Keith Martin, liberal LiberalMP Keith Martin (at right) is a rarity these days: a Canadian Liberal who supports liberal rights and freedoms.  Questioned earlier today about his private member’s motion M-446 to restrain our out-of-control human rights tribunals, here’s what he said to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons:

Constituents of mine brought it up to me recently and they've shown me the legal implications of what's been going on. And I think the debate over freedom of speech must happen in our country and really I think it's fairly simple. We have hate crimes legislation thankfully in our country. If something is deemed to fall under hate crimes then it should go into a court, it should be dealt with through the courts and be dealt with accordingly. Anything else that is not deemed to be a hate crime people should be allowed to say whether you agree or vehemently oppose it. Thankfully, we have a country where we're allowed to speak our mind.

It is fairly simple, indeed.  Does the Government of Canada—not to mention the Liberal Party—believe that hate speech allegations are appropriately dealt with in Star Chamber proceedings with neither rules of evidence nor the presumption of innocence, and where the complainant gets a free ride at taxpayers’ expense?

Dr Martin is absolutely right that hate crime charges belong in a proper court of law.  I do hope he’s right on his final point, but it remains to be seen whether Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn are “allowed” to speak their minds.

Thanks to blogger and writer Deborah Gyapong for reporting Martin’s forthright and courageous comments.  She says she has a video clip of the scene, but the file is too big for YouTube and she doesn’t have the technical expertise to post it.  Could someone please help her out?

h/t: Free Mark Steyn

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