What's the Difference Between Levant and the HRCs?

I wonder if Ezra Levant reads this blog? Or if he's just too busy doing his book tours and op-eds for the Toronto Star - yes, the leftist newspaper of Toronto (and Canada, really).

I admire fighters; it takes energy and commitment to go after your enemies, and to correct the wrong being done.

But, at the same time, it is important to understand what you're fighting for, and why.

I've always held Levant's freedom of speech and freedom of the press stand for his fight against the HRCs to be inadequate. It is understandable where he is coming from since he was attacked as a journalist, and for what he chose to publish in his magazine. But he has admitted that he doesn't find the HRC principles fundamentally wrong, except that they went over-board with their current cases. 

Here is an excerpt from a piece Levant recently posted on his website titled, "Human rights activist speaks to multicultural forum on behalf of Metis host" which tells us more of his position:

I don't think about the ethnic or racial details of my friends -- unless it specifically comes up for some reason. And it generally doesn't come up -- unless some foolish political correctness demands that it come up, in the form of racial quotas or the like.

[H]uman rights commissions judge everyone based on those irrelevant criteria. They immediately assign you your political and legal status based on your race, sex, sexual orientation, etc. They ignore Martin Luther King's call to be judged by the "content of our character, not the colour of our skin".

The problem isn't that the HRCs are racist (they may well be, I don't know the inner workings of their staff and supporters). The problem is that the cases filed with the HRCs are categorized by groups deemed to be vulnerable to discrimination. The whole point of the HRCs is to protect such "minority" groups from majority group discrimination. They are set up to rule on differences, or at least complaints made by those "different" who want to be treated the same as everyone else.

So, what makes Levant any different from the HRCs? Both seem to believe in a neutral, equal society, where men and women, black and whites, Muslims and Christians, gays and straights, the old and the young, are all equal, and live in the multicultural harmony that Levant hopes is Canada.

As I pointed out in my previous post, about one half of those protected groups are visible minorities. They are protected against discrimination from equal access to employment, housing, services, and a host of other things.

Ontario's minorities filed about 1/3 more complaints to the HRC than did Alberta between 2007 and 2008.The highest number of complaints in Ontario came from visible minorities (39% vs. 18% for Alberta). Ontario has also almost twice the number of visible minorities as Alberta.

Immigrants contribute large numbers to the visible minorities' pool, as I showed in my previous posts [1, 2]. With the increasing acceptance of immigrants , there will be an increasing number of visible minorities, and an increasing number of HRC cases. 

Visible minorities, those people that he doesn’t want to put into "racial quotas", are changing Ezra Levant’s Canada. They are not beholden to the founders and creators of Canada, unlike Levant. The fair and just society that Levant makes speeches about is changing through the unfair and vindictive HRCs that he’s trying to reform.

Part of the fuel that keeps the HRCs burning are people whose entry into Canada Levant, and Jason Kenney, need to find ways to reduce to avoid the inevitable, negative changes to society and culture that Levant is already bemoaning. This includes his cherished freedom of speech, which allows him to still speak the way he does, but which could change for the worse.

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Here are some facts about the Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia HRC cases between 2007 and 2008:

Ontario New Complaints to the HRC:
3,491 (filed by 0.03% of the total population)
A 49% increase from previous year

% Breakdown of complaints
- Visible minority: (an amalgam of race, place of origin, ethnicity, ancestry and creed): 38.8%
Race being highest at 18.2%

- Disability: 27.6%

Ontario visible minorities: 22.8% of Ontario population
Toronto visible minorities: 46.9% of Toronto population

Source: Ontario Human Rights Commission 2007-2008 Annual Report
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Alberta New Complaints to the HRC:
680 (filed by 0.02% of the total population)
A 4% increase from previous year

% Breakdown of complaints
- Visible minority: (an amalgam of race, place of origin, ethnicity, ancestry and creed): 18%
Race & Ancestry highest at 8% each

- Disability: 38%

- Gender: 20%

Alberta visible minorities: 13.9%

Source: Alberta Human Rights Commission, Annual Review, April 1 2007 - March 31 2008 (pdf)
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British Columbia New Complaints to the HRC:
1,053 (filed by 0.02% of the total population)

% Breakdown of complaints
- Visible minority (an amalgam of race, place of origin, ethnicity, ancestry and creed): 41%
Race highest at 12%

- Disability - 20%

B.C. Visible Minorities: 24.8%

Source: B.C. Human Rights Tribunal Annual Report, 2007-2008 (pdf)
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