timeimmortal

Ezra Levant’s case before the Alberta Human Rights Commission has passed its 800th day — that is, it has been over 800 days since Syed Soharwardy first filed his human rights complaint against Levant. That complaint was, of course, in regard to the publication of the Muhammed cartoons in the Western Standard magazine (now defunct).

Eight hundred days!

So we’re at more than 800 days since the HRC first received Soharwardy’s complaint.

So you can imagine my amusement today when my lawyer told me that the HRC asked him for a copy of my videotape of that interrogation.

Uh, what have they been doing these past four months? Did Officer McGovern not take notes?

…

As the Alberta HRC boasts in its annual report, its case load of complaints has actually fallen by 15% in the past year. Albertans just aren’t bigoted enough for them, it seems. But it takes the HRC 7% longer to dispose of complaints — up from 382 days to 410 days. That’s a net productivity decline of 22% in a year. And their goal for next year: 435 days. Yes, the Alberta HRC actually wants to be less “efficient”.

(Imagine if the HRC was actually being used for its original purposes of helping people, say, kicked out of an apartment in wintertime because of their race. What good would “help” a year later do? But the HRCs long ago stopped pretending to be shields to protect people — now they’re swords to attack people for the crime of political correctness.)

So the average case takes 410 days. I’m at 800 days and running — and my formal hearing hasn’t even been scheduled. The only way I know my interrogators are still alive is that they called my lawyers to get a copy of my videos.

(Could you imagine if a real police officer grilled a criminal suspect for 90 minutes, and then four months later sheepishly called up the suspect and asked sweetly for a copy of that suspect’s notes on the interrogation? Imagine the peals of laughter!)

You know, I wonder if perhaps there isn’t a point to this delay, if it isn’t some kind of tactic on the part of the HRCs? Attrition, perhaps? We know that people called to account before a human rights commission have to pay their own legal fees, so could the AHRC be using this delay to try and magnify Levant’s costs, in the hope that he’ll eventually be crushed under the financial burden of defending his good name, and thus give in?

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

~ by Kenneth on May 15, 2008.