Of course not...(!) Arizona beach front property anyone? Bruce
Call for holy war no threat to nation: lawyer December 13, 2005 http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2005/12/13/1350409-sun.html By RANDY RICHMOND, FREE PRESS REPORTER TORONTO -- Londoner Tomasz Winnicki's call for a holy war against Jews and blacks is no more threatening to Canada than rap music and the Catholic church, his lawyer said yesterday. In a final day typical of an unusual human rights tribunal hearing, the lawyer for London's self-avowed "biggest hater" also suggested trying to protect minorities only hurts them, and the tribunal chairperson wondered aloud how much authority she has even to make a ruling. During the eight-day hearing spread over several months, Mark Twain was dragged into the debate, white supremacists and anti-racist activists shadowed each other at lunch and Winnicki first boasted he would represent himself, then at the 11th hour asked for a lawyer when he saw the paperwork stacked up against him. The bottom line for his lawyer, Chi-Kun Shi, yesterday was Canadian society could handle Winnicki's comments without too much worry. "This tribunal should give our society some credit," she told the tribunal. Canadians tolerate widely different views -- such as rap music calling for killing of whites or the Bible's anti-gay messages -- because freedom of expression is important to them, she said. "We swear on the Bible, but the majority of us still support same-sex marriage," Shi said. "There has to be some demonstration of harm before someone is to be gagged because of the way we value freedom of expression." If the tribunal limits freedom of expression, minorities will be made a scapegoat, Shi warned. But the Ottawa lawyer who prompted the tribunal hearing argued community standards have nothing to do with hate law, and hate has no place in free expression. "The attack of others based on their religion, colour, national and/or ethnic origin using profanity and racial slurs does not constitute legitimate political debate," said Richard Warman. "It promotes hatred." Parliament has already set the community standard for hate law in the Human Rights Act, and Winnicki has crashed over that line with abandon, Warman said. "It would be hard to find any messages that so clearly and bluntly reveal the hatred and poison." The Canadian Human Rights Commission, which investigated the complaint and brought it before the tribunal, argued the hearing was called to consider Winnicki, not rap music and the Catholic church. The law, backed by Supreme Court decisions, says it only has to be proved the messages are likely to expose people to hate, added commission lawyer Monette Maillet. "There does not have to be evidence on how a group is affected." Tribunal chair Karen Jensen raised dozens of legal questions with the three lawyers, even raising dissenting Supreme Court views that tribunal chairs shouldn't have the power to determine how to limit someone's freedom of expression. Amid hours of legal wrangling, no one contested that Winnicki posted the messages or that they were controversial. For long minutes, the hearing room air was filled with profanity as lawyers read aloud his tirades against blacks, "subhuman scum" and "Jew bastards" and his calls to get rid of them. It could take several months before Jensen makes a ruling. A federal court already has ruled Winnicki is breaking Canada's Human Rights Act and suggested any tribunal ruling otherwise would be considered "highly suspect." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 1.2 million kids a year are victims of human trafficking. 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