*A judge has ordered Free Dominion, the Canadian counterpart to Free Republic, to release the records
of its anonymous forum posters in order to enable a lawsuit by Richard
Warman.
The release will mean the end of anonymity for all practical
purposes in Canada, as well as an end to privacy for Free Dominion
itself, which must also produce all its hosting agreements and
ownership information as well. The judge offered this ironic
justification for his order:
[33] In the case before the court, we are dealing with
an anti-hate speech advocate and Defendants whose website is so
controversial that it is blocked to employees of the Ontario Public
Service.
That’s the threshold for privacy in Canada? Anyone styling themselves
as an “anti-hate speech advocate” can raid the records of a web
community he doesn’t like? Note also the circular reasoning here
employed by Judge Stanley Kersham. If the government sees fit to block
a website from its employees at some level, then it’s permissible to
strip them of their rights to privacy and speech at any point.
As far as the “anti-hate-speech” advocate himself, Kersham seems to have missed this finding
by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal from just two weeks ago. Richard
Warman was not just a customer of the CHRC, he was one of its big offenders as well:
I do not see any acceptable reason for Mr. Warman to
have participated on the Stormfront or Vanguard sites, since there
appears to be ample easily obtained messages on these sites available
without his involvement. Moreover, it is possible that his activity in
this regard, could have precipitated further hate messages in response.
His explanation for including other hate messages in his postings by
mistake seems very weak to me.
Mr. Warman has, with the assistance of the Commission, instituted
most of the s. 13 (1) complaints under the Act that have come before
the Tribunal. He has been very successful in these cases and has
garnered accolades for his work in this regard. The evidence in this
case of his participation on Internet sites similar to the Northern
Alliance site is both disappointing and disturbing. It diminishes his
credibility. For this reason and because the activities of the
Respondents have ceased for a lengthy period of time, I will not make
any further Orders in this matter.
Richard Warman and Judge Stanley Kersham
In essence, Kersham just allowed a participant on neo-Nazi discussion forums to raid Free Dominion’s business records.
Free Dominion wants to fight this ruling but is just about out of
funds. Read their entire post to find out how you can help, and keep
up with the story at Five Feet of Fury as well. If you haven’t already done so, order your copy of Ezra Levant’s Shakedown, which has more on the Human Rights Commission, its tribunal, and Richard Warman.
Source
*We find it to be very interesting that Mr. Warman spoke last year at Judge Kersham's Congregation Beth Shalom.
Monday, March 3, 2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Human rights lawyer Richard Warman speaks on the Fight against Anti-Semitism and Racism
Soloway JCC, 21 Nadolny Sachs Private. Admission is Free.
