HUMAN RIGHTS complaints against Maclean’s magazine, for running an excerpt of Mark Steyn’s bestselling book America Alone, have raised alarms about the rise in government sponsored censorship in Canada – especially against Christians.

Mohammed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress has launched complaints with the Canadian, B.C. and Ontario Human Rights Commissions, describing the Steyn book excerpt – entitled ‘The Future Belongs to Islam’ – as “flagrantly anti-Muslim.”

The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the B.C. Human Rights Commission have both agreed to hear the complaints.

“The Canadian Islamic Congress is arguing that my article is a ‘crime,’” Steyn wrote on the National Review Online blog The Corner on December 17. “By accepting the case, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has indicated it’s prepared at least to consider the possibility that it’s a ‘crime’ . . . [That] is a significant concession to my opponents, and damaging not just to me but to the concept of a free press.”

Iain Benson, a lawyer who specializes in religious freedom issues, agrees. “I think that such claims are dangerous,” he said, “as a free and democratic society must allow the maximum freedom of speech and the press – particularly on matters such as the nature and extent of Islam in Canada. Just like the nature and extent of atheism or Catholicism in Canada . . . These should all be ‘fair game’ for fair comment.”

Catholic and social conservative activist John Pacheco shares Benson’s concerns.

“Mark Steyn is probably most popular conservative commentator in the world. If he can be attacked, it does not bode well for freedom of speech for Canadians.”

Pacheco has launched an online petition, asking the prime minister and provincial premiers to suspend human rights commissions until there is an impartial review to make sure freedom of speech is protected.

Continue article >>

“We consider many complaints launched through so-called ‘human rights commissions’ to be political tools to shut down dissent and uphold politically correct thought and opinion,” the petition at SoCon.ca states. “In particular, we note the inordinate number of successful cases brought against conservatives and, in particular, Christians.”

Pacheco noted that Steyn is a Christian, and that there has been a litany of human rights complaints against Christians in recent years, mostly for alleged homophobia or discrimination against homosexuals.

While many complaints against Christians have received scant coverage in mainstream news media, the complaints against Steyn and Maclean’s are gaining traction, even in newspapers and well-trafficked blogs. One American blogger, Hugh Hewitt, who is also a talk radio host, has called for a boycott of Canadian goods and tourism.

Most politicians have been silent, except for Canada’s multiculturalism secretary of state Jason Kenney.

“To be attacking opinions expressed by a columnist in a major magazine is a pretty bold attack on the basic Canadian value of freedom of the press and freedom of expression,” Kenney told the Canadian Press.

Though some conservative columnists have raised concerns that the outcry from the mainstream media is rather feeble, some of the strongest defenders of Maclean’s right to print Steyn’s book excerpt have come from other Muslims, especially from the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC).

“Labelling Canada’s premier weekly news magazine as a carrier of Islamophobic literature is a thinly veiled attack on freedom of press, that will serve no purpose other than to reinforce the stereotype that Muslims have little empathy for vigorous debate and democracy,” said MCC president Farzana Hassan in a press release.

– Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

February 2008