Since our press releases of December 19, 2007 and January 10, 2008, similar to our January 2008 article “Catholic Insight under ‘human rights’ attack,” (page 10), C.I. has received significant media coverage, helped greatly by the national publicity around the Ezra Levant (Western Standard) and Mark Steyn (Maclean’s) cases.

Sent to news outlets, 45 supportive members of Parliament, as well as religious and socially conservative organizations, the release briefly outlined our case, adding that we intend to contest the complaint vigorously, should it proceed beyond the investigation stage.
Media outlets and organizations that reported on the complaint and our comments included: Canadian Catholic Radio; LifeSiteNews.com; the Catholic Civil Rights League; the Canada Family Action Coalition; NoApologies.ca; SteynOnline.com; the Family Coalition Party of Ontario; CanadaFreePress.com; NewsBusters.com; WorldNetDaily.com; OneNewsNow.com; the Christian Heritage Party; Canadian Catholic News; the Washington Times; Toronto’s Catholic Register, the American Catholic News Agency (CNA), the Ottawa Citizen, and canadianchristianity.com.

Some of them added their own comments on the situation. “Maybe it would be quicker if the government just listed what opinions we’re allowed to hold,” remarked popular newspaper columnist Mark Steyn, who himself is facing a human rights complaint over an extract from his book America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It that was published in Maclean’s magazine in October 2006.

Catholic Insight “has never crossed the boundary into anything that could be considered hate literature by a reasonable person,” said Catholic Register editor Joseph Sinasac in an editorial (Jan. 13, 2008). “At the same time, it has every right, enshrined within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to do what it does … A fundamental aspect of freedom of religion is freedom to express our beliefs in public. If people like Steyn and (C.I. editor Fr. Alphonse) de Valk are muzzled, who will be next? And at what cost?”

“Re-establishing the rule of law in Canada is a huge task. But it has to start somewhere, and getting rid of the obscene ‘human rights’ commissions is a good enough place to start,” said Ottawa Citizen columnist David Warren (Jan. 16, 2008).

National comments
Sentiments that the government should consider abolishing the HRC’s, or at least reform them, and that the current controversies around Levant and Steyn might lead to this, were expressed nationally: David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 10 and above; Rebecca Walberg, National Review online, Dec. 11 and Calgary Herald, Dec. 19; Ezra Levant, National Post, Dec. 18; Catholic Civil Rights League, Toronto and Paul Schratz of the B.C. Catholic, Dec. 31; George Jonas, National Post, Dec. 24; B.C. criminologist John Martin in The Province, Jan. 11; Paul Schneidereit, Halifax Chronicle Herald, Jan. 15. Others include University of Calgary professor John Mueller, Jan. 12; Link Byfield, Citizens Centre, Edmonton, Jan. 15, 2008; Ian Benson, Centrenews (Centre for Cultural Renewal, Ottawa, No. 151, Jan 16); and various bloggers throughout Canada. On the other hand, the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and no doubt other daily papers, have maintained a stony silence so far.

Calgary’s Catholic Bishop Fred Henry also warned of a deteriorating social and political situation in Canada as government-funded attacks on free speech and religion continue. “The issue is rarely true discrimination, but rather censorship and enshrinement of a particular ideology through threats, sanctions and punitive measures,” he said (Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News, Dec. 31; Western Catholic Reporter, Jan. 14).

Ezra Levant
The greatest recent sensation on the human rights front was caused by the publisher of the now-defunct bi-monthly Western Standard magazine, Ezra Levant, who boldly denounced human rights commissions while appearing at his Alberta Human Rights Commission hearing in January. He had been called on the carpet for publishing a series of controversial cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

“I am here at this government interrogation under protest,” he said during an appearance he videotaped and later posted on his website. “It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures… For a government bureaucrat to call any publisher or anyone else to an interrogation to be quizzed about his political or religious expression is a violation of 800 years of common law, a Universal Declaration of Rights, a Bill of Rights and a Charter of Rights. This commission is applying Saudi values, not Canadian values” (“Human Rights Vs. Magna Carta,” National Post, Jan. 15, 2008).

The whole speech,” Kangaroo Court,” can be found on his website www. ezralevant.com (Jan. 11) as well as on those of various bloggers. It is worth reading.

Finally, C.I.’s editor was on David Rutherford’s Calgary radio talkshow, with Rob Wells, on December 28 (eight minutes each) and on Radio Ave Maria, Ypsilante, Mich., on Jan. 18 (15 minutes, reaching over one hundred Catholic radio stations across the U.S.) Wells used his eight minutes in calling us names, including comparing us to Zundel and his anti-semitism.

Readers are asked to write the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister for a reform of the CHRC and provincial attorneys-general, as well as their federal and provincial MPs and Members of the Legislature, for reforms of provincial HRC’s. Spread the word.