Harper must act now to protect free speech
The Prime Minister admits there's a problem. And he says he doesn't have a clue how to fix it.
by The Editors
Macleans
September 20, 2009
https://www.legal-project.org/469/harper-must-act-now-to-protect-free-speech
Excerpt:
Stephen Harper used to have very clear—and colourful—ideas on human rights commissions and what should be done about them.
"Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society," he said in a 1999 interview with Terry O'Neill of BC Reportnewsmagazine." It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff." He went on to complain about the "bastardization" of the entire concept of rights in modern society.
Of course, that was back when Harper was president of the National Citizens Coalition. Today he's Canada's 22nd Prime Minister. And he appears to have lost his fear of totalitarianism.
In an interview this past January with Maclean's, the Prime Minister was asked what, if anything, he intended to do to halt the encroachment on individual freedom by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in the name of regulating hate speech.
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