B’nai Brith begins to do the right thing….asks for comments
Dr. Frank Dimant is Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada and CEO of the organization’s Institute for International Affairs and the League for Human Rights has asked for comments on B’nai Brith ’s press release today calling for significant reforms to the CHRC.
Here’s what I wrote, we’ll see if it is posted:
This was absolutely the right thing for B’nai Brith to have done.The CHRC’s hate crimes investigation group was and is a disgrace. The lack of competent management, the total absence of rules and procedures, the behavior of very junior people (with the apparent approval of management) means that we now know many of the hate messages posted on the internet were posted by our own government.
Free Speech is the bedrock of democracy – not limited speech, not inoffensive speech – Free Speech. The greatest threat to Canada, and the greatest and most express threat to Jewish Canadians, are not the little neo-Nazi creeps in their basements. Rather it is extremist Islam with its imams openly inciting hatred of a Friday in Canadian mosques.
We have to be able to write about those extremist imams and their followers without worrying about the long arm of the censors at the CHRC.
S. 13 must, in its entirety, be repealed.
I was relieved to see B’nai Brith finally recognizing that the wannabe secret police at the CHRC are doing far more harm than good. Ezra Levant is rather more direct than Mr. Matas, “Fire. Them. All”
That would be a start, the full judicial investigation of the excesses of the Commission would go some distance to correcting the gross abuses the Commission has fostered over the years.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Still for all they do seem to be hoping to salvage Section 13(1). Thats not good.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:26 am
I think the BB is doing what a seasoned NGO lobby does best when it has stepped on it’s own dick, go into damage control with placebo solutions.
First I think they are distancing themselves politically from Farber’s extremist views that free speech be castrated for his peace of mind and second, I think the BB is trying to divert attention from the root cause of the problem.
The CHRC issues of misuse as a political censorship tool and malfeasant abuser of charter legal process will not stop with some fiddling with the commission regulations. The cause is the CHR act section 13 (1). As long as it stands unreformed the potential for misuse and charter breech is there.
The BB were cheerleaders for 13(1)’s inception and use. Frankly, I reflect the opinion of another poster to Ezra’s site in that the only way the BB can regain its credibility with free speech and civil liberty advocates is to openly apologize for what they did to Doug Collins and join the fight to repeal 13(1).
August 6th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
“Rather it is extremist Islam with its imams openly inciting hatred of a Friday in Canadian mosques.”
First off, this is just not true and your phrasing could be re-written to be less offensive and stereotypical and more precise to emphasize your own point. More importantly, don’t you think if some of the far-right would stop crying wolf and making these stereotypical allegations on a daily basis the Canadian public would be better off so if and when these types of events transpire they won’t write it off as the radical right simply concocting another cock and bull story?
You have this perpetual battle with one side defending itself (rightfully so as the generalizations are just not applicable, sorry) against the the fears of the other; naturally society is going to be more reluctant and more careful not to offend the side absorbing the attack out of sheer empathy. Thus, in effect you guys are attenuating your own message by spreading it carelessly and haphazardly and thus doing society an injustice. How’s that for a thought?
Assuming it to be true, surely you can’t believe most people working for and supporting HRCs and general members of our reasonably intelligent society would actually be against calling out a religious institution for plotting to hurt or destroy Canada’s well-being?
August 6th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Sockpuppy – so just what do you call a bald statement that all Israelis over the age of 18 are ‘legitimate military targets’ then?
August 6th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Here’s what I wrote:
Jay Currie is a drug-addled moron. He is a liar and a cheat. Every sensible person should be made aware of this hideously deranged person.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
And how charmingly you put it Peter K.
And bravely using your first name and all.
And, (he says having checked) not actually written at all.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:32 am
dcardno,
I view it for what it is. Sure I may be more sympathetic and understanding of the contenxt of in which it was said (that from the perspective of war between peoples), but I am not going to validate those beliefs nor suggest they should be spoken on television. I don’t think Michael Coren was even-handed in his approach and he knew he could exploit Elmasry’s poor PR skills, or lack thereof, and elicit an out of context response. Conduct a newspapers search and look at all the stuff Coren has had to say over the years. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t have been said but it is not truly indicative of Elmasry’s views of Jewish people. Elmasry does not support terrorism and does not accept much needed funding from outside of Canada so not to spark any suspicions of any sort and to remain totally Canadian.
I don’t know how and where your comment relates to my thought but to me that just shows how every Muslim has to respond to every action unrelated to them personally and for any argument they bring forward and every position they take. I haven’t made a mention of my religious affiliation and I pose a thought somewhat favourable to Muslims and the left, and I’m responding about Elmasry, go figure.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Careful, Peter – your brother wants his computer back.