A GROWING THREAT

Gray listed sampling of recent cases in which human rights commissions have penalized Canadians for exercising their right to freedom of speech and expression—rights which are supposedly protected in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

• Most recently, Mark Steyn and Maclean’s magazine were the subject of a jet-to-be-adjudicate complaint for reprinting a chapter from Steyn’s book America Alone.

• Ezra Levant, founder and formerly publisher of Western Standard magazine, is currently being investigated by the Alberta HRC in connection with a complaint about his magazine publishing Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet, Mohammed.

• Catholic Insight magazine is currently the subject of a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for material on its website critical of homosexual conduct.

• Steven Boissoin, a Christian pastor, faces punishment by the Alberta Human Rights Commission for a letter published in the Red Deer Advocate. The adjudicator alleged a “circumstantial causal connection” between his letter and an unrelated attack on a homosexual teenager in that city.

• John Di Cecco, a Kamloops city councilor, was fined $1,000 for by the BC Human Rights Tribunal when a complaint was brought in response to comments he made about homosexual conduct.

• Knights of Columbus of Port Coquitlam, BC, were fined by the BC Human Rights Tribunal in 2005 for refusing the use of their hall for a lesbian “wedding” reception.

• Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary was the subject of a human rights complaint in 2005 for articulating the Catholic Church’s teachings on same-sex marriage in a pastoral letter. (The complaint was later withdrawn after a meeting with the complainants, and substantial expense.)

• In 2002, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission ordered the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix and Hugh Owens to each pay $1,500 to three complainants because of the publication of an advertisement that quoted Bible verses on homosexuality. Four years later, this was overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal after the court ruled that the message, though offensive, didn’t reach the level of inciting hatred..

• Bill Whatcott, charged with spreading hate against homosexual persons for the distribution of material objecting to an advertisement that ran in Saskatchewan’s largest newspaper for homosexuals, Perceptions, seeking boys for activities that specifically mentioned that their age was “… not so relevant”. The material distributed by Mr. Whatcott also objected to material promoting “gay” culture and beliefs entering into the Saskatoon Public School System and the University of Saskatchewan. The appeal by Mr. Whatcott to the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench from his conviction and fine of $17,500.00 by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal was denied by the Judgment of Mr. Justice F. Kovatch in a decision received on December 11, 2007.

• Chris Kempling, a teacher and counsellor at a public high school in Quesnel, was cited in May 2001 for “conduct unbecoming a professional” by the BC College of Teachers for letters published in a local newspaper during the summer. As punishment he was suspended from teaching for one month. He appealed his suspension all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which in 2006 refused to hear his appeal.

CBC radio interviews in 2004 about his private practice as a counselling psychologist in Prince George were made the basis for a formal reprimand by the Quesnel School District; when Dr. Kempling complained to the BC Human Rights Tribunal that his liberties were being infringed, the Tribunal refused to hear his complaint.

Dr. Kempling was also penalized by his employer, the Quesnel School District, for a letter to the editor of his local newspaper announcing his candidacy for the CHP, and stating the CHP’s long-established policy on government approval of homosexuality.

• In 1999, Toronto printer Scott Brockie was ordered by the Ontario HR Commission to pay a ‘gay’ activist group $5,000 for refusing to print their letterhead.

Gray also commented on the political effect of the complaints against him and the CHP.

“Of course, such allegations probably hurt us politically in the short term,” Gray said. “The complainant grossly misrepresents us as ‘bigots’—which we’re not; but we understand that’s part of the give-and-take of a debate about public policy.

“But activists who want to use the power of the state to silence arguments they can’t answer don’t accept such a free interchange of ideas.

“Such attempts to use government authority to silence opponents are the very essence of fascism.”