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THE Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has
dismissed the Canadian Islamic Congress’ (CIC) complaint against Maclean’s magazine for
running an excerpt of Mark Steyn’s book America
Alone, entitled ‘The Future Belongs to
Islam.’ The CIC called the article “flagrantly
Islamophobic.”
“The Steyn article discusses changing global
demographics and other factors that the author describes as contributing to
an eventual ascendancy of Muslims in the ‘developed world,’ a
prospect that the author fears for various reasons,” said the CHRC.
“The writing is polemical, colourful and
emphatic, and was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend
certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.”
The CHRC said the article, as a whole, was not of
“an extreme nature” and did not warrant the appointment of a
tribunal.
When Steyn heard about the dismissal, he joked he was
disappointed, saying he had hoped to lose so the case could be appealed to
a higher court.
In a June 27 statement, Maclean’s welcomed the decision, but asserted: “No human
rights commission, whether at the federal or provincial level, has the
mandate or the expertise to monitor, inquire into or assess the editorial
decisions of the nation’s media.”
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Maclean’s also
expressed “grave concerns” about the fact that the same
complainants could make the same complaint in multiple jurisdictions,
costing the magazine “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The Ontario Human Rights Commission dismissed the
complaint on jurisdictional grounds earlier this year, but head
commissioner Barbara Hall issued what Steyn described as a “drive-by
verdict,” saying she agreed the article was Islamophobic.
– Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
August 2008
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