Xanthippa's Chamberpot

B’nai Brith Canada is one of the oldest human rights organizations in Canada.  Several days ago, they released a very interesting document titled:

Hate Jurisdictions of Human Rights Commissions: A System in Need of Reform

Submission by the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada to the Canadian Human Rights Commission

 It is an interesting document, both in what it says and in what its publication implies:  even the most ‘politically correct’ human rights organizations are considering the current happenings at the Canadian HRCs to be, in the least, worriesome.  That should give us all a moment to pause and think!

Dr. Frank Dimant is Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada and CEO of the organization’s Institute for International Affairs and the League for Human Rights.  Yestreday, on his blog ‘Frankly Speaking’, he asked for feedback on what people thought of the abovemantioned document. 

Following is the comment I submitted: 

Having read this submission several days ago, I found much in it which was very true and in need of saying.  Thank you for that.

However, there were some parts which I very strongly disagreed with and which – in my opinion – are illustrations of fundamental misunderstandings of the nature of human rights.  Please, allow me to explain using just one example.

In section iii – ‘Hate jurisdictions and their essential role’, there is a statement:  “The Holocaust did not begin with censorship.  It began with hate speech.  Auschwitz was built with words.”

This statement is demonstrably untrue.  The Holocaust DID INDEED begin with censorship:  the censorship OF hate speech! 

Prior to Hitler’s rise to power, Germany did indeed have hate speech laws, very similar to those we have here in Canada today.  These laws were indeed used to prosecute those who ‘spread hate against Jews’ – and Jewish leaders of that era were very satisfied with the application and efficacy of these laws!

It was precisely these hate speech laws which Hitler, once in power, used in order to silence dissenters – the very people who could have prevented atrocities like Auschwitz…..had they not been stripped of their freedom of speech. 

Auschwitz could never have been built had the fear of prosecution under hate speech laws not silenced those who would have spoken up against it!

It is precisely because hate speech laws can be, were and are used to silence those who would protest ‘incitement to hate’ which makes atrocities a possibility.  True, the ‘incintement to hate’ must (at least at first) be veiled or disguised in order to become entrenched as ‘acceptable’, but the veil can be very thin indeed.  We have seen it in history (the Nazi regime) and we are seeing it again from militant Islamists.

It is not by coincidence that many leaders of militant and politicized Islamism idolize Hitler.  But these Islamists are doing more than just idolizing Hitler- they are quite intentionally emulating him by using hate speech laws as a weapon, not a shield.  Failing to recognize this could be very bad for our society.

There is no place for hate speech laws in a society which wishes to remain free and whose citizens respect each other’s rights.  It was these hate speech laws themselves which facilitated  opression, torture and murder under the Nazi regime and which can (and, I fear, will) be used in this way again!  That is something we must never again allow to happen!

If you would be interested in more of my observartions, please, contact me.

Thank you,

Xanthippa