The FreedomSite Blog: Lemire Defence team Slams March 25 SECRET HEARINGS for CHRC Spies and Infiltrators

Monday, March 17, 2008

Lemire Defence team Slams March 25 SECRET HEARINGS for CHRC Spies and Infiltrators

To the Tribunal:

These are the submissions of the respondent with respect to the motion of the Canadian Association for Free Expression Inc. to open the Tribunal hearings on March 25, 2008 to the public.

The respondent supports this motion and would have made his own motion for such an order if the interested party had not done it first. If necessary, this letter should be considered a co-motion with that of CAFÉ Inc. for an order opening the hearing to the public.

I had written to counsel for the Commission on March 5^th asking whether the Commission was maintaining the position it took last May or whether it was willing to open the hearing to the public. I received no reply.

The Commission invoked s. 37 of the Canadian Evidence Act last May to stop disclosure of the visual appearance of the Commission employees. It agreed to withdraw this objection only after the Tribunal ruled that the proceedings would be in camera.

It is the submission of the respondent, as it was last May, that the hearing should be open to the public. This is the normal rule under which this Tribunal operates and can only be justified in extraordinary circumstances. Those circumstances do not exist in this case.

Because of the nature of section 13, which defines expression of the emotion “hate” as discriminatory, any hearing under this law involves strong emotions. Ironically, a law against “hate” ends up promoting the creation of “hate” by polarizing people on issues and feeding grievances on both sides.

No one has suffered more that the respondent in this respect. He has been attacked, his car vandalized; he has been followed in a threatening manner. But he has no choice but to continue with these hearings to defend himself.

Our courts are kept open to the press and to the public because that is the only way to keep the system accountable. This rule should be followed in this case, one which involves very important issues of fundamental rights.

The respondent requests that the Tribunal revisit this matter and open the hearings to the public.

It is hoped that the Commission will re-consider its position on this matter.

Yours truly,

Barbara Kulaszka

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