Human Rights vs. Hurt Feelings?

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The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 2(b)  “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: … freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”

I love this country.  Here we have the Charter which says that this is a free country, and we have places like the Human Rights Commission to make sure that no one’s rights or freedoms are violated. And then I read something like this.  Ezra Levant is being taken before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing the Danish cartoons that caused so much hubbub for their portrayal of Mohamed.  So apparently someone felt offended that someone would publish a news item in a news paper…. Ya know, I saw the cartoons in my university paper and they weren’t offensive at all.  Nor were they inciting hatred or anything similar.  They were just political cartoons, rather tame ones even. So this is actually being heard by the Alberta Human Rights Commission, even though they are essentially saying that the “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication” only exist if you’re not offending someone. So this suit has gone forward, one which would have been dismissed by any actual judge in a split second, and Mr. Levant has had his first day before the Commission, which was taped and is available on his blog.  If you don’t have much time, at least read his opening statements here.

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