White supremacists celebrate repeal of hate speech law

White supremacists are praising the passage of a private members’ bill in the House of Commons introduced by Conservative backbencher, Brian Storseth, that repeals part of Canada’s hate speech laws.

Bill C-304 repeals Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which bans hate speech transmitted over the Internet or by telephone. It passed the third reading in the House of Commons last Thursday and has been sent to the Senate.

Someone with the name “CanadaFirst”, posting on the website StormFront, a notorious white supremacist group, says “This is a huge victory for freedom in Canada. However, we still have other unjust Zionist ‘hate’ laws that need to go.”

The new law does not make hate speech legal on the web or by phone -- hate speech remains illegal under the Criminal Code. By removing it from the Canadian Human Rights Act, it takes away the authority of the country’s human rights commissions to investigate online hate speech and request that violating websites be taken down.

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) in a recent report said it’s concerned that the law may be the start of a campaign by the Conservatives to weaken Canada’s human rights laws.

“The debate surrounding the expediency of section 13 has become the proxy for an open assault on the very existence of an administrative framework to protect human rights in this country,” the CBA said.

It added, "Over the years, human rights commissions have remained at the vanguard of eliminating discrimination based on race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and other grounds, and advancing equality."

In a comment to The Camera, prominent Toronto lawyer and community leader, Mark Persaud said, “Regardless of the merits and the need to protect freedom of speech, it is troubling that such an important section of the Canadian Human Rights Act is being repealed without proper public consultation and debate. The holocaust and many atrocities again minorities did not start with physical violence but with hatred propelled by verbal attacks.”