"I'm against censorship, period"--Denis Corderre

Yesterday, the new Liberal Heritage critic Denis Corderre said the next election will be fought on censorship. He was referring to Bill C-10 and concerns that artists won't get their subsidies and tax breaks if the government doesn't like the films they produce.

Today, after Question Period, I asked him whether he had any concerns about the censorship done in the name of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

"You have a, you have an example in particular? I'm against censorship, period," Corderre said.
I told him the CHRC was prosecuting hate speech on the Internet, but some investigators had also been posting comments themselves under assumed names.

"Well, what I believe in is that, we have the Criminal Code, it's very clear on certain situations and we should apply that. Censorship means to provide a power to a Minister and I think by doing so, in any case, that's pretty dangerous. When you have some judicial criteria and when you have a Criminal Code, what you need to do is to apply it. So the rest is irrelevant," Corderre said.

I then had about ten seconds to explain subsection 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act and how mushy it is, and mentioned Keith Martin's private member's motion to axe that provision.

"Well I was so much on Defence, you'll have to give me an extra day and ask me the question later. Alright? Thank you very much."

It will be interesting to find out what Corderre will think of Keith Martin's M-446 and the research he has done on the abuses done in the name of human rights law. I will follow up.
I find it encouraging that he would say, "I am against censorship, period."

But I find it sobering that he knows nothing of what's going on as far as human rights commissions are concerned. It means that the revelations about these commissions and their activities are still reverberating in an echo chamber. As a lawyer I spoke to today told me, the issue is still not being discussed in the hockey arenas of Canada.

Oh yeah, I also attended a news conference put on by Irwin Cotler and James Lunney, a Tory MP on the war crimes against Sderot, an Israeli town that has experienced 700 unprovoked rocket attacks from Gaza in the past three months alone. Three residents of the town shared their experiences of living under constant red alerts that send them to bomb shelters.

I told Cotler I was still looking forward to his op ed on hate speech in the National Post. He said he has to get around to writing it.

The picture shows Lunney, the Sderot residents, Cotler and a couple of other Liberal MPs following their news conference today.