Your believes are not approves by the commissioner.
When you restrict freedom of speech so it will not offend segment of the population how do you prioritize which segment’s feelings are more valuable? Is it not OK to insult Muslims for their believes but OK to insults evangelical christians? This is the kind of issues the NY Times usually ignores, mostly because it is pretty clear in the editorial room what should be considered acceptable.
I am as far as it can be from evangelical christian and I don’t agree with most of what they believe in, advocate for and even the tactic they are choosing to peruse their goals. However I accept their right to be wrong and primitive as long as they don’t force me to change my way of life. This is simple form of tolerance that Liberal Democracies should maintain. This is not, however, what Canada “human rights” commissioner vision of human rights:
In a decision that foreshadows the possible fate of Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Canada’s leading pro-life voice among Catholic clergy, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal has forbidden evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality. The tribunal also ordered Boisson to pay $5,000 “damages for pain and suffering” and apologize to the “human rights” activist who filed the complaint.
[...]
While agreeing that Boisson’s letter was not a criminal act, the government tribunal nevertheless ordered the Christian pastor to “cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.” Moreover, the tribunal’s decision “prohibited [Boisson] from making disparaging remarks in the future” about the activist who filed the complaint and witnesses who supported the complaint. Many of Canada’s religious leaders and civil libertarians have expressed concern that the government’s human rights tribunals are interpreting any criticism of homosexual activism as ‘disparaging’.
It is a peculiar world where the only criteria to choose which groups human rights are protected is the politicly corrected current fashion…
(via LRC)
Tags: Freedom of Speech, Hate Speech, Liberal DemocracyRelated posts