I was gratified the other day to see Alan Borovoy, longtime general counsel to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.ccla.org) criticizing the Alberta Human Rights Commission's investigation into Ezra Levant and his magazine Western Standard for publishing those Danish cartoons about violence under the cover of Islam.
I expect Alberta's investigation into the Western Standard will come to nothing. The magazine's right to publish cartoons will be affirmed, and the Commission will declare it has no authority to interfere with that right.
But Borovoy's point was that Human Rights Codes should restrain behaviour, not speech. It's not good enough that free speech will eventually be permitted. The Commission should have said at the outset that it has no mandate to investigate the exercise of free speech. The investigation should not be taking place.
This is a blog about Canadian history -- and I'll get back to that. But sometimes issues arise.
