On Tribunals and "hate crimes"

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views August 27, 2001]

It's a wonder to observe, as the country to the north of us grows increasingly totalitarian. Canadian customs agents now routinely open and read mail to certain destinations, lest any of it offend the sensitivities of preferred groups.

In recent years, Canada has established a strange "Tribunal" system, reminiscent of dark stories about the Soviet Union, where a citizen can be hauled before one or more "judges" to answer charges that usually revolve around the nature of his thought processes on certain political topics. (For example, it is forbidden to publicly expound contrary views on particular subjects, as do revisionist historians whose research leads them to dispute historical facts concerning the European "Holocaust.") These Tribunals are separate and apart from Canada's traditional justice system.

This is also a land where journalists (of all people!) have been heard to express sorrowful dismay that too many Canadians behave as if the United States' First Amendment guarantee of free speech applies to them. Such misguided Canadians are often roundly scolded for insisting on freedoms equivalent to those contained in the American Bill of Rights.

In the U.S., except for a Washington Post article (see Weekly Commentary of July 9, 2001), there has been no substantive reporting on Canada's gradual loss of civil liberties. In Canada, one organization that valiantly struggles against the increasing restrictions on individual freedom is the Canadian Association for Free Expression, led by Paul Fromm. Following is news from Fromm about the latest pronouncement from the police in Calgary:

The Calgary police will be keeping records of non-criminal acts, motivated by hate. And how will they know? They'll rely on a mere report. Aggressive minority special interest groups long ago learned to label any criticism of them as "hate."

So, now, your coloured neighbour may, out of spite, perhaps even without your knowing it, report you to the political police and say that you called him a "nigger" for having played his reggae music too loud. Even had you said the "n" word in a fit of anger, it's no crime. However, your name will now be in a data-base and you'll be a suspect next time there's a "hate" incident.

This report tells us that there were 133 "hate crimes" in Calgary last year. This statistic is misleading and bogus. There may have been 133 reports of "hate crimes." However, how many charges and how many convictions were there? For instance, an example of a "hate crime" is the distribution of "hate" material, that is, any literature some censorship group doesn't like.

We're aware of no charges and, therefore, no convictions in Calgary under Section 319 of the Criminal Code last year. Most of these allegations aren't "hate" crimes; they're overblown accusations by the professionally over-sensitive and overly censorious.

And, in a serious Calgary Herald newspaper report, that reads more like a satirical take-off on paranoid multiculturalists, we read:

While most reports [of "hate crimes"] likely won't result in investigations, police hope the new numbers will give them a better handle on the mindset in Calgary's flourishing cultural mosaic.

"Every time something takes place, even if it's a racial slur or just name-calling, there is a victim who is traumatized," said Const. Doug Jones, the police department's co-ordinator of hate/bias crimes. Police estimate only 10 per cent of Calgary's hate crimes are reported to the authorities. They hope that number will increase as people begin using the new hate incident reporting system.

"We want to make sure people know what hate incidents are, that the Calgary Police Service wants to hear about them and that the perpetrators face significant penalties in court because their crime was motivated by hate or bias," he said.

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