Catholic Insight beats human rights complaint

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has dismissed an anti-homosexual hate speech complaint against Catholic Insight magazine.

"We are of course very cautious," said Catholic Insight Editor, Basilian Father Alphonse de Valk, whose small-circulation magazine already faces more than $20,000 in legal bills.

"A judicial review is still possible. We're not out of the woods yet."

"It is chilling to think that a publication can be hauled before a government tribunal simply for reporting to interested citizens developments in these areas of controversy," said de Valk in a statement.

"This matter underscores once again the necessity of urgent reform of the Canadian human rights system."

Edmonton-based homosexual activist Rob Wells filed the nine-point complaint in early 2007.

Catholic Insight is going to see whether it can take legal action to recoup its costs because of the "harassing and financially burdening" nature of the complaints.

The CHRC has also dismissed the Canadian Islamic Congress' (CIC) complaint against Maclean's Magazine for running an excerpt of Mark Steyn's book America Alone, entitled The Future Belongs to Islam. The CIC called the article "flagrantly Islamophobic."

The CHRC said Steyn's article "was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike."

But it said the article when considered as a whole was not of "an extreme nature" and did not warrant the appointment of a tribunal.

De Valk called the Maclean's dismissal "wonderful news," saying he hoped it was a sign of "better days ahead, that cooler heads will prevail and something will be done about these human rights commissions."

In a June 27 statement, Maclean's welcomed the decision but asserted: "no human rights commission, whether at the federal or provincial level, has the mandate or the expertise to monitor, inquire into, or assess the editorial decisions of the nation's media."

Maclean's also expressed "grave concerns" about the fact that the same complainants could make the same complaint in multiple jurisdictions, costing the magazine "hundreds of thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the inconvenience."

The CIC filed complaints not only with the CHRC, but with the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

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