I look in awe at what comes out of Canada's mainstream press lately. Has a miracle occurred? Two? Three? Is there still such a thing as honest, public-interest-focused press?
Behold, there seem to be at least a few conscientious journalists who are now tired of their lapdog role and who are "biting back". Imagine just what that might mean for the Zundelsite case.
"Pity the poor soul who, for whatever reason, gets mixed up with the Canadian Human Rights Commission," wrote Jeffrey Simpson of the Toronto Globe and Mail yesterday, October 1. "Once inside the bureaucracy and procedures, the unwitting will be there for a long time."
I quote below additional selected paragraphs, as I did yesterday in response to a similar write-up:
Jeffrey Simpson:
According to the Auditor- General's report this week, "on average the commission took 27 months to reach . . . decisions, including 25 months to dismiss cases and 23 months to decide that there would be no further proceedings."
Zundelsite:
Please note: In the Zundelsite case, the Toronto Mayor's Committee on Racism lodged their complaint on July 18, 1996 - a complaint lodged by none other than Marvin Kurz, lawyer for B'nai Brith, who acts as their Intervenor lawyer - in complaints he helped bring about!
Next, Sabina Citron ran to the Commission on September 15, 1996 with her frazzled Zundel charges, made before ad nauseam and steadfastly dismissed for years in every court and every governmental hearing.
Lo and behold: It took less than one month from the date of Sabina's charges until the CHRC completed its "investigation" on October 14, 1996 of a US website containing more than 2,000 documents in eight languages!
Jeffrey Simpson:
Consider initial investigations. The commission sets itself a target of 5.5 months to complete them, but the Auditor-General found that "in practice, the commission (takes) an average of about 10 months to complete initial investigations." The (Auditor-General) added, "in about 26 per cent of cases, it took over one year."
Zundelsite:
Any reasonable person would have to come to the conclusion that there was obviously precious little serious "investigation" in the Zundelsite case. Ernst was never called in for arbitration and to explain his point of view. I was never notified by the commission "investigators" of anything.
Not a single question was submitted to me. Not even a letter of courtesy, fax or phone call! Nothing. Some "investigation"!
Jeffrey Simpson:
If the commission refers a case to the Human Rights Tribunal, or if the case is appealed to the Federal Court, the (Auditor-General) found "it could take several years from the day a complaint is signed with the Commission."
The Zundelsite matter has now been messed with by the Commission for more than two years. The Federal Court has yet to set a date for a Judicial Review of these proceedings, which were registered with the court December 16, 1996 because of the highly unethical and unprofessional stalling and delay tactics by commission and intervenor lawyers.
Jeffrey Simpson:
The Human Rights Commission, established in 1977, is not only slow, its thinking is tilted, even biased, owing to a confused mandate.
That's speaking euphemistically. The Human Rights Commission and its Enforcement Arm, the Human Rights Tribunal, are Canada's judge, jury and executioner when it comes to political correctness doctrines - which is enough for a reasonable apprehension of bias, according to Madame Justice McGillis in the Bell Canada case.
Once more: The commission pays the tribunal!
After all, how many self-respecting employee speak up against their bosses - especially if their bosses swings the hammer and sickle against the slightest politically incorrect thought - and if that employee agrees with the politically correct agenda to boot since, chances are, agreement will lead to promotion?
Jeffrey Simpson:
Every year, the Commission produces an annual report to Parliament that recounts a litany of complaints about apparently unequal treatment accorded various groups. The leaders of the commission frequently address conferences, or give media interviews, in which they espouse certain causes and castigate governments.
Zundelsite:
Music to our ears - that someone finally tables the question what business the Commission has to dispatch speakers and participants to workshops and conferences to which the organizer's don't invite people with opposing points of view!
Remember the B'nai Brith sponsored "Hate on the Internet" symposium last year? Didn't Ingrid Rimland generously offer herself as a panelist to get a little balance and perspective in there?
Remember the gloating of Nizkor folks, letting it be known I was not welcome - while they were?
Jeffrey Simpson:
(T)he commission is also supposed to adjudicate cases fairly and impartially (if very slowly), the core of which involve the very issues the commission-as-advocate regularly discusses. Those who enter the commission's case file, therefore, might feel a certain trepidation knowing that it acts as advocate and adjudicator (or conciliator) at one and the same time.
Occasionally, Parliament gives the commission more work, as when it included sexual orientation as a ground for discrimination. But the commission wants to go further, including becoming an advocate for, and presumably an arbitrator in, cases involving poverty. In its 1997 report to Parliament, the commission asked for the inclusion of "social condition" as a prohibited ground of discrimination.
Zundelsite:
They have forgotten victims suffering from ingrown toenails which will, no doubt, be next.
Jeffrey Simpson:
The Canadian Human Rights Commission, for example, has received about 6,500 cases in the last decade, but three-quarters of them were either dismissed, never went to the Tribunal or were somehow dropped.
Zundelsite:
6,500 : 4 x 3 = 4,875. That is a heap of frivolous complaints caused by this Cult of Victimhood. And, furthermore, there is a dissertation or, better yet, a serious parliamentary inquiry begging to be done - to find out the criteria and circumstances for the acceptance of 1,625 complaints. Could they turn out to be just packed with politically useful dimensions, as in the Zundel case - where beating up a media villain yet one more time could easily lead to a draconian censorship of the Internet as well. What would that mean? As surely as the sun hangs in the sky, an eventual strengthening of hate laws forbidding certain writings on the Internet - and the concomitant criminalization of hitherto perfectly legal but politically incorrect thought.
Jeffrey Simpson:
Universities, aping governments and reflecting the prevailing "rights talk" in Canadian society, have equipped themselves with elaborate "rights offices."
Zundelsite:
Those hefty grants, you know.
It helps to be a Socialist or Communist in Canada, as David Lethbridge and his B'nai Brith fund-raisers have cleverly discovered.
Jeffrey Simpson:
Justice Minister Anne McLellan has announced a complete parliamentary review of the Human Rights Act, including of course the mandate and role of the commission. As the Auditor-General's report reminds us, a complete overhaul is needed of a commission with a confused and vague mandate, and an underwhelming administrative record.
Zundelsite:
Don't hold your breath! Liberals and their fellow travelers love such bodies. They help keep their enemies silenced, intimidated, and eventually driven bankrupt by endless quasi-judicial harassment.
If I were Ernst Zundel, which I am not, I would walk out of these disgusting hearings with my nose held high until the stink of hypocrisy of these self-serving parasites was gone and until the mandate and role of the commission had been properly reviewed and defined by Parliament or a competent court of higher jurisdiction. I wouldn't put up with this quasi-judicial manure.
However, Ernst Zundel is not Ingrid Rimland - although the government of Canada is trying hard to prove exactly that.
Ernst Zundel thinks that there is social merit to air out, expose and get as much as possible into the public record about societal subversion - which is why we will see another round of the Holy Inquisition vs the Wicked Holocaust Deniers in Toronto soon.
A few more documents and witnesses will shake things up before this is over, believe me!
One final point about Canada: In a country where censorship has taken on dimensions that boggle the mind - apparently 800 pages (!!!) of "forbidden" books and booklets, videos, audios and CDs exist, according to sources in the know - Justice Minister Anne McLellan, all by herself, has taken on a wrestling match with alligators in a swamp the depth and filth of which few people can surmise. She seems to be a brave and honorable woman.
You wonder: what made her decide to do it! Could it have been she listened carefully when the entire length of Mr. Zundel's "Truth is no longer a defense!" press conference on the steps of Parliament was broadcast over the Canadian Parliamentary Channel - nationwide?
As one ZGram reader wrote: "This current battle in Canada is more important than we currently comprehend." Pray that more mainstream writers will have the horse sense to say so.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart."
(Mark Twain)