Mark Steyn's case is on trial right now.
Jonas: Canada's kangaroo courts leaping into free speech fights
George Jonas, National Post Published: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
TORONTO -- You can't dismiss a tribunal by calling it a kangaroo court. Not all kangaroos are equal. Some have a lot of common sense.
A kangaroo in Bathurst Island, Australia, for instance, jumped on the racetrack in the middle of the straightaway just as the stock cars were rounding the corner. Maybe jumping on the track wasn't a smart move, but as the racers came thundering down the backstretch, the kangaroo was smart enough to look over its shoulder and leap out of the way. It now has a starring role on the Internet.
What about the marsupials that sit on Canada's kangaroo courts, a.k.a. Human Rights Commissions? Will they be as smart as their Australian mate? We shall soon find out.
It seems the British Columbia's Human Rights Commission, and possibly the federal Human Rights Commission, will proceed against Maclean's magazine for publishing an excerpt from Mark Steyn's bestselling America Alone. Muslim activists have complained that Steyn's piece exposes them to contempt and ridicule. They say it's the government's obligation is to prevent and/or punish anything that makes even the most fragile of them feel this way.
Comic? Not to Canada's marsupials. The bouncy creatures are hopping onto the track (to continue the race analogy for a moment.) They're jumping the fence, leaping about in the customary manner of their kind. No use saying to them: "Hey, Roos, that track is private property. Entrants must pay entry fees and post qualifying times."
Or, especially: "You're trespassing on constitutionally protected turf." Duh? What's "trespassing" to kangaroos? What's "constitutional"?
I'm not privy to Maclean's strategy, but I expect senior counsel Julian Porter to stay on the racing line, keeping the pedal to the metal. Engaged as Canada's leading newsmagazine is in a properly sanctioned contest of ideas, it needs to pay no heed to stampeding kangaroos. If the marsupials get creamed, it's their lookout.
If the kangaroo courts of this country were as smart as their Bathurst Island kin, they'd jump out of the way. They would examine the complaint against Maclean's and conclude that the framers of the federal or British Columbia human right codes never contemplated using them against such reasoned and amusing exercises in free expression as Steyn's coruscating bestseller, but against the malodorous emissions of semi-literate creatures from the brackish backwaters of bigotry's black lagoon.
Canada's thought police are in a spot. An equivalent of the Australian kangaroo's glance over a shoulder, followed by an acrobatic leap out of the way, is their best chance. Dropping charges would enable HRC-defenders to say: "You see? Our tribunals and their staff have discernment and judgment. They can tell racist junk from legitimate opinion; they can tell the difference between a Mark Steyn and an Ernst Zundel. They're not trying to muzzle fine writers or researchers, or put investigative journalism into a deep freeze, only to prevent hateful nutcases from contaminating the airwaves and cyberspace with divisive garbage."
This would neither be true, nor right, but it might be very effective. It wouldn't be true, because our marsupial commissars can't tell the difference between junk and journalism, at least not reliably, and it wouldn't be right, because the concept of freedom embraces both junk and journalism, as it must, in order to mean anything. The Constitution doesn't guarantee a quality press or a fair press, but a free press. A Steyn is only free to perform his hilarious bravura as long as a Zundel is also free to spout his plodding venom.
Dismissing the complaint against Maclean's would be smart. So smart, there's no danger the human rights tribunals will do it. Jumping out of the way requires the brilliance of an Australian kangaroo. Canada's homegrown marsupials show no signs of having reached such rarefied heights.
What about Ontario's Barbara Hall, one might ask. Hasn't she jumped out of the way by declining jurisdiction? No, the Ontario Human Rights Commission simply had no jurisdiction. There's a world of difference between smartly jumping out of the way, as the Australian kangaroo did, and trying but not being able to leap in front of the speeding race cars, like the hapless Hall. The smart kangaroo was the author of the Ontario code.
Anyway, it's an impressive sight and sound. Freedom's top contenders rev high-powered engines of constitutional guarantees at the starting grid, while Canada's kangaroos wait along the backstretch, ready to jump on the track as soon as the flag drops. Expect some road kill before the race is over.
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