National Post meets with Canadian Jewish Congress

In a meeting with some of their more prominent critics, the CJC sticks to its thought police guns, but as Jonathan Kay reports it, even the CJC has come to accept that there is a serious problem with Canada's "human rights" codes and bureaucrats:

The debate got much more interesting, though, when we started talking about the functioning of human-rights commissions themselves. To my surprise, members of the CJC delegation acknowledged that the folks who staff these commissions are sometimes lacking in competence, and thus — as I have argued — give the adjudication of human rights a bad odour in some instances. (I won't name names here, because the CJC clearly sees these commissions as allies, and I don't want to embarrass anyone.)

I also sensed agreement that Ontario human rights commissioner Barbara Hall had overplayed her hand with her creepy April communiqué demanding more censorship powers for her provincial outfit.

One of the visitors — who shall remain unnamed — went further, suggesting that some human-rights commissions had become dumping grounds for political hacks without the skills to make it in truly merit-based jobs. He had the air of a man whose dream was being stifled by bad execution.


The editorial board jumped on this admission. To wit: If the people staffing these commissions are boobs, why would we trust them with the responsibility to police our most basic democratic right — the right to express oneself on matters of public interest?

Now if only more liberals will come to realize that Utopian dreams have to meet their Waterloo on the field where unacceptable and illiberal methods are the only possible game in town.