Thanks to BlazingCatfur for this tip (I am shamelessly copying his post – keep checking there often, he’ll have updates:
A long battle but section 13 is dead
As I write this I am still only being updated by text message on the proceedings in the Senate chamber but I am told Bill C-304 has passed third reading and will receive Royal Assent tonight making it law.
What does this bill do?
There are a number of amendments to the act that help limit abuse but the main one is this:
2. Section 13 of the Act is repealed.
A time to celebrate!!!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
June 27, 2013 at 12:17
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June 27, 2013 at 17:36
Xanthippa:
Well, this is certainly a step in the right direction!
Too bad it fails to correct section 12, which provides that a person is guilty of discrimination who publishes anything that “incites or is calculated to incite others to discriminate.”
So, if you publish a true statement, and someone else decides to discriminate upon learning this truth, then you are guilty – even if you intended only to disseminate true information.
The Canadian Human Rights Act still has a serious “truth is no defence” problem. And it still has the grave flaw that it makes people culpable for how other people react to the things they say.
This is only one instance of a growing problem: the further we slip away from the common-law principle of mens rea into this quagmire of arbitrary statutes which passes for contemporary jurisprudence, the greater is the injustice done in the name of the law.
The four most crucial principles underlying a just system of laws are:
1. Rights are intrinsic and not conferred by fiat.
2. Rights are limited only by the equal rights of others.
3. There is no crime without actual harm.
4. There is no crime without criminal intent.
We are losing sight of all of them. Most people no longer question the government’s assertion that “your rights are what we say they are, and crime is what we say it is.”
Combine this with the issues raised in your recent post about ubiquitous surveillance, and we have the makings of a perfect storm.
The unprecedented technological capability to detect and prosecute countless trivial and unintentional infractions of an ever-tightening web of ambiguously-worded statutes is now combined with a blatant disregard for the fundamental moral principles, which were carefully developed over thousands of years to keep the law just. This can lead to only one outcome:
Tyranny by pervasive legalistic persecution.
Xanthippa says:
Quite right, CodeSlinger!
Which is why I get so shrill on this topic…
Yet, repealing Section 13 IS a START! A first baby step in the right direction towards reclaiming our unalienable rights.
Let’s hope that this signals that the pendulum has begun its return swing towards civil liberties!
June 27, 2013 at 21:42
Xanthippa:
We can do more than hope.
We can derail the mainstream media’s attempt to focus on Snowden as an individual, and keep people’s attention focused on what matters. It doesn’t matter why Snowden did what he did, nor does it matter if he broke the law. What matters is this:
Snowden confirmed that the NSA is spying on everyone.
This is more than just illegal; it’s outside the legitimate power of government at any level.
It has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with tyranny.
Let’s not forget how this ties in with Benghazi, fast and furious, IRS targeting of political dissidents, and the specious invocation of national security to intimidate the press. These are all early-warning signs of an out-of-control corporocratic state on steroids.
The big picture is getting very clear, and it’s not pretty!
Xanthippa says:
What makes this situation so hopeless is that it really does not matter if it is Republicans or Democrats who are in power – it is all one, well-oiled, incestuous machine…
June 28, 2013 at 18:37
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