Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Agents Provocateurs Exposed

Kady O'Malley from Macleans live-blogs the CHRC hearing, where Dean Steacy (the CHRC investigator) was being questioned about why he posted provocative comments on several right-wing websites that were later targeted with "human rights" complaints. Richard Warman (a former CHRC staffer and a complainer enthusiast, responsible for the lion share of complaints under section 13.1) who apparently used the same tactics wasn't there to answer the questions. That was Warman's 20th consecutive day of absence from his own case.

CHRC wanted this hearing to go behind closed doors, but after a prolonged struggle, concerned citizens won their right to attend the hearing.
10:49:53 AM
Back again, and after a mere hour and a bit, we've been conditioned to all rise without the clerk saying a word. Although she still does. The last witness of the day is Dean Steacy, the CHRC staffer who admits to posting to websites as "jadewarr."
...
11:39:29 AM
More about Steacy's various Stormfront identities; he had a second account, OldinsRevenge, but never posted from that username. Someone. - the CHRC lawyer, I think - finally asks what the relevency is of this line of questioning, but Barbara notes that it seems there were several people posting to Stormfront, including Richard Warman....
(11:59:22 AM)
Asked if Warman knew that he had signed up on various sites - Stormfront, FreeDominion, WhitePower - he's not giving domain names, so it's hard to follow. He used the same username - JadeWarr - on all the sites he joined, and posted under that name to BC White Pride in order to try to get a mailing address for two posters, and "find out who they were."
...
12:31:04 PM
Barbara seems to have caught Steacy in an inconsistency - or, at least, a continuity gap, over when he first joined FreeDominion versus when the first allegedly infringing post appeared, according to the now-withdrawn complaint...
So the Big Brother is not only watching you - some of his agents may pose as a rebels, looking for supporters. They'll trick you into saying something politically incorrect and then they'll file a "human rights" complaint against you or against a website that has allowed you to speak your mind... As if naming an establishment that censors free speech and enforces political correctness a "Human Rights Commission" isn't Orwellian enough.

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