“Neither Maclean’s nor the Western Standard published materials that incited violence or other injustices against Muslims. They did not violate anyone’s human rights. Recognizing this, the commissions should have immediately identified the cases brought to them as nuisance complaints and dismissed them. That they have not done so suggests a change in their mandates is much needed.
“Reforms of human-rights commissions, notably in Ontario, are currently aimed only at making the complaints process more efficient and eliminating backlogs. More useful would be to change the language of human-rights legislation to remove such clauses as Alberta’s protection against publication of material ‘likely to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt’ — a protection that, based on Mr. Levant’s case, commissions are far too zealous in providing. (Liberal MP Keith Martin has talked of introducing a private member’s bill [click button below] to make a similar change to the Canadian Human Rights Act.)”
