Yesterday, I was talking about Free Speech and Mark Steyn’s prosecution at the BC Human Rights Tribunal.
An observation. We’ve seen PEN come out in support of Steyn, we’ve seen major newspapers, political opponents, I even got Noam Chomsky to put a kind word in for him. But I noticed, that we haven’t heard anything from Canada’s unions. They certainly don’t shy away from politics, so I went looking to see what sort of stand, if any, they’ve taken on the HRCs.
I trolled through the websites of a few different Canadian unions to see if they had anything on Steyn, the HRCs or Free Speech.
It seems that they don’t want to stick their necks out, unless that ‘free speech’ happens to be accompanied with a flaming bottle.
From CUPE – one of their only free speech references:
…responses to questions from both the police and politicians responsible for their oversight raise very serious concerns which go to the heart of free speech and the rights of Canadians to question government policy. It is imperative that police respect Canada’s constitutional values and work to protect, not undermine, public freedoms and safety.
It sounds promising, but the free speech they’re talking about is the free speech you exercise while screaming at cops and chucking bottles. I support the screaming, but not the bottles – and judging from CUPE’s site, the aforementioned projectiles are the sine qua non of our fundamental right. They have nothing else to say on the matter.
From the CAW, nothing. Plenty on gays, nothing on speech.
The National Union of Public and General Employees wasn’t very political at all.
The BC Government Employees Union has a lot of local politics and a bit on Human Rights – though that bit does prominently feature the same Canadian Human Rights Act that Steyn is being prosecuted under, so I’m thinking that they’re not an ally.
It’s all pretty disappointing. Fortunately there’s one last place to look where you’re guaranteed to find supporters of the free written word. Or so you would think.
From the Writer’s Union, there’s nothing but a solitary press release decrying a Catholic School District’s removal of ‘The Golden Compass” from their library. They end that press release with this:
Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers.
I am surprised that they will express outrage over the banning of a foreign writer’s book, but do nothing while a Canadian writer is facing government prosecution for writing a book review.
I am legitimately surprised at that.
Filed under: Uncategorized , Canada, free speech, Human Rights, Politics, Unions
[...] THE SOUND OF SILENCE– “Unions have nothing to say on free speech”; Pics and Video from the Free Mark [...]
They may not care much for Freedom of Speech but the Unions do care about the HRC’s. OPSEU lobbied long and hard against the recent changes implemented to “streamline” the OHRC. I get the feeling that they view HRC’s as means to further their agenda. Don’t forget the CHRC also enforces “employment equity” the staff are PSAC members and recently lost an extrordinarily prolonged pay equity battle with Canada Post.
The small handful of leftie bloggers that I visit seem to be ignoring it, too. Must suck to be them and have to watch the right seizing the moral initiative. Massive pill to swallow, that.
Louise: Are you the same louise that frequents Saskboy’s blog?
If so, how can you say this if so?