I have my lawyer’s permission to link to this.
A recent Calgary Herald op-ed entitled “Hate hunter will finally pay”, via Ezra Levant’s blog:
Using pseudonyms, [Richard Warman] posted encouraging remarks on neo-Nazi sites such as “Keep up the good work Commander Schoep!” in order, he says, to flush out and identify neo-Nazi sympathizers.
In the U.S. this is called entrapment.
…Warman, in fact, has been the sole complainant since 2002 to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which is the Internet anti-hate section that prohibits statements that are “likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt.”
(…)
One of his critics is Ezra Levant, the Calgary lawyer and conservative blogger whose outspoken comments about Warman and other “censors and bullies” at the commission have resulted in a libel action by Warman.
…it also exposed the commission’s lack of due process, where fundamental rules of evidence do not apply, and where Warman, a former commission member, was afforded access to files and staff unavailable to defendants.
Complainants, it should be noted, also have expenses paid by the commission, defenders do not.
Warman’s actions ultimately led to a human rights tribunal ruling that Section 13 is an unconstitutional violation of the freedom of expression provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights. (…)
We are glad to see that Warman is suing Levant, not out of disagreement with the combative Calgary lawyer, but for the simple reason that Warman will finally have to spend his own money in a real court, rather than availing himself of commission time and resources at taxpayer expense.
We loath neo-Nazi sentiments, but the whole affair reminds us of Matthew Hopkins, who appointed himself England’s “Witchfinder General” in the mid-1600s. He hunted down an estimated 200 witches, turning them over to authorities at the price of one pound per witch.
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