...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Elmo’s dire forecast: In an interview with the National Post’s Joseph Brean, the CIC’s Grand Poobah-for-life warns of what could happen should “the legal system” fail to clamp down on “group defamation” (you know, like the "legal system" of Saudi Arabia does):

…"Criticizing is not a big deal [in Islam]," he said, referring to the Dan-ish Muhammad cartoons controversy. "You should understand there is a difference between criticizing a religion, OK, comparing it to another religion, and to make a mockery of the symbol of that religion. This is up to the legal system to decide."

Prof. Elmasry said Canadian law is deficient because it lacks the concept of "group defamation," which would "make it easier" for tribunals to uphold complaints such as his.

"There is individual human rights and there is collective, group human rights, and both of them are very important," he said.

In fact, the Canadian Human Rights Act is explicitly directed "to the principle that all individuals should have an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives that they are able and wish to have ... "

Nor is the common law tort of defamation, group or otherwise, addressed in Canada's human rights law, which is meant to be restorative rather than punitive. Prof. Elmasry said hate speech against a majority is less serious than speech against a minority because the majority is "anchored."

"If somebody makes a joke that you're white, who cares?" he said.

This is also not a distinction with a basis in human rights law, which prohibits discrimination on certain grounds such as race, but does not distinguish between races.

In his campaign against Maclean's, which he emphasized was very costly, Prof. Elmasry said his goal was to promote "hate-free free speech." At stake, he said, is a potential genocide of Canadian Muslims. "It happened to the Jews in Europe. It happened to the natives here in Canada. We don't want it to happen to us," he said….

It appears Elmo has learned his victim lessons very well: “hate speech” invariably leads to genocide. I’m happy to allay his concerns. The Holocaust did not, I repeat, did not, happen because of “hate speech.” It happened because an ambitious leader who a bizarre hold over his people sought to bring about a thousand-year rule by Ubermenchen, and for some crazy reason got it into his head that the way to do that was to “cleanse” the world of Jews. As far as I know, there isn’t anyone on today’s scene who has any interest in doing something similar to Muslims. So don’t fret, Elmo, your fears are completely groundless.

(As an aside, why is he claiming to be out of pocket? I thought the HRCs pick up the complainants’ legal tab, and that esteemed attorney, Faisal Joseph, was working pro bono. Is he just trying to make us feel sorry for him?)

(As another aside--any way you slice it, "hate-free free speech" is still censorship.)

Posted by: scaramouche at 19:27 | link | comments

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