Oh Canada!Kathy Shaidle, one of Canada's top conservative bloggers,
is being sued by Richard Warman under Canada's moronic Human Rights Commissions.
And fight it I will.
Richard Warman's friends at the Canadian Human Rights Commission say "freedom of speech is an American concept" they refuse to recognize.
Well, some Canadians DO believe in freedom of speech.
If you believe in freedom of speech, eh, consider dropping by the site and making a contribution to her defense fund(s). If you don't have the money, at least consider linking to her post and making the request of your readers.
Mark Steyn has a good
overview of the situation, but this is the nub:
The system is risk-free for the plaintiff: the Crown picks up the tab for the "complainant," while the "respondent" — i.e. defendant — has to pay his own legal bills no matter what the eventual verdict is. Ted Kindos of Burlington, Ont., has already spent $20,000 of his own dough defending himself against a "human rights" complaint and estimates he'll add another six figures to that before it's all done. Mr. Kindos owns a modest restaurant, Gator Ted's Tap and Grill. So what outrageous "human right" did he breach? Well, he asked a guy smoking "medical marijuana" in the doorway of his restaurant if he wouldn't mind not doing it. Mr. Kindos felt that his customers — including young children — shouldn't have to pass through a haze of pot smoke to enter his establishment. But apparently in Canada there's a human right to light up a spliff in some other fellow's doorway. The other man's grass is always greener, and in this case the plaintiff's grass will cost Mr. Kindos an awful lot of green. He faces financial ruin, while there's no cost to the complainant.
Warman's a kook lefty (he ran for public office a few times as a Green) who's stumbled onto a gold mine. Obviously this needs to be handled in some other manner, but for now the lawyers' fees are paramount.
Labels: Canada, Human Rights Commission, Kathy Shaidle
