Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If we're going to maintain these things, it would be highly desirable to make them, as far as possible, follow the procedures of courts to guarantee, to the extent that it can be achieved, the procedural rights of all parties who appear before them.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I've often seen the phrase “kangaroo courts” used, and that's not a bad characterization.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's correct.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would prefer not to, but if you wish, I will repeat the phrase.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Had it been anything more, it would have been a crime. It was metaphorical.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  They were removed.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To her race and her sex.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I know Senator Cools well and respect her profoundly. One of the reasons I admire Senator Cools so much is that she is a remarkably tough human being. I'm sure her response to this whole matter would be that she would regard it as a serious compromise to descend to the level of Richard Warman.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't wish to sound flippant, but we must pay a certain price for being grown-ups. To use the unpleasant, popular phrase, grown-ups don't spend 24 hours whining and complaining and moaning and being victims. Grown-ups in a democracy, in my view, should be tough and robust. I do have a tendency to speak my mind firmly and directly, which I think, out of respect for the Parliament of Canada, it is my obligation to do.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would have a public hanging of Richard Warman. While I think there's a lot to be said for abolishing human rights commissions or taking away their thought police role, there is a legitimate place for the anti-discrimination functions that date back to the Ontario Human Rights Code of 1960.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, I'm glad that you do. Let me repeat the point I made in replying to the first questioner. We are in a very dangerous situation where anyone in this country today who argues in favour of free expression is thereby tarred as a racist, anti-Semite, homophobe, etc. Surely in this confine we should be able to understand arguments of principle.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That comment brings us to what I think is, with all respect, sir, the most dangerous and insidious issue in this area: people constantly talking of balance. That balance is usually tipped very much in favour of the thought police. The chair of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Jennifer Lynch, last Friday published an article in The Globe and Mail.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, I would not wish to resurrect the whole wretched business of Mr. Zundel. The whole Zundel affair was a very sorry and embarrassing business. You point out in your remarks that the risk of this sort of approach is that we establish an official version of history and punish anyone who might deviate from the official version.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, just my answer.