When You Go Too Far, You've Gone Too Far
You know, I like that the NDP has stayed pretty much out of the mostly Internet debate concerning free speech and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. I mean, it's not really free speech so much is it's offensive speech that we're talking about here, but the CHRC isn't so much a human rights commission on matters of speech as it is a discredited old fashioned/futuristic censor, either.
Really, we have laws against hate speech in this country (except for women - never forget... no wait... always remember - women are not protected against hate speech by our legislators because that would mean men and their Gawd would have no one to legally direct hate towards), so I'm not sure why we have government bureaucrats operating outside the law for it, too.
In any case, once you're on the Internet attacking the lawyers who defend people charged by the CHRC with some sort of speech crime against another citizen or group of citizens (bearing in mind that the CHRC, as a government body, prosecutes with the full weight of the State behind it and at taxpayer expense), I'm not sure how much more clearly you can state your position.
At least the NDP, my party of choice (because I overall weigh what I like in a party and ignore perfection - and winnability, I guess) has had the good sense to pretty much steer clear of this issue, since it comes down with both goody-two-shoes on the side of censorship (and it's funny how the biggest defenders of the CHRC are mostly rabidly anti-NDP Liberals, eh?) and would come across as even more Orwellian than it already does if it were to weigh in on the matter.
But if it were ever to speak out against the lawyers defending the accused by way of character assassination, that would pretty much cancel out the "overall" for me. Because when they come for the lawyers, it's over. Politics is way beside the point. The Internet is as yesterday as freedom fries. The fat lady has sung.
Thankfully, it hasn't said much. Or anything, really. In fact, what's been said has mostly been said by the aforementioned rabidly anti-NDP Liberal lawyers. Lawyers, Canadian lawyers, picking one issue (although I'm sure they could find others) to attack defence lawyers on because they do not believe in a certain accused's right to a fair trial even when it's the State doing the prosecuting.
I don't even know the bad name for that kind of politics.
In the meantime, a lawyer, now a judge, once said to me in answer to this question, "What do you do when you know your client is guilty?" with his eyes wide, arms up in the air, absolutely incredulous at what I was asking:
"I'm a lawyer?!"
