My story on the Lemire decision

Here's my story on Catholic response to the Lemire decision. An excerpt:

OTTAWA - Catholics who fight for freedom of speech and of religion are applauding a tribunal decision that declared the Canadian Human Rights Act censorship provision unconstitutional.

On Sept. 2, Canadian Human Rights Tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis concluded Section 13(1) and some other portions of the act are “inconsistent with s. 2(b) of the charter, which guarantees the freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.” Section 13(1) says that material “likely to expose” various enumerated groups to hatred and contempt contravenes the act. There is no defense for truth or intent since the act merely looks at the effects on vulnerable minorities, even if there is no proof any damage has occurred.

The case involves Marc Lemire, a Toronto webmaster who ran a far-right Internet message board called Freedomsite.org . Lemire is the first person to break the rights tribunal’s 100-per-cent conviction rate in censorship cases referred to the tribunal by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

“Freedom of religion includes the ability to express positions that are based on religious belief,” said Catholic Civil Rights League executive director Joanne McGarry. “We think this decision will help reinforce that point.

“While we reject the white supremacist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant opinion on the web site in question, the same section of the code has also been used to penalize the expression of viewpoints based on religious beliefs, including the case against Catholic Insight magazine.”

Unlike other respondents who couldn’t afford a lawyer, Lemire fought back, challenging the constitutionality of the act. He and his legal team laboured for six years, mostly in obscurity, until the high profile complaints against Maclean’s columnist and author Mark Steyn and former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant put a spotlight on abuses by both federal and provincial human rights commissions.

Many abuses came to light in Lemire’s hearings, among them: the commission refused to disclose documents; investigators testified under oath that they had joined racist and neo-Nazi groups under assumed names; and they posted anti-gay and anti-Jewish material themselves to provoke a response.