We have come to expect such silliness from human rights tribunals but a recent Alberta decision takes the cake. It’s ridiculous, that one cannot even mention something in a story that might injure the feelings of certain “vulnerable groups.”
At least that’s now how it is for Edmonton-based Report Newsmagazine, which lost a crucial media freedom case before a tribunal of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission. It all began back in April of 1997 when a short story was published which had in it a description of a Jewish businessman, a comment made about American commercial real estate, and how it is dominated by Jewish families who sometimes only deal within the family. That’s when Harvey Kane complained on behalf of his Jewish Defence League.
While some may judge the story to have been insensitive or perhaps even in poor taste, the tribunal’s finding is an outrage. How often are feelings hurt? Just about every time someone states an opinion, in some way, shape or form it will hurt at least one person’s feelings. But is it really a human rights offence? Furthermore, there is the problem that the standard of injured feelings is too subjective to be adjudicated by a third party, a problem easily overcome by the human rights commissars (in their own minds, at least) considering their own presumed omnipotence of how the world should be, but which presents challenges to publications that must take them into account when writing news stories.
God save us, for if these sorts of rulings against freedom of the press spread throughout Canada, it will make it impossible for any writer to state anything but the most straightforward news. No more columns, editorials or letters to the editor, because they state opinions. And we all know that opinions hurt peoples’ feelings. It’s not that feelings are intentionally hurt; however, that’s just what happens when you have something to say. So much for democratic debate.
The ruling especially worries The Interim as we deal with issues about which many people feel very strongly: abortion, euthanasia, birth control, the family, homosexuality. We imagine that abortionists or women who have had abortions may have their feelings hurt when we say that abortion kills a child. Or homosexuals and their families are likely to become upset when we say homosexual acts are wrong.