Let met state initially that the Canadian Human Rights Commission exists to protect individuals from discrimination and to ensure that equality and dignity are available to every individual. This mandate flows from international law, from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and of course, as you've mentioned, from our section 13. Our role is to promote access to justice and ensure that we are an effective part of the administrative legal system and that we are fair and accessible. Hate messages strike at the core of equality and can cause serious harm to society and to individuals by exposing them to discrimination and in extreme cases to violence.
Part of your question relates to the definition of hate, and you're quite right that what we, and the tribunal and the Federal Court, have been doing is relying on the definition provided by the Taylor decision in 1990. That definition makes it very clear that only the most extreme forms of ill will can be found to be hate messaging.
In terms of the application, we're comfortable with how it has been applied. I think the statistics speak for themselves. Since 2001 there have been some 70 complaints brought to the commission on the basis of hate messaging, and something in the area of 22% of these have been found by the tribunal to be hate messages.
Moving a little deeper into the statistics, there have been some 19 cases heard by the tribunal, of which 16 have been found to be hate. A very recent case that dealt with two found that the expression had been hateful but also found that the section would not be applied because of the penalty provision. The final case is one where none of the parties attended the hearing, so the hearing was dismissed.
What we learned from this is that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has been exacting in applying the definition of only the most extreme and ardent forms of expression. The Canadian Human Rights Commission does not regulate offensive speech. No Canadian need be concerned that if they use offensive speech it will be considered prohibited under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
In our special report we have recommended that there be an amendment to section 13 to include a definition of hate that reflects the tried and trued definition that came from the Taylor decision in 1990. It's not that the Canadian Human Rights Commission or the tribunal needs this definition; however, we do realize that it's always desirable when a person can read an act and understand what it means and not develop an unbased fear that it might apply to them in certain circumstances. So it's because of our concern that our legislation be clear to the layperson that we recommend the narrow definition be put in our statute.