Idiots

Even Section 13’s penalty section, under which hate propagandists can be fined $10,000, was found by the court to be “a reasonable means of imposing financial accountability for the damage caused by the vilification of targeted groups and of deterring the communication of hate speech in order to decrease discrimination against them.”

The penalty section was a key reason the law was once judged unconstitutional, on the grounds that such quasi-criminal punishment invalidates the remedial purpose of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Now, however, both Section 13 and its penalty provisions are on solid legal footing. national post

S. 13 is a long time dying.

Repealed it has been but the ninnies on the Federal Court of Appeal are happy to pretend that its penalty clause is not a penalty at all. Rather it is “a reasonable means of imposting financial accountability”. Ah, got it. Nothing more reasonable than fining someone. For, after all, there is no evidence at all that any financial harm was done to the complainant. What is basis for the assessment then?

Well, the ninnies are more than willing to provide the answer: “deterring the communication of hate speech”.

Now, wiser folk than I will think that is not a penalty. Just as they will believe a fine for speeding intended to deter speeding is not a penalty. Because they will be able to discern a difference.

I cannot.

S. 13 Dead and Now Buried

A long battle but section 13 is dead

As I write this I am still only being updated by text message on the proceedings in the Senate chamber but I am told Bill C-304 has passed third reading and will receive Royal Assent tonight making it law.

What does this bill do?

There are a number of amendments to the act that help limit abuse but the main one is this:

2. Section 13 of the Act is repealed. blazing catfur

Repealing s. 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act is the right thing to do. It was unfixable and, despite what the SCC maintained, was an unacceptable curb on free speech.

Worse, so long as S.13 existed, the grievance mongers and self-appointed censors were able to use the CHRC and the Tribunal to silence speech they disagreed with.

And, even worse than that, because of the fact the Human Rights biz is driven by a hierarchy of victims, real hate could be uttered by assorted protected – but none the less dangerous – classes with impunity while loons in their basements who represented no threat to anyone could be driven to bankruptcy by the Commission and its minions.

Canada has become a bit more free with the repeal of s. 13.

This repeal was driven by many, many people: front and center were Blazing Catfur, Five Feet, Small Dead Animals, Free Dominion, Ezra Levant, Marc Lemire and Mark Steyn and a host of others. Realistically, the effort has cost those people hundreds of thousands of dollars. It has spawned an assortment of legal actions which the Repeal will do little, directly, to mitigate.

So send the bloggers who made this happen some money!

(And, for those bloggers who are being sued – the fact that your actions and reporting have resulted in the Repeal of an odious law suggests, strongly, that your reporting in particular, was in the public interest.)

A good day.