News from the New Party

A show trial in Canada

Last December we reported the trials and tribulations being inflicted upon journalist and commentator Mark Steyn and the respected Canadian magazine Maclean's, as a result of "hate speech charges" brought by two of Canada's so-called "Human Rights Commissions".  The charges relate to excerpts from Steyn's book America Alone published in Maclean's some considerable time before a complaint was brought by five Muslim law students.  The complaints themselves are ludicrous (in one case he is condemned for quoting the words of a Norwegian imam - full information is available via Mark Steyn's website).

As Steyn's "show trial" approaches, the likely consequences for freedom of expression in Canada (not to mention Steyn's career in his own country) are dire.  Mark Steyn describes the expected timeline:

1) At some point in the next month [posted on 18th May], the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will find Maclean's guilty. Even if they regard the 1938 Supreme Court decision as preventing them from imposing the Canadian Islamic Congress' stated "remedy", they will still be statutorily obligated to issue a cease-and-desist order. That would prevent Maclean's from publishing anything further by me on Islam, the west, demography, etc, and also prevent them from publishing anything by anybody else that took a broadly similar line.

2) Maclean's will appeal the decision to a real court and ask that the judgment be stayed pending the appeal. The court could stay the Tribunal's remedy in whole or in part, but, given that the cease-and-desist order automatically has the standing of a Supreme Court decision, it's doubtful whether the Steyn ban would be part of the stay. I've had conflicting legal advice on this. At that point, I will either be exiled from Maclean's, or permitted a temporary reprieve at the discretion of a British Columbia judge.

3) The Globe And Mail and The National Post and others would still, in theory, be able to hire me. Both papers have made overtures to me in recent years. But, given that, on the subject for which I'm best known and thus of most commercial value, my writings have been found guilty by a Canadian "court", they would be assuming a potentially very costly liability in agreeing to publish me. That may be why, in the months since this began, once eager-to-sign editors have fallen silent, and the phone hasn't stopped not ringing.

4) I have been nominated for the National Magazine Awards, which in the normal course of events would be regarded as a big career boost. In my case, by the time the winners are announced, I'm likely to have been declared unpublishable in the daffy Dominion. So any award will make a nice accessory for the tomb of my Canadian career.

If the complaints against Mark Steyn and Maclean's are upheld (the past form of Canada's HRCs indicates that they probably will be) then Canada will no longer have the moral right to call itself a free country.  If the case is lost, it will not only be the defendants that are affected.  All debate and discussion of the issues Steyn addresses in his work will be effectively shut down in Canada.  The stakes are high.  We wish Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine the very best of luck.