From Ezra Levant's Shakedown - 2

Okay, I am providing you with nice quotes, but, for heavens' sakes, buy the book! It's about how you - or anyone - could be shaken down, even if you are no reasonable person's idea of a bigot.

Not a Canadian? Hey, if you don't help stop it, this idea will spread!

The main reason that today's human rights commissions feel so un-Canadian is that their operations violate the most basic principles of natural justice. As soon as a human rights complaint is filed, the deck is stacked against the accused. For most of Canada's HRCs, taxpayers foot the bill so that government-paid bureaucrats can investigate complaints and government-paid lawyers can prosecute them. The targets of those complaints, on the other hand, don't get any government help. Many are too poor to hire lawyers and private investigators. So they must fend for themselves against an army of public paper-pushers.

(A study of the cases in which the Canadian Human Rights Commission investigated allegations of hate speech, for example, foujnd that 91 per cent of the government's targets were too poor to afford lawyers and appeared either on their own or with representation by a non-lawyer volunteer.) In other words, it's a turkey shot for the government, with poor, intimidated targets fighting against the unlimited resources of the state. (p. 19)

Levant invites us to contrast this with the careful practice of Canada's real criminal courts, where defendants who cannot afford a lawyer are assigned one - courtesy either of the government or of a charitable society aimed at rehabilitating criminals.

Of course, that makes sense. Real judges in real courts will not waste time in disputes with a citizen who knows nothing of English common law. In a real court, common sense would surely require that - if the accused wants counsel but cannot afford it - he will simply have counsel appointed for him by the court. It is a bit of expense, but saves everyone time in the long run.

Remember, the accused is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

By contrast, these "human rights" cases seem aimed merely at getting convictions; otherwise, they would long ago have adopted this critical safeguard for justice.

See also:

From Ezra Levant's Shakedown - 1

From Mark Steyn's "Introduction" to Ezra Levant's "Shakedown"

Mark Steyn introduces Levant's work by pointing out how social engineering was snuck into Canada on the basis of largely non-existent problems:

Before they made the strategic miscalculation of going after Ezra's Western Standard (p. xiii)

Ezra Levant's Shakedown: A Preliminary Note