You might remember that at the recent Conservative policy convention, the delegates passed a resolution asking for amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act to more or less ban human rights commissions. This was celebrated as a great victory by some – particularly at Free Dominion, the extreme right-wing website; one of their founders was at the convention as a Conservative delegate specifically pushing for this resolution to pass.
So, what has been the Conservative government’s reaction, or more specifically Harper’s reaction? Will he be moving on this issue, and destroy these dastardly commissions, as demanded by his grassroots followers? Not exactly – in fact, not at all. Harper’s answer is sure to cause those who pushed for this a great wailing and gnashing of teeth :
The government has no plans to do so.. [the commissions] do exist for valid reasons, which is obviously to prevent public airwaves from being used to disseminate hate against vulnerable members of our society. That’s a valid objective.
It might even be entertaining to read Free Dominion and SDA once they become aware of that quote from Harper, if they aren’t already aware of it. Apparently, even Harper’s small government libertarianism has its limits. I doubt his most fanatical and extreme “grass-roots” followers will appreciate that.
