Canadian columnist David Warren defends Mark Steyn and calls for an end to Canada’s human rights commissions:
For more than twenty years, in this column and elsewhere, I have been writing against the human rights commissions, which have quasi-legal powers that should be offensive to the citizens of any free country. They are kangaroo courts, in which the defendant’s right to due process is withdrawn. They reach judgments on the basis of no fixed law. Moreover, “the process is the punishment” in these star chambers — for simply by agreeing to hear a case, they tie up the defendant in bureaucracy and paperwork, and bleed him for the cost of lawyers, while the person who brings the complaint, however frivolous, stands to lose nothing.
My hope is that this case against Mark Steyn and Maclean’s will be fruitful. It will be, if it inspires enough people — especially journalists, of all political persuasions — to express outrage at what has been done; and inspires Canada’s free citizens into the necessary political action to put an end to the human rights commissions themselves. The worst possible result is if the case fails to produce this response.
For another important Canadian column, see my Saturday post. We can’t begin to rest easy on this. The forces behind human rights commissions in Canada are powerful. America has got to notice the Steyn case and speak up. It will make a difference in Canada, just as a decision against Steyn in Canada (or even a mere case, however decided, brought against Steyn that fails to evoke widespread protest) would seriously harm America.