A rchive Date
[ 09-04-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Link_Byfield/2004/04/09/414155.html
Gay gag law
By LINK BYFIELDCalgary Sun
Fri, April 9, 2004
In his long and colourful career, Burnaby MP Svend Robinson has taken full advantage of his right of free speech.He has demanded the deletion of God from the Charter, accused the RCMP of brutality, heckled Ronald Reagan's special address to Parliament, and branded Israel a "terrorist state." But most tellingly, throughout his 25-year crusade for gay rights, he has liberally branded his opponents personally as "hate-mongers" and "homophobes."
He once managed to call Liberal MP Roseanne Skoke hateful four times in three short sentences. None of his opponents challenged his right of free speech. So why is he so hell-bent on taking away theirs? And why is the federal Liberal government making sure he succeeds?
I'm referring here to Robinson's private member's bill, C-250, which will add "sexual orientation" to the hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code. Even though it's Svend's personal bill, it has been rammed through the Commons, and almost through the Senate, by the Liberal government.
Under C-250, it will become a criminal offence (punishable by two years in prison) to "incite hatred" against gays (and other groups already listed) if the communication is "likely to lead to a breach of the peace."
No excuses are allowed under this section (319.1) of the Criminal Code. It doesn't matter if your statements are true, honestly held, or based on religious texts. (A religious defence is allowed for the following section, 319.2. But it doesn't help if you are charged under 319.1.)
This means if any provincial crown prosecutor thinks your comments are over the line, and persuades a judge that your public remarks might (sooner or later) endanger persons or property in the protected groups, you're going to jail. Defenders of this gag law can't imagine how it could inhibit free speech. They seem honestly convinced that we do not prosecute people in Canada for statements of opinion.
Well, Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the Red Deer Advocate criticizing promotion of the gay lifestyle in public schools and has been hailed before an Alberta human rights tribunal by a gay rights zealot at the University of Calgary.
Grant Hill, a medical doctor, warned Parliament about the health consequences of gay practices and was nationally denounced as homophobic. Three Toronto AIDS doctors filed a professional complaint against him (Hill was officially vindicated on his medical facts, but only long after his character was smeared and the media had lost interest.)
Hugh Owen, a Saskatchewan prison guard, was punished for publishing Bible references (not even excerpts) in a newspaper ad. Scott Brockie, a Toronto printer, was punished for refusing on religious grounds to work for a gay advocacy group. B.C. high school teacher Chris Kempling was punished for mentioning the health consequences of gay behaviour in a rural B.C. newspaper. I could go on.
Now it's true that these people were not charged criminally. But all of them, and many others, have been accused in strident language of "spreading hate." And it isn't just gays who do this. We are informed almost daily by self-appointed spokesmen for this or that "identifiable group" that any criticism leads their members to low self esteem, drug problems, suicide and crime.
Get it? Criticism equals incitement to hatred, which leads to any number of breaches of the peace. This is the new theory.
Well, free speech is destroyed long before someone goes to jail. It vanishes the moment ordinary citizens feel exposed to arbitrary prosecution for voicing their honest beliefs.
So don't say, "It'll never get that far." It already has. And with Svend's new law in place, it's just a matter of redirecting "hate-mongers" from human rights commissions to the criminal courts.
All it takes to start is one zealous prosecutor and a weak judge - hardly a rare combination.
Bill C-250 is a lot like the gun registrytotally unnecessary and a lethal threat to our rights. Both should be scrapped and forgotten.
Link Byfield is chairman of the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy. He can be reached by e-mail at contact@citizenscentre.com Letters to the editor should be sent to: callet@calgarysun.com Home Page
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