I’ve left the Human Rights Commissions debacle alone for a few weeks now, other than to report on the seeming finale of it all, when Marc Lemire’s case was dramatically dismissed, and Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act deemed unconstitutional.
Practically all of the parties who argue for the removal of Section 13 refer to its censorship qualities. And as Grace writes at Vdare: “Self-censorship has become a defining Canadian characteristic.”
But the important question is: why? Why has self-censorship become a defining Canadian characteristic? A historical survey of pre-Section 13 Canada in terms of the “self-censorship [which] has become a defining Canadian characteristic” would be a noble project, and one that I will try to tackle at some point.
But, looking at the initial reason for establishing Section 13, the resounding factor was that it was censorship against OTHER PEOPLE that was the defining characteristic, not SELF-censorship. It was Jewish groups, along with some blacks, who were trying to stop what they deemed to be anti-Jewish and anti-black propaganda, by groups other than themselves, who initiated this chapter in Canadian history. I would argue that it was this introduction of censorship from talking negatively about “others” that gave momentum to the politically correct atmosphere in Canada, which led to the self-censorship that Grace writes about. Something caused this self-censorship to ingrain itself in the Canadian psyche, and, in my observation, that something was an overriding attempt to stop discrimination.
Here are some peculiar characteristics of Section 13.
1. It started around the same period when Canada was slowly (and later on in a much accelerated fashion) becoming a “diverse” nation. Prime Minister Pearson had relaxed the immigration policies even more in 1967 to allow non-white immigrants from the world over to enter Canada as easily as white immigrants. Non-white immigrants then overwhelmingly out-numbered white immigrants, setting the stage for diversity and multiculturalism.
2. Section 13 was established at the urgings of groups of people who didn’t belong to the majority, mostly Protestant white Canadians. These were Jewish groups and blacks, who were trying to curtail what they deemed to be hate propaganda aimed at them by members of this majority white group.
3. It was thus an attempt to stop, or restrain, discrimination and not speech, that was at the root of Section 13, as the very first sentence explicitly state in the Canadian Human Rights Act:
It is a discriminatory practice for a person or a group of persons acting in concert to communicate telephonically… any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination."Later in 2001, this was also extended to the internet.
4. Here, from Lemire’s freedomsite.org, is an abridged list of the rundown on the history of convictions under Section 13:
Not a single respondent have [sic] ever won a section 13 case before the tribunalSection 13 and the HRCs are simply attempts at keeping an ethnically and culturally diverse country as harmonious as possible by preventing, or prohibiting, the majority white culture from complaining about, or trying to retain, its historical leadership positions vis à vis these new comers.
- 100% of cases have whites as respondents
- 98% of cases have poor or working class respondents
- 90.7% of respondents have not [sic] represented by lawyers
- So far, $93,000 has been awarded in fines and special compensations since 2003
- 72.4% of complaints specifically identify “jews” as victims
It is also a forum where these non-assimilating non-whites can place their grievances and disappointments at not acquiring the goods and lifestyles they expected once they entered the shores of this country.
It is in a sense a forced accommodation of these new comers by the original settlers of the country; new comers who resembled progressively less and less these original settlers.
There is no doubt that Canada’s leaders and elite are artificially diversifying the country. Their method is of course mass immigration. But the ordinary liberalized citizen, who has no time to meander through these Kafkaesque labyrinths, has unthinkingly accepted that discrimination is wrong and that equality (of all these diverse groups) is how societies should live. He will implicitly agree with Section 13 and the HRCs, until, as they now have, they demonstrate their incompatibility with various expected freedoms.
Are “normal” human relations possible in highly diverse countries? I would say no. And part of the laws and policies on discrimination and equality are a way to dilute these frictions that naturally occur when such different groups of people live together.
But, the whole situation goes even a step further. In this land of originally white settlers, who built the country, developed its culture and set its laws according to their abilities and standards, how is a non-white, who doesn’t even have a remote connection to this white culture (like we can argue the Europe-originating Ukrainians have) supposed to fit in?
Often, he doesn’t, in many levels. Therefore, grievances are high, expectations are dashed, and someone has to make sure this dissatisfied new member of the society feels at home. And thus starts the complex labyrinth of curtailing perceived discrimination and institutionalizing equality.
We are beginning to see the effects of all this much more clearly with a minority group that is far more aggressive, and far more self-centered than any previous minority group. These are the Muslims. Muslims are not randomly unhappy or disappointed about their position in Canadian society. They are here to decidedly change things to suit them. Their mandate, through their Koran, is to remove all the infidels, all the non-Muslims, and replace this apostate country with the holy sanctions of their god Allah.
Diversity and non-discrimination have met their perfect match. The devastating news to many Canadians is that there is no diversity in the mind of the Muslim. You are Muslim, or you don’t belong. At least Muslims are logical. Diversity of peoples simply means conflict, to the Muslim.
Freedom of speech (or diversity of opinions, ideas and thoughts) seems to work best in relatively homogenous, non-diverse populations, at least in the West. That is the paradox. Self-censorship, from the little I have studied Grace's remarks above, seems to occur most when diversity of peoples is highest. This is what Ezra Levant, who experienced the debilitating effects of the HRCs and Section 13, and it was those very Muslims who brought him – and Mark Steyn with MacLean’s magazine – to task, has not yet understood.
So, what is the solution to this end result of diversity of peoples, which issued forth a myriad of policies for non-discrimination and equality, which finally begat the Muslim presence that took advantage of these policies and laws to their final logical extension?
Take small steps backwards, and reduce this diversity, by undoing the method that contributed almost 100% to the situation. Reduce the influx of immigrants who have little, if no, affinities to the culture and traditions of Canada. And especially, reduce Muslim immigration.
I think the exposure of Section 13 was a wake-up call. Lemire’s website is actually a collection of ideas about how his society was changing, and drastically, due above all to immigration. It seems he has anti-Semitic components to his ideas, and may indeed be a white supremacist (and why not, it is his country), but I think his concern was more about these drastic changes. So, as I have pointed out, the essential problem of Section 13, and the HRCs, is not really curtailment of freedoms of speech and expression, but how to manage diversity that has gone rampant, which is eroding and destroying a culture and a country.
Closing down the HRCs and striking out Section 13 are not the answers to this problem. As I have stated previously, there is any number of ways that the head of diversity will rear itself to make its never-ending demands met.
