Thursday, April 10, 2008

Bloggers Face Lawsuit

These Canadian bloggers are being sued, in an attempt to silence them:


  • Ezra Levant.com
  • FreeDominion.ca (Canada’s equivalent to FreeRepublic.com)
  • Kate McMillan of SmallDeadAnimals.com
  • Jonathan Kay of the National Post daily newspaper and its in-house blog
  • Kathy Shaidle of FiveFeetOfFury.com

They are being sued by Ottowa attorney Richard Warman who used to work for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Warman has filed more than 20 complaints against dissident views on the Internet under Section 13.1 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. A large percentage of the cases litigated through the Commission were brought by Richard Warman, who works at shutting down websites he doesn’t like. His compensation is thousands of dollars from web site owners who either can’t afford to defend themselves or don’t realize that they can.

British Columbia passed a special law to stop Richard Warman from suing libraries because they carried books of which he didn't approve. Warman apparently also seeks to ban conservative international websites from being seen by Canadians.

2 comments:

wheatie said...

Thanks for mentioning this ongoing travesty that is going on here in Canada. Warman puts the chill on bloggers by using the Can. Human Rights Comm. as his own little fiefdom. He has made thousands of dollars in filing these complaints. He has filed almost ALL the complaints in history under CHRC's Section 13. A complaint form can be filled out in seconds. That is all that is req'd. He never has to appear. The CHRC officer handles everything from then on. It does not cost Warman one penny at all, the gov't pays on his or any claimants behalf. The defendent has to pay thousands even if it seems a trivial complaint. Section 13 deals with speech which might be harmful or cause hurt "feelings!!!
His modus operendi is to log on to a website, post some very very questionable comments to stir up the readership, then file a CHRC complaint. Then wait for the check (cheque in Canada). Section 13 complaints have a 100% conviction rate if you can believe it.(and the whole star chamber event does not even happen in a real court of law!!) For more details the best compendium I've found so far on this topic is at ezralevant.com (levant has the best clearest coverage)or read the links filled freemarksteyn.com

Alice C. Linsley said...

Thanks, Wheatie, for the additional information. Let me know how things develop and I'll update this entry.