Keep up the pressure to repeal Section 13

With the recent CHRT ruling on the Lemire case what’s next for HRA Section 13? Mark Steyn thinks "nothing":

I expect nothing of the Government of Canada in particular, or of the political class in general, never mind the vast herd of statist suck-ups like ... Professor John Miller ...

... Because the Canadian establishment is divided between (a) Trudeaupian social engineers and (b) wimps, Section 13 and its provincial equivalents will stay on the books for the forseeable future.

And who cares anyway?

... I'm not waiting for the Supreme Court to strike down Section 13 or for the Government to repeal it. I've repealed it myself. I do not regard myself as within its jurisdiction. I've opted out.

... I don't feel "chilled", I feel liberated. After all, under BC pseudo-law, Ken and I are guilty. Yet we got away with it. On to the next hate crime!

Screw the HRCs, screw Section 13, screw the government - keep on truckin’! Deep down, I like the sentiment. But I’m not too sure to what extent they "got away with it" considering the time and money spent defending themselves. Who was it that said "the process is the punishment"? Mark says he doesn’t feel chilled, but how about Maclean’s and others?

I agree with him about the likelihood of official (in)action on amending the "Human Rights" Act. However, the war for free speech won’t be won until Section 13 is history.

The beginning of the end of political correctness?

Yesterday we had good news on the free speech front. Then, via Edward Michael George, came good news about a counter-revolution against political correctness. Newly elected Mayor of Doncaster, UK, Peter Davies, has begun some seriously un-PC cutting:

...First he cut his own salary from £73,000 to £30,000

... the "diversity" portfolio has been abolished from the council’s cabinet.... no more funding will be given to the town’s "Gay Pride" event... Black History Month, International Women’s Day and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month are similarly destined to become history.

... 'Going on about diversity causes racial tension, it doesn't improve it,' he says... I want every citizen of Doncaster to be equal.'

... He has written to the Electoral Commission asking them to scrap two-thirds of Doncaster's 63 council seats in order to save the town £800,000 a year. 'If Pittsburgh can manage with nine councillors, why do we need 63?' he asks.

... Deeply sceptical of 'green claptrap', he must be the only mayor in Britain who wants more traffic in his town. He says it will boost business ... on climate change: 'I'm not green and I'm not conned by global warming.'

... wants to cut all 'non-jobs' in his 13,500 workforce - such as platinum-pensioned 'community cohesion officers' - and aims to shrivel future pay deals for council executives.

Much as he likes his chief executive, Paul Hart, he says his £175,000 salary is 'a joke' and that any successor can expect half.

... he is in the process of 'de-twinning' Doncaster from its five twin towns around the world. Twinning, he says, is all about free holidays for councillors and their staff.

Says Telegraph columnist Gerald Warner: "If it is good enough for Doncaster, it is good enough for Britain. Our effete, corrupt, politically correct politicians must be compelled to follow suit. "

And if it’s good enough for Britain, it’s good enough for Canada!

More power to Peter Davies - may a lot more like him and his voters rise up everywhere!

As EMG's post title says it: Viva la contrarevoluciòn!

Green on the outside, red on the inside

James Delingpole wrote an article on his much greater concern for the real threat of power cuts over hypothetical ‘climate change’. It drew lots of good comments including this particularly astute one from Amanda [Sep 1st, 2009 at 4:15 pm]:

I don’t think I could cut my carbon footprint — goofy phrase, really, and is already a substitute for thinking among the ecos — by 10% without ceasing to live like a human being. I don’t live that high or that well.

Delingpole is absolutely right. Willingly throwing away our standard of living will be just Part 19 in the saga of how the West was lost; the earth will continue to turn as we fall on our own swords. For politicians or anarchists or celebrities (nice company) to suggest that we go down that road is not just absurd, it’s obscene.

One further point: the public has been bamboozled into thinking that the debate is all about being kind to animals and plants and having good air to breathe. It isn’t. At the core of polemics about climate change is the ferocious drive to beat down capitalism, and, I think you’ll find, what we fondly call democracy, in favour of statism and top-down social control (i.e. Leftists know best; the rest must shut up and do as they say). In short, climate campaigners are, as the saying is, like watermelons: green on the outside, red on the inside. We need to confront this fact before we do anything.

[via EMG who has a great Gortoon, "The science settles"]

A big victory for free speech

Today a decision by a Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal acquitted Marc Lemire of hate crimes concluding that the Human Rights Act, Section 13 (Hate Speech) contravenes the Charter's freedom of speech provisions.

Blazing Cat Fur has it all!

That's good news - a defeat for Richard Warman and his ilk and the first real 'hate speech' acquittal by the CHRC. But will a pronouncement from a "Human Rights" Tribunal carry enough weight to get the ball rolling on changing a law which was upheld in a prior Supreme Court ruling? Will it stiffen the Justice Minister's and the PM's backbones sufficiently to get them leading the way on changing the law? We'll see.

Fall election? Go for it Iggy!

A Lib Star poll:

Preston Manning goes for the green

In today’s Post is an article written by Preston Manning and Andrew Heinzman shilling for:

Sustainable Prosperity, a national policy and research network dedicated to the development of a green economy in Canada.

Geez! There must be some real green in going green. Anyway the article is loaded with the usual baffle gab on "low carbon" "green economies", "energy", "climate change", "sustainable development", "balance" ...etc, etc, which, of course, as a nation we have to get on top of quick (throw a ton of gubm’nt policy and money at) or else.

The first thought that crossed my mind was: "I sure hope Peter Foster jumps on this soon!" And sure enough, he had a column written before the end of the day. Bravo Peter!

What set off initial alarm bells was that one of its authors was Preston Manning, sometime leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, who has for some time been transitioning to the policy dark side.The piece, co-authored by Andrew Heintzman, who runs "the first Canadian investment company to be exclusively focused on investing in environmental sectors," was pretty much a stock "Canada needs to get out in front of the green revolution" piece of the type so beloved by policy wonks.

... they recommend, specifically the grand Pigovian conceit that market prices are all "wrong" and that, with a little judicious intervention, we shall be on the way to "sustainable technologies."

... Sustainable Prosperity is a political organization right down to its Orwellian moniker. It is filled with the tendentious notions about "footprints" and "food miles" and subscribes to the fatal conceit of expansive and competent policy.

Fall election? Go for it Michael Iggy!

CTV poll today: