By John-Henry Westen
OTTAWA, February 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An internal memo to Conservative MPs sent last week will be sure to disappoint freedom-loving Canadians. The memo, confirmed by LifeSiteNews.com as legitimate, originated from the office of the Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson. The “talking points” memo directs Conservative MPs to remain noncommittal on support for Liberal MP Keith Martin’s motion M-446, which would put an end to the growing and dangerous abuse of human rights commissions.
Many Canadians, facing the prospect of fines and financially crippling defenses before the human rights commissions, have in recent years been silenced on issues very important to them. Most notably, defending the natural family is problematic under current legislation, since “sexual orientation” is now officially prohibited grounds of discrimination thanks to activist judicial decisions reading it into the Charter of Rights.
As LifeSiteNews.com reported previously, Martin proposed motion M-446 to delete section 13(1) from the Canadian Human Rights Act. That section forbids communication, even on the internet, of “any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.”
The recent memo directs Conservative MPs, when asked about Martin’s motion, to reply: “Motion M-446 was just recently tabled and will not be up for debate in the near future” and “I can assure you that when this Bill comes before the house for debate, I will follow it closely and will arrive at a position at that time.”
While several Christians have been the subject of harassment by the human rights commissions for their stances against homosexual activism, in recent months prominent Canadians Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn have also been the subject of human rights complaints for their published opinions against radical Islam.
The memo specifies that Conservative MPs are not to stand up publicly for freedom of speech for Steyn and Levant.
The memo directs MPs, “If asked about the Steyn / Levant cases,” to respond, saying, “It is not appropriate for me to comment on particular matters that might be before the Canadian Human Rights Commission or the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.”
There is a growing movement of calls for elected officials to reign in the commissions which were created by them and which are acting under mandates passed in the various Canadian legislatures. So far, the leaders of the federal and provincial governments are said to be refusing to acknowledge their role in the controversy and their ability to defuse it with simple legislative changes.
To express concerns to the Prime Minister:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
[email protected]