Justice committee  I do believe that. I also think human rights tribunals and commissions are well placed to deal with issues of hatred and discrimination. In Ontario, for example, our complaints were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, because there's no provision within the Ontario code that addr

Justice committee  With respect to how we might encourage individual communities to identify and report hatred, I think the creation of specialized hate crime units within police forces is important. We know that, for example, in B.C., there are specialized police officers that work with Crown atto

Justice committee  With respect to whether we need a definition of hatred, that has already been analyzed by the Supreme Court of Canada in various decisions. I think taking that definition, it doesn't need to be.... We already know that section 13 is constitutional in the way it's written now. I

Justice committee  I think this is a distraction from the main issues that we have to discuss. I think that asking an individual who attends any rally to comment and be responsible for every other comment and publication or sign at that rally is, frankly, beyond reason, beyond rational debate and

Justice committee  My expertise, of course, is with section 13 of the human rights code federally. I fail to see how your question fits into my area of expertise. What I will note is that there is a myth that section 13 targets all types of hatred. In fact, section 13, the test and the legal analy

Justice committee  Section 13 of the Canadian human rights code requires us to look at hallmarks of hatred. It targets the most extreme type of speech, that which demonizes and dehumanizes individuals by referencing them to subhuman characteristics, calling them cancers, calling them mosquitoes and

Justice committee  I'm not sure that the answer is relevant.

Justice committee  I'm sorry, I—

Justice committee  I might have been. My remarks today—

Justice committee  What I think is happening is exactly what was happening at the time of the Maclean's complaint. Instead of addressing the substance of what I'm saying and the harm of the discussion, at that time and now the focus is put on the individual who is making the complaint and—

Justice committee  —that's exactly one of the issues that I find with section 13. Those who are standing up, not for themselves—because, of course, I was not named personally in Mark Steyn's article. I was standing up for a community, and that's what individuals are required to do. Disadvantaged, d

Justice committee  Thank you very much for the invitation to speak today. My name is Naseem Mithoowani. I am a lawyer practising in Toronto, Ontario. As some of you may know, I am also one of the individuals who initiated human rights complaints in 2008 against Maclean's magazine for having publi