Finally Some Sanity in Alberta Human Rights

CBC Reports What Lindsay Blackett Minister in Charge has to Say

Stephen Boission has learned that the process is the punishment for 9 years now.  He lost an absurd case at the Alberta Human Rights Commission.  He won at the Alberta Court of Queens Bench.

Now, the Minister in charge of the Alberta HRC speaks out about this insanity.  The gay rights people do not want this to go forward, and refused to support Darren Lund when he asked them to.  They believe, rightly, that a curtailment of Stephen Boissoin's right to speak critically against their lifestyle, will come to haunt them another day.  So, they support free speech, an interesting concept.  Yet, Darren Lund soldiers on like a modern day Don Quixote.  Only Stephen is taking the brunt of the hit, because Lund is standing on a principle, even though he is alone (except for the Alberta HRC) in seeing a principle.

Here is what CBC Calgary said today:

The minister responsible for the Alberta Human Rights Commission says a complaint about an anti-gay letter to a Red Deer newspaper should never have gone before the commission.

"It's not there to mediate hurt feelings caused by some words or not," said Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett.

"If it's hateful, then that's a hate crime. And that's something for the Crown attorneys and the police services to investigate.

"But the goal of the commission is to make sure people are protected against discrimination where they work, or access to accommodation, access to government services."

'It's not there to mediate hurt feelings caused by some words'
—Lindsay Blackett, culture minister

In 2008, the commission ruled that a letter to the Red Deer Advocate in 2002, which compared gay people to pedophiles and drug dealers, broke a provincial law.

The Alberta Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act says no one can publish a statement that is likely "to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt" for reasons including sexual orientation.

The commission found that the letter, written by former pastor Stephen Boissoin, may have played a role in the beating of a gay teenager two weeks after it was published.

The commission ordered Boissoin to refrain from making disparaging remarks about homosexuals and to pay the complainant, former Red Deer high school teacher Darren Lund, $5,000 in damages.

But in December 2009 the Court of Queen's Bench overturned the commission's decision, ruling the letter was not a hate crime and is protected by Canada's freedom of speech laws.

Lund is now appealing that ruling. And he says Blackett's suggestion the case should never have gone to the commission is appalling.

"I really think that the point of this is standing on a principle," Lund said. "And that is, there should be some reasonable limits on hate speech in Alberta."

Lund also said the commission works too slowly, often taking years to make decisions, as it did in his case.
Blackett said the province is making improvements, with the addition of more staff and resources for training.