Elmasry probably doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving anyway...:)
Posted at 2008-10-10 12:55:57 [PermaLink]Turkeys are never in favour of Thanksgiving. I think I shall make a point of having a Ham this holiday as well.
Posted at 2008-10-10 13:23:42 [PermaLink]BCF; I guess Dione will be also...:)
(*slaps own face*)
Isn't Elmasry the same guy who said that all Israelis including women and children are legitimate targets for terrorist acts. I guess Canadian human rights commissions don't think it's as dangerous an act for Canadians to threaten foreigners as it is for magazines to publish essays about the growth of radical Islam.
Posted at 2008-10-10 18:05:19 [PermaLink]The usual lefty suspects will no doubt show up now, crowing that this is proof the HRC system "works" -- forgetting the fact that Macleans still had to hire expert lawyers and pony up vast amounts of money just to defend themselves against a charge that would have been tossed out of any real court. Most of us don't have their resources. For us free speech will become a luxury we can't afford.
Posted at 2008-10-10 19:45:39 [PermaLink]All those expensive lawyers spinning out the proceedings didn't impress me at all, nor the public faux-suffering of the martyr-wannabes. As one commentator has pointed out--again and again--and as the Tribunal itself took care to note in its judgement, a preliminary motion to dismiss the case (a sn.27 application) could have been made at the beginning (see paras. 8-12 of the judgement). But that wouldn't have permitted the public agony of the speech-warriors to be put on display for such a great length of time.
Step back for a moment. Three bogus complaints. Three rejections of the complaints, by three Tribunals whose members were vilified, sometimes on a personal level, by hysterical commentators searching in vain for totalitarianism behind every bush. And the possibility--here egregiously missed--of ending the proceedings with dispatch, barely after they had begun.
And all the usual expectations are here turned on their heads. We leftists are *applauding* the rejections; and the speech-warriors, who won yet again, are presently weeping into their brew. This is really worth a five-act play.
The usual expectations are not turned on their heads. I expected Maclean's to go for a big win that could lead to the abolition of human rights tribunals. I expected the various tribunals to back away from a real fight. I expected leftists to be happy that a machine for suppressing dissent had been left intact.
Posted at 2008-10-11 07:28:23 [PermaLink]Heh. See what happened when I wrote "usual lefty suspects"? Speak of the devil and he'll appear. Cry havoc, and let slip the dawgs of blog!
Sure, the tribunals backed down . . . under the glare of publicity, and before a team of high-priced expert lawyers. Most HRC victims are not so fortunate. And there WILL be more victims, as soon as the publicity fades.
Keep dreamin'.
Glares of publicity don't force Tribunals to "back down" any more than they force courts to back down. Which is to say, very rarely, and there is no evidence whatsoever that this happened here--in fact, not once, but three times.
We were predicting rejection based upon the facts, and we were right. Please accept my commiserations on your victory, though.