Human Rights Commission clears ex-MP of racism charge

If you are Aboriginal and make statements at a conference you are charged with Hate Crimes – If you are a Canadian MP and write racially hateful brochure and send them on taxpayer dollars to your constituents –

• there is no Crown Prosecutor charging you for hate crimes;
• there is no public stripping of all his positions (he continued to be an Independent MP until he lost the next election but was denied membership in the Conservative Party and the Alliance Party); and
• public citizens have to try and see solace in a system that does not have any real authority and lets him off on the technicality that it outside of their jurisdiction.
  
  

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the mailouts are not subject to the Canadian Human Rights Act because they do not provide a service to the public but rather to MPs by allowing them to share their political views with constituents. One of the pamphlets known as "Stop Indian Crime," showed a photograph of the Oka protest in Quebec in 1990. The caption under the photo described an aboriginal protester as a terrorist.

Even though Pankiw states he was cleared The [CHRT] identified that the act states that communication-related discrimination is limited to statements that are transmitted by telephone or over the Internet. It does not apply to parliamentary householder pamphlets.

No racism in Canada – is there? March 21 is designated by the United Nations (UN) as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The government funds events to have us to live in racial harmony. Just a thought – maybe equal justice – equal treatment – are a beginning for seeing a country that is racially harmonious.

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Human Rights Commission clears ex-MP of racism charge
By Lana Haight, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
March 6, 2009 9:01 PM

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Former+cleared+racism+allegation/1362549/story.html

SASKATOON — The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal announced Friday it has dismissed complaints that former member of Parliament Jim Pankiw distributed racist pamphlets to constituents.

“The particular facts of the complaint just don’t mesh with the (Canadian Human Rights) Act,” said Jay Watson, who represented Pankiw at the human-rights hearings in Saskatoon in October 2008.

“They don’t ever get to the question of whether they were discriminatory, because (the act) simply doesn’t apply.”

In 2002 and 2003, when Pankiw was MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, he distributed three “householder” brochures with slogans, including “Stop Indian Crime” and “It’s Clear Who the Racists Are.” The cost of producing and mailing the pamphlets, intended to enable MPs to stay in touch with their constituents, was covered by the House of Commons.

“All of the complainants were concerned that the householders did expose, not were likely to expose, but did expose First Nations people and people of aboriginal descent to hatred or contempt,” said Susan Gingell, one of nine people from the Saskatoon area who complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

“I feel in a way that the decision was about technicalities (more) than it was about justice,” added the university English professor, whose adopted daughter is of aboriginal descent.

“Stop Indian Crime,” referred to aboriginal protesters in Oka, Que., in 1990, as terrorists. Inside, it criticized the then-Liberal government’s “two-tier justice system — essentially giving Indians a ‘get out of jail card.’ ”

In October last year, Pankiw acknowledged he was referring to Section 718-2e of the Criminal Code, which states, “all available sanctions, other than imprisonment, that are reasonable in the circumstances should be considered for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of aboriginal offenders.”

For three days in October, the three-person tribunal heard evidence from four of the nine complainants, and from Pankiw. Lawyers representing Pankiw, the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the House of Commons presented arguments in the case.

On Friday, the tribunal released a 13-page decision, dismissing the complaints because the householders weren’t goods or services, nor were they notices, signs, symbols, emblems or other representations. The federal act, unlike the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code, does not cover articles, statements or publications.

“Not all discriminatory conduct is caught by the (Canadian Human Rights Act),” said the ruling.

Pankiw was relieved, but not surprised by the decision.

“This is a very good decision for all Canadians, because censorship did not win the day,” he said. “The truth is not a crime.”

Pankiw says this decision closes a chapter, but not the book, on his public life. He is prepared to keep spreading his message that special race-based privileges have to come to an end.

“I don’t know why it’s me that has to carry this load,” said Pankiw, who added he had considered running for a Senate seat, but that won’t happen, now the prime minister has appointed senators to fill the upper chamber.

Pankiw was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and was re-elected in 2000. He lost his seat in the 2004 election.

Much to Mr. Brazeau and Mr. Harper's delight the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal seems to be a very ineffective mechanism for dealing with Human Rights Complaints. See the Article in the Ottawa Citizen called "Harper Must Help Resolve Rights Case"

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Harper+must+help+resolve+rights+case/1217649/story.html