In a nut shell:
In the subterranean bowels of a provincial courthouse, a bizarre and frightening spectacle starts to unfold.
At issue are the pointed musings of Mark Steyn, a journalist and author living in the United States. A lengthy excerpt from his controversial book, America Alone, was published two years ago in Toronto-based Maclean's magazine, a weekly publication owned by Toronto-based Roger's Publishing Ltd.
The book excerpt ran as a cover story, entitled "Why the Future Belongs to Islam," and argued that Western democracy is threatened by the spread of Islam. In response, a human rights complaint was made here, in British Columbia, by an electrical engineer living in Waterloo, Ont.
That's the bizarre part, or one slice of it. None of the main players starring in this quasi-judicial drama actually live or work in B. C. Not Mr. Steyn, not the editors responsible for Maclean's, and not Mohamed Elmasry, a Muslim who launched a complaint to the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal on behalf of all Muslims in this province.
Neither Mr. Steyn, nor his editors, nor Mr. Elmasry were in sight when the tribunal panel began the week-long hearing yesterday. Mr. Steyn will not testify, say lawyers for Maclean's. Nor will Mr. Elmasry, the aggrieved. So why bring the complaint forward here? Because Mr. Elmasry can. This thanks to provincial human rights legislation of a breadth and elasticity not known in other parts of Canada.
Essentially, Mark Steyn has the distinction of being considered a conservative shill for President Bush's war on Islamo-fascist terrorists in the eyes of Steyn's critics and yet is a victim of what Leftist critics of the Bush adminsitration, in their fevered imaginations, believe President Bush is currently doing in America to stifle dissent and chill free speech with a corrupt and pliant judiciary, in order to defend the Bushtatorship.
It is only slightly encouraging to read that British Columbia has the worst of the sad lot of human rights tribunals.
What the human rights courts do in Canada may be done politely--and with little litter, of course--but it is not justice and it is not about human rights.
Well, not about defending human rights, in any case.
