's sickening. Waddell blames Lynch's CHRC. Reading the questionnaire that reporters fill out, that RSF uses for their rankings, shows he's right.

You can see that questionnaire here. Thankfully, many of the more awful questions are not applicable to Canada -- such as violence towards journalists. But the following questions, taken directly from the questionnaire, are all answered negatively because of the CHRC's abuses:

INDIRECT THREATS, PRESSURES AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION

During this period, were there cases of (Yes/No):

7. Surveillance of journalists by the state (were journalists’ phones tapped, were they

followed etc)?

8. Journalists employed by privately-owned media being forced to stop working because

of threats or political pressure?

9. Serious difficulty accessing public or official information (such as refusal by officials

to provide information, information being provided selectively, according to the

media’s editorial position)?

CENSORSHIP AND SELF-CENSORSHIP

12. How many news media were censored, had issues seized, had their premises

ransacked or had their operating licence withdrawn by the state?

During this period, was there (Yes/No):

14. Widespread self-censorship in the privately-owned media? Give a score from 0 (none)

to 5 (strong self-censorship).

15. Important news that was suppressed or not covered because of political or business

pressure? Give examples.

ECONOMIC, LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PRESSURE

During this period, was there or were there (Yes/No):

23. Unjustified or improper use of fines, summonses or legal action against journalists or

media outlets?

INTERNET AND NEW MEDIA

During this period, was there or were there (Yes/No):

30. Cases of access to news, cultural or political websites being blocked by filtering

mechanisms or being closed down by the authorities?

31. Cases of cyber-dissidents or bloggers being detained for more than a day? How many?

 

In case you need a reminder, here are the facts that apply to each question number:

7. Jennifer Lynch maintains an enemies list of her critics. And CHRC staff, such as neo-Nazi member Dean Steacy, covertly monitor sites of critical journalists.

8. Had Mark Steyn and Maclean's lost their cases, Steyn's oeuvre would have been permanently banned in Canada.

9. Lynch regularly breaks Canada's access to information laws, by falsely and illegally refusing to comply with basic requests, such as to disclose her expenses.

12. Human rights commissions have the power to search and seize documents (including computer hard drives) from premises, including media companies, without a search warrant. It was under that threat that I personally felt compelled to attend a government interrogation.

14. This is obvious: the near-unanimous self-censorship of Canadian newspapers and TV stations in the face of the cartoon fatwa was as much out of fear of human rights-style hassles (like the Canadian Islamic Congress attempted shakedown of Maclean's) as it was out of fear of violence.

15. See 14 above when it comes to radical Islam.

23. HRCs are a form of "lawfare" -- note that the CIC filed three identical complaints against Maclean's and Steyn in three jurisdictions, in a punitive abuse of the system. I myself have been subject to not only three human rights complaints, but four defamation suits (and another defamation threat by the CIC itself), and over 20 complaints to the law society (all of which have been dismissed).

30. The chief tool of Lynch and her mob, aside from the punishment of her abusive processes, is a lifetime ban on publications.

31. The very first Canadian to be hit with a cease and desist order under section 13 (back before the Internet, when it only applied to telephone answering machines) refused to comply, and was thus served nine months in jail. Seriously: for not unplugging his rude answering machine message, he served more time in jail than most Canadian rapists do.

Given that there are only 40 questions on the whole list, and Canada regularly breaches nine of them, I'm surprised that our rank has only fallen to 19th place.

Jennifer Lynch is an international disgrace. She and her illiberal band of censors are hurting our national reputation as a free country. She rather likes it that way, I'm sure -- she regularly confers with her counterparts in various third world human rights commissions. I'm sure she'd like to meet them half-way. (See here for her jubilant exchange with the thugs from Cameroon's human rights commission -- ranked 109th in press freedom.)

Of course, I really don't give a damn about international opinion of Canada. I don't care if some French NGO hates us or loves us. What I care about is my God-given freedom as a Canadian, and that Lynch has illegally taken it away. The fact that it takes a liberal French NGO to notice is merely adding insult to injury.

Now that the exquisitely politically correct progressives at RSF have condemned Lynch, is it too much to ask that our own Parliament actually do something about her?

Fire. Them. All.

P.S. I know the PMO staffer who selected Lynch; and I know the Conservative lobbyist who recommended her. Both are sheepish about their decision; I'm sure both regret it, and if they knew then what they know now, they'd never have greenlit this little fascist. What's so funny, though, is that both of these men tell me that Lynch lusted for the job precisely for the foreign junketeering -- she wanted to schmooze with human rights bureaucrats dictatorships around the world.

I'm sure my friends thought what she had in mind -- besides spending six figures a year in first-class travel -- was that Lynch's incessant conferences would bring godforsaken countries like Cameroon up a few notches in freedom. I don't think they ever thought it would mean Canada would be dragged down to their level.

They didn't know when they appointed her, but they know now. But so far, the government hasn't acted at the behest of the unanimous shaming of Lynch from Canadian commentators. It's probably too much to hope that they'd pay any more attention to foreigh critics of Lynch, either.