March 25th should be interesting

If I'm reading this order correctly, March 25th may become known as Black Tuesday at the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

That's when Marc Lemire -- one of the few Canadians who has had the energy and legal resources to fight back against the CHRC's section 13 thought crimes steamroller -- will be allowed to cross examine commission staff about their "undercover" activities on the Internet. Judging by what Lemire has uncovered so far -- such as an Edmonton Police "hate crimes" officer posting anti-Semitic and anti-Aboriginal bigotry on the Internet -- it's sure to be a blockbuster.

(It's deeply disturbing that "hate crimes" police -- I'm not talking about human rights keystone cops now, but real police officers -- publish such bigotry on the taxpayers' dime, and all in the name of keeping the peace. One must ask: at what point is the "fake" hatred generated by the police a larger problem than the "real" hatred that exists already on society's fringes? And, really, is there any moral difference between the two, other than the police claim they don't really mean it? At what point does the cure become worse than the disease?)

Remember that these are the same "anti-hate" activists -- police, human rights activists, and even CSIS agents -- who paid a government agent to set up the Heritage Front, arguably Canada's leading neo-Nazi movement twenty years ago. The fact that these same government agents then "infiltrated" the nascent Reform Party, to the great embarrassment of Preston Manning, shows that these "anti-hate" campaigns have long been torqued into a partisan political weapon.

The CHRC had vigorously opposed the coming interrogation of their staff, and it's easy to see why. Dean Steacy, one of the staff who will be compelled to answer questions on March 25th, has previously admitted to creating Internet pseudonyms to infiltrate websites the commission was hunting (something Richard Warman has admitted to doing as well after, uh, first not admitting to it). But instead of preparing some hermetically-sealed, written answers to Lemire's questions, as Steacy has been able to do in the past, he must now take the stand and answer questions live, under oath, from Lemire's lawyer.

It will be fascinating to watch. Remember, Steacy was the commission staffer who once exclaimed that freedom of speech -- which just happens to be section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights -- "is an American concept, so I don't give it any value." Watching Lemire's lawyer cross-examine him might be worth flying all the way to Ottawa.

See the rest at: http://ezralevant.com/2008/03/march-25th-should-be-interesti.html