A Modest Response

I received an interesting letter vis-a-vis my take on the CHRC. It reads thus:

The Levant case has nothing to do with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Is it asking too much that you guys do your basic homework?

Never mind. Even Steyn thinks that Section 13 of the CHRA applied to the Levant case. -- Dr. Dawg

My response is as follows:

Dear Dr. Dawg,

re: "Canadian Human Rights Commission"

You're absolutely right. I have fallen into the trap of lumping them together over the past couple of months. To be honest, I can't keep track of who is complaining to whom, and who is hearing which case against which person. It changes from week to week and province to province.

Let's be more specific: the group hearing the Steyn deal is the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The British Columbia Human Rights Commission dropped the proceeding (at least, last I heard). The group that questioned Ezra Levant on You Tube is the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

This is painful stuff for the writer and the reader. Example: "The CHRC could have gone on sailing into the next century, punishing Canadians for speaking their minds, except for three things:

"Steyn [Canadian Human Rights Commission, Ontario Human Rights Commission, not the Alberta Human Rights Commission, and no longer the BC Human Rights Commission], Levant [only the Alberta Human Rights Commission, but not the other ones], Maclean's [lumped in with Steyn and, I think, no longer under the BC Human Rights Commission (if they ever were) but I could be wrong]."

All that for the names of two people and one magazine?

To satisfy everyone, I think we should use Canadian human rights commission(s), (note the parentheses and small caps). "Canadian" in this case doesn't imply the actual Canadian Human Rights Commission, only that the commission(s) are geographically located in Canada. This will make it much simpler for everyone, rather than having to scroll the Rolodex to see which principal's office a person has been called to.