Fundamental Freedoms

05 Jun 2008 Afternoon at the BC Human Rights Tribunal

Mark Penninga - ARPA Canada - June 4, 2008The third day of the hearings for Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine wrapped up today in Vancouver and I was able to catch some of the show. The case is a result of a complaint by the Canadian Islamic Congress that Steyn's book America Alone (pictured on the right) and a Maclean's magazine article, which came from the book, are "anti-Muslim". Instead of giving a run-down of what was said (check out Andrew Coyne's blog for that) I thought I would give a brief analysis from an inexperienced onlooker's perspective. The court room was quite small - with the three member panel of the BC Human Rights Commission in the front (Heather MacNaughton is the Chair), the lawyers from both sides in front of them, and then about twenty people in the audience. Mark Steyn himself showed up shortly after I did. He hasn't spoken before the tribunal yet, and it doesn't look like he will. In fact, the Maclean's side has not put forward any expert witnesses in their defence yet, possibly as a protest against the ridiculous nature of the the tribunal itself.

04 Jun 2008 Mark Steyn Human Rights Tribunal “Show Trial” Opens in Vancouver

Ezra Levant says, this isn't a real court. This is a kangaroo court, with three leftist activists as panellists"By Hilary White VANCOUVER, June 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has had its first day of hearings in the case being brought against syndicated columnist and author Mark Steyn, and Maclean's Magazine that published an excerpt from his book, "America Alone". The lawyer for the complainants, Faisal Joseph, opened his statements yesterday saying that the article, "The future belongs to Islam," published by MacLean's in October 2006, depicted Muslims as "a violent people" who hold traditional Canadian values "in contempt". Their religion he said, was portrayed as "inhuman" and "violent".