CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION DISMISSES SECTION 13 COMPLAINT AGAINST MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE

Marc Lemire relayed the news via a blast email around 10 PM ET Thursday. So! Little more than a week after the CHRC announced that they were launching an independent review of the way they deal with hate speech on the Internet, they dismissed Mohamed Elmasry's Section 13 complaint against Maclean's. Of course the complaint dealt specifically with the online version of Maclean's, Canada's only national weekly news magazine.

Such coincidences in timing are sometimes called 'slipping an extra Joker into the deck.' So it's small wonder that representatives of Maclean's did not run naked through the streets with joy over the news that they'd escaped an inquisition:

(TORONTO, June 26, Canadian News Wire Press Release) Maclean's magazine is pleased that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed the complaint brought against it by the Canadian Islamic Congress. The decision is in keeping with our long-standing position that the article in question, The Future Belongs to Islam, an excerpt from Mark Steyn's best-selling book America Alone ... was a worthy piece of commentary on important geopolitical issues, entirely within the bounds of normal journalistic practice.

Though gratified by the decision, Maclean's continues to assert that no human rights commission, whether at the federal or provincial level, has the mandate or the expertise to monitor, inquire into, or assess the editorial decisions of the nation's media. And we continue to have grave concerns about a system of complaint and adjudication that allows a media outlet to be pursued in multiple jurisdictions on the same complaint, brought by the same complainants, subjecting it to costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the inconvenience. We enthusiastically support those parliamentarians who are calling for legislative review of the commissions with regard to speech issues.

TRANSLATION: Maclean's knows, and the CHRC knows, and everyone else following the story knows, that an epic battle is just getting underway.

This said, any day one can avoid an inquisition is a good day.

And congratulations to all those Canadians who have tirelessly kept the story of the anti-democratic Section 13 before the public eye.