Thursday, July 26, 2007

Free Speech: As Canada Goes...

As the U.S. considers adopting more stringent "hate crimes" laws, our Canadian neighbors are reaping the consequences of their government's stifling "hate speech" code. In yet another case of attempted censorship, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has threatened a conservative website with criminal charges for editorializing on the Islamic opposition to homosexuality. The investigation, based on a single complaint by a private citizen, is yet another example of how the law has been twisted in a campaign to bully Canadians into silence.

One of the site's content providers, Connie Wilkins, said that the Commission is making it "a crime to offend someone." While the action seems extreme, it's eerily similar to the message that U.S. Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent last month in a letter to the Commerce Department, urging a federal hunt for "hate crimes" in the telecommunications industry. If Dingell gets his way, this wave of intolerance threatens to make its way across the Canadian border into the U.S.
(Family Research Council).