Ian Mulgrew isn't a fan of Mark Steyn and he shows regrettable ignorance (or perhaps indifference) to the substantial issues raised in Steyn's America Alone. Indeed, Mulgrew dismisses Steyn's sound and substantial case regarding the frightening rise of Islamic jihad (and the West's lame responses to the threat) as specious, snide and exaggerated.One wonders if he even read the book.
But there's something that ticks Mulgrew off a lot more than his distaste for what he calls the "right-wing humorist" Mark Steyn. And that's the stultifying actions of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal who went after him.
Check out these excerpts from Mulgrew's Vancouver Sun column.
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...
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...
As a result, the congress went forum shopping to find anyone in the country to take seriously its complaint that Maclean's and Steyn were inciting hatred and contempt of Muslims. Despite its distaste for Steyn's opinions, the Ontario agency said it would not investigate. The Canadian Human Rights Commission, too, ultimately sent them packing stating the obvious -- it had no merit. But the Muslim congress found the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, which may never live down this embarrassing fiasco.
Maclean's and Steyn didn't deign to even offer a defence at the summer's tomfoolery. Who can blame them?...
Maclean's was right to tell the tribunal to get lost and take its case to the public. This process was illegitimate and these tinpot judges knew it. They completely agreed that "read in its context, the article is essentially an expression of opinion on political issues which, in light of recent historical events involving extremist Muslims and the problems facing the vast majority of the Muslim community that does not support extremism, are legitimate subjects for public discussion."
So why did they feel they had the right to conduct an Inquisition?...
This bad joke exposes both a chink in our human rights' legislation that must be fixed and a lack of judgment on the tribunal that should be corrected. Had the agency any sense, it never would have embarked on this sorry exercise. All it has done is expose the human rights process to hatred and contempt, and B.C. to ridicule.
(For more Vital Signs posts dealing with Mark Steyn, go here.)
