Nov 10
12
Stand Up For Freedom’s battle against HRCs
Toronto Sun – November 12, 2010
Freedom under attack in the name of human rights: group
By Brian Lilley
OTTAWA – A new lobby group says it wants to warn Canadians that their fundamental freedoms – such as freedom of expression, belief, thought and religion – are being threatened by the groups sworn to uphold them. The campaign, from a group called Stand Up For Freedom Canada, claims human rights commissions and tribunals at the federal and provincial level are a threat to Charter-protected rights for all Canadians.
“We have fundamental freedoms recognized by the state – not granted but recognized,” Neil Dykstra, founder of the group told QMI Agency in an interview. “What these human rights commissions and tribunals are doing is inventing rights, and all too often the fundamental freedom loses out.”
Dykstra points to the case of Stephen Boissoin, a former Alberta pastor who wrote a letter to the editor which was deemed hateful to homosexuals. The Alberta Human Rights Commission fined Boissoin $5,000 and then ordered him never to make disparaging remarks against gays and lesbians again.