A case study in hate
Posted: March 06, 2010, 10:30 AM by NP Editor
Editorial, Canadian politics
For several years now, this newspaper has been arguing against human rights codes that permit bureaucrats to censor controversial speech. The case of notorious anti-Semite Salman Hossain strengthens our case.
Mr. Hossain is hateful and unhinged, even by the standard of Muslim extremists. The York University student has written on the Internet, for instance, that Jews are “the scum of the Earth” and that “a genocide should be perpetrated against the Jewish populations of North America and Europe.” As the Post’s Stewart Bell has reported, he embraces a wide variety of conspiracy theories — all of them featuring Jews.
As such, the authorities don’t need a human rights commission to go after Mr. Hossain. They can simply apply Sections 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code, which target, respectively, anyone “who advocates or promotes genocide” or who “promotes hatred against any identifiable group.”
We have our reservations about Sections 318 and 319. But at least they contain a lot more safeguards to prevent procedural abuse than do human rights codes. Moreover, as the facts of Mr. Hossain’s case show, they are well tailored for prosecuting the very worst hatemongers our society has to offer.
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