B.C. Human Rights Tribunal may never live down embarrassing Steyn fiasco
Panel's hearing over Maclean's article was an affront to free speech and a waste of public resources and time

by Ian Mulgrew
The Vancouver Sun
October 13, 2008

http://www.legal-project.org/122/bc-human-rights-tribunal-may-never-live-down

Excerpt:

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has decided right-wing humorist Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine are not racist hate-mongers.

How droll.

The panel -- chairwoman Heather MacNaughton, Tonie Beharrell and Kurt Neuenfeldt -- released on Friday 37 pages of self-righteous justification for dragging Steyn and the Toronto-based publication through a ridiculous process.

The tribunal's week-long kangaroo hearing in June was a waste of public resources and of Rogers Publishing Ltd.'s money, too.

This make-believe "human rights" complaint was an attempt by the Canadian Islamic Congress to get publicity by taking on a well-known conservative polemicist and the country's weekly news magazine.

It worked.

This entire process was an affront to our right to free speech and should send a chill down the spine of every Canadian who wants to express an opinion.

Maclean's published an excerpt of Steyn's book (America Alone) that speciously argued Muslims were out for world domination by out-breeding the rest of us.

Like much of the right-wing author's output, the piece was larded with exaggeration and snide remarks.

Instead of ignoring the rant, or writing a letter of complaint to the editor (many of which were published by Maclean's), the congress initially tried to shake down the magazine for pages of free ink and a $10,000 donation. The editor said he would rather go bankrupt than surrender his publication's integrity.

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