Author Faces Canadian Tribunal For Hate Speech

An anonymous reader writes "A Seattle Times editorial notes that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will put author Mark Steyn on trial for his book 'America Alone,' which has angered Muslims in Canada. Steyn is a columnist for the Canadian magazine Maclean's. According to the editorial, British Columbia bans all words and images 'likely to expose a person... to hatred or contempt because of race, religion, age, disability, sex, marital status or sexual orientation.' Steyn is unapologetic, and is advertising his book as a 'Canadian Hate Crime' and daring the tribunal to 'pronounce him bad.'" The Canadian tabloid the National Post has coverage of what it calls "a media storm."

Comments

Hate Speech?

[Anonymous Coward]

So it was hate speech? Slashdot has decided. Thanks for telling me what to think!

Re:Hate Speech?

[Calinous]

100% conviction rate? They are as good as the Inquisition at that.
      What happens to the victims? Torches and pitchforks?

Re:Hate Speech?

[gijoel]

Nobody expects the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.

Re:Hate Speech?

[Orange Crush]

Actually, if you are an author, I think quite the opposite is true. Nothing will make people want to read your book more than being told by the government that they aren't allowed to. I'm sure the publicity resulting from all this nonsense has done wonders for the sale of his book worldwide.

There. Fixed that for you.

Seriously. After 10,000 years or so of recorded history and civilizations and all, you'd think everybody would've gotten the memo by now. Good or bad, ideas are a bitch to kill. Shoot/torture/maim/imprison the messenger, they become a martyr. Ban saying the words out loud, they get whispered even further.

We're upitty little animals, and scolding and yelling at us about what not to do is about as effective as telling junior not to put peas up his nose. We'll do it just to spite you.

If you're serious about banning hate speech--that is, any works that advocate or could incite the killing of other people--then throw the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, and probably a good half or more of the rest of the sum total of religious and literary texts throughout human history onto that fire.

The only way to kill a bad idea is to give it attention and discuss why it's wrong.

This law goes overboard, but yet...

[bobdotorg]

... does absolutely nothing to stop the scourge that is Celine Dion for acts, "likely to expose a person... to hatred or contempt."

Re:National Post is not a tabloid...

[Anonymous Coward]

With that sort of generalization, you must be a viewer.

Re:why

[nurb432]

Then they came to restrict your speech, and there was no one left to speak out in your favor.

Re:He SHOULD Be On Trial

[Shturmovik]

There's a group which tends to have large families and indoctrinates people to believe in a highly illiberal ideology.

Those goddam Catholics.

As judged by ability to take a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

The various major divinities are ranked in the following order.
Invisible Pink Unicorn / Flying Spaghetti Monster
Jewish God
Buddah
Christian God
Mormon God
Aliens invented by L Ron Hubbard ...
Lost Aboriginal Cannibal Tribes ...
Muslim God

Now it's not the most scientific approach to determining which God is bigger. Indeed, that list should be normalized by population too. Sorry Muslims. Your God is truly pathetic. There's obviously only one way to deal with this kind of frank criticism. Machetes and fire.

kthxbai.

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

Are people in China inherently more susceptible to authoritarian regimes, or somehow less capable of existing in a democracy than other peoples?

Actually, I think asians just might be more susceptible. You see it in the shock reactions asians have when they first visit a place where people are .... argumentative and individual... like Dublin or Paris. Not sure how much is nature and how much is nurture, but asians seem to have a sort of a drive to conform, to fit in, that just is not present in irish or french people, say. Irish people will defy any and all authority on general principles, including the "authority" of their peers, and basically do whatever the fuck they want (it's maddening in a professional context - you have to suggest stuff to them, not order them).

Re:Tolerance is a two way street

[Anonymous Coward]

JEWS run Canada. Why do you think it's being invaded by millions of useless third world parasites? So that the JEW can continue to RUN the country as usual, with no fear of whites (or any other group, for that matter) banding together and ousting their Jewish 'masters'.

Islam is pure evil, and this has been proved millions of times, all over the world, throughout history.

Just read the Koran. Just look at the life of the 'prophet' - a mass murderer, multiple rapist, bigamist and sex maniac with 14 'wives', and a paedophile, who 'married' a nine year old girl when he was fifty four. And muslims call him the 'perfect man'. Need I say more?

Blasphemer!

[Mr. Underbridge]

Pastafarians are evil?

Dude, you're about to get your soul sucked out by somebody's noodly appendage.

Tabloid? Ahh! ... THAT Canadian Tabloid!

[aqk]

>>The Canadian tabloid the National Post has coverage of...

The Canadian "TABLOID"?? LOL!
O, how the mighty have fallen!
Poor Conrad will be turning over in his cell, whilst chuckling, if he ever gets a chance to read the above description!
I'm sure Steyn will be, if he sees this!