By Tim Waggoner
OTTAWA, November 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In what is being called a disgraceful publicity stunt by political commentator and Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) critic Ezra Levant, Jennifer Lynch, the chief commissioner of the CHRC was one of those who placed a commemorative wreath at the National Ceremony for Remembrance Day in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Lynch’s brief tenure at the CHRC has been marked by scandal and the Commission has been scrambling to pick up the pieces of its fallen image. Under her watch the CHRC has come under increasing fire for violating fundamental Canadian freedoms and for employing questionable methods in its investigations in “hate speech” cases.
Levant, a lawyer, free speech advocate and popular political commentator, said Lynch was not even invited to the ceremony by the Department of Veterans Affair and has dubbed her presence at the ceremony a cheap attempt at gaining positive publicity.
“It’s disgusting that Lynch is politicizing Remembrance Day,” said Levant. “Remembrance Day is about the sacrifice of our fallen soldiers. It’s not about some glad-handing bureaucrat giving out business cards and mugging for the cameras.”
“But it’s worse,” added Levant. “For a censor like Lynch to crash Remembrance Day shows she doesn’t understand the sacrifice our soldiers made for freedom of speech.”
This spring, the RCMP and the Privacy Commissioner both launched investigations into the conduct of Lynch’s staff, who had hacked into a private citizen’s Internet account and then surfed a white supremacist website – an action that resulted in the citizen’s name being widely publicized as the source of racist statements. Lynch’s staff admitted under oath to joining neo-Nazi organizations, and publishing numerous bigoted remarks on the Internet in their effort to provoke hate-speech violations which the CHRC would then prosecute.
“It’s grotesque that the woman who approved of neo-Nazi memberships for her staff would show her face when we give thanks to the men and women who liberated us from Nazism,” said Levant.
The CHRC is well aware of their unsavory reputation. The National Post has reported that the Commission paid $10,000 out of the pockets of taxpayers to Hill and Knowlton for “communication advice” in an effort to soften their image.
Peter Head, whose father David was a member of the Royal Canadian Engineers and a WW2 D-Day veteran, also issued statements condemning Lynch’s presence at the Nov. 11 ceremony. .
“As the son of a World War 2 D-Day veteran, I am offended to see somebody like Jennifer Lynch lay the wreath at the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa,” said Head. “She and her organization represent the greatest threat to the freedom my father fought for.”
“The irony of it is so thick you can cut it with a knife and I am profoundly offended,” finished Head.
In the CHRC press release announcing Lynch’s participation in the event, the Commission failed to mention the First or Second World Wars, the Boer War or Korea, but found room to give praise to itself and to the United Nations.
Syndicated columnist and author Mark Steyn, also a well-known critic of the CHRC, wrote on the issue, saying, “November 11th is a day to honor the sacrifice of soldiers of the Queen who fought for their country in brutal bloody wars Commissioner Lynch’s self-serving press release can’t even be bothered to mention.”
The press release mentioned how the wreath laying would “commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Steyn, who spent tens of thousands of dollars defending himself in the CHRC against charges of “Islamophobia” before finally being acquitted in October, said the irony was further compounded by the fact that the CHRC does not even “comply” with the UN declaration.
“By the way, Canada’s pseudo-‘human rights’ bureaucracies are in sustained systemic breach of key aspects of the UN Declaration, including the right to the presumption of innocence and the right to due process,” said Steyn. “Having been on the receiving end of Commissioner Lynch’s ‘human rights’ for the best part of a year, I regard her as, at best, an a historical nitwit unfit for public office.”
“The contamination of Remembrance Day by this ghastly woman is disgusting even by her standards,” he concluded.