Human rights at stake

PAT JOHNSON

The Calgary writer, political operative and provocateur Ezra Levant is many things. But in a particularly world-class achievement, Levant acknowledges in a new book, he is "the only person in the world to face legal sanctions" for printing the notorious Danish cartoon depictions of the Muslim prophet that led to global rioting and the deaths of an estimated 100 people.

The experience of being hauled before Alberta's human rights apparatus opened a whole new world for Levant, eventually leading to the publication of Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (McClelland and Stewart, 2009). The book is a compendium of what Levant sees as the vexatious charges and distorted justice of the quasi-judicial human rights commissions (HRCs) that have emerged over the last several decades. The book makes the case that, because Canada has advanced so far so quickly in its fight against discrimination toward minorities, the bureaucracy-heavy HRCs have had to justify their existence by broadening their reach into areas that Levant ridicules as a "grievance industry."

Levant is most concerned with the intervention of HRCs into the censorship business, both of individuals and of publications like his own Western Standard, which was brought up on complaints that it sowed Islamaphobia by publishing the Danish cartoons.

"When they were created a generation ago, Canada's human rights commissions were inspired by a narrowly defined goal: to offer victims of discrimination a quick, low-cost means to fight back against bigoted landlords, employers and storeowners," Levant writes. What these once-honorable institutions evolved into, according to Levant is a carnival of "crackpot narcissists, angry loners and professional grievance collectors."

The HRCs do not have the standards of proof or evidence required of genuine legal institutions, Levant says. Yet they have the power, as in the case of an Alberta pastor, to effectively ban individuals from speaking, writing or sermonizing about homosexuality.

Levant profiles some of the "permanently umbraged" for whom human rights complaints seem to be a cottage industry. In several instances, the complainants and the respondents seem reversed. Mohamed Elmasry, head of the Canadian Islamic Congress, has been the complainant in the three HRC cases against Maclean's magazine and Mark Steyn for an excerpt of Steyn's book America Alone. But in Levant's view, it seems, Elmasry should be the one defending his thoughts.

"Surfing through Elmasry's official website feels like visiting a Holocaust museum – except that the anti-Semitism is expressed in English and Arabic, not German," writes Levant. When Elmasry first burst into Canadian consciousness, recall, it was with his televised claim in 2004 that every Israeli citizen is a legitimate target for terrorists.

In his detailed account of being before the Alberta Human Rights Commission Levant admits, "I realize that, back then, I still didn't understand how much trouble I was in, and how lopsided the human rights system truly was," he writes. "My reply was earnest and full of good-faith appeals to common sense. It got me nowhere. All in all, I ended up being investigated for 900 days by the HRC, which, according to Access to Information documents I received, had no fewer than 15 government bureaucrats working on my case. I was a major crime scene."

Levant gives himself and Steyn rightful credit for bringing to light some of the more atrocious cases of censorship attempted by HRCs. As a result, he says, journalists' organizations, literary figures and some politicians, including cabinet ministers, are now speaking out about these perceived excesses.

"In a liberal society, we insist that people desist from acting violently on their negative thoughts, but we don't criminalize the thoughts themselves."

In the end, he concludes, "[t]hese kangaroo courts ought to be fought in the court of public opinion, in the court of law if necessary and in Parliament." It would be ideal if a response to Levant's condemnation was offered by someone who still sees value in a human rights system whose founders, Levant acknowledges, had the best of intentions.

Pat Johnson is, among other things, director of development and communications for Vancouver Hillel Foundation.

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