Hate speech law unconstitutional: rights tribunal

Hate speech law unconstitutional: rights tribunal: "OTTAWA — A surprise ruling Wednesday by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has sent Canada’s controversial hate speech legislation into a tailspin.

The decision by tribunal chairman Athanasios Hadjis threatens to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of its legal right to pursue Canadians who transmit hate through Internet sites.

Opponents of the law — Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act — have long attacked it as a tool for censorship and a violation of the right of Canadians to freedom of expression. The tribunal ruling, the first major defeat for legislation that was originally introduced in the pre-Internet age to combat racist telephone hotlines, appears to support that view.

It is also a defeat for activist Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman who has used the law more than a dozen times in the past decade to pursue authors and webmasters of Internet hate sites."