Russian authorities don’t like publicity about public dissatisfaction arising from the economic recession.  On 29 December, agents from the department in charge of fighting terrorism and extremism  arrested opposition politician Alexandr Bragin for reporting the news.
His offense: publishing an article about the effects of the country’s sharp economic downturn on Ulyanovsk, a Volga city some [...]

China launched a widespread crackdown on Christians during the Christmas season.  Public Security Bureau (PSB) agents raided a house church on Christmas Eve and took nine women into custody.
They, “were reenacting the nativity [scene] on the street, and police charged the women with “organizing illegal religious activities. ” The women, including Yue Zengyun who led [...]

Last April, Marc Lebuis of the excellent Quebec blog Point de Bascule filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Montreal Muslim imam Abou Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus Al-Hayiti. Imam al-Hayiti had written a book, published in Canada and available for download here (in French), containing nasty slurs against many groups in Canadian [...]

So says David Larter, executive director of the Prince Edward Island Human Rights Commission. That is a startling admission for a bureaucrat in his position to make.
He needs to get with the programme: Hasn’t he read the script for defenders of Canada’s “human rights” commissions?   Our human rights commissions avoid adversarial procedures. Canada [...]

In Australia, as in Canada, “liberals”, far more than conservatives, promote restrictions on free expression and the free flow of information.
The Australian left isn’t saying much about it, so it falls to the libertarians at Britain’s spiked to spread the news: The proposed scheme to impose compulsory filtering on Australia’s internet originated with “progressive” Clive [...]

Sabatina James (at right), a 26-year-old Pakistani-born Austrian, has been living in fear for her life since converting from Islam to Christianity a few years ago. Her father stabbed her when she formed a relationship with a Christian and vowed to kill her for apostasy.
Austrian authorities initially encouraged her to revert to Islam to [...]

Check out this headline from this morning’s AsiaNews.
Beijing admits “unsatisfactory” progress on human rights
Actions speak louder than words. A Chinese government bureaucrat says that his country could improve its human rights record but, in fact, it’s not actually doing anything about it. AsiaNews lists several important issues that the government persists in ignoring.
Indeed, [...]

Last week, the BC “human rights” tribunal found that companies involved in building Vancouver’s Skytrain had discriminated against Latin American workers and ordered payment of compensation. After slogging through the 177-page decision, the Vancouver Sun’s Ian Mulgrew smells a rat.
The Latin American workers were paid the same wage scale as Canadian workers on the [...]

I was surprised to discover who said this. To find out, click here and scroll down to the fourth and fifth paragraphs.
“Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; [...]

A man in Vernon, BC, has been found guilty of defamation for opinions expressed in his own home.  Jack Aasen and his wife invited a stranger into their house who led them to believe he was thinking of moving to the neighbourhood.  In fact, he was a private investigator hired by Brad Chapman, the owner [...]

The Chumir Foundation has posted videos of the Joseph Howe Symposium held at University of King’s College, Halifax, on 1 November. They can be viewed at the foundation’s website and at YouTube.
The series of videos covers only each speaker’s prepared remarks. I have sent an e-mail asking whether there are plans to post videos [...]

Commenting in today’s National Post on the significance of the Moon Report, Liberal MP Keith Martin says it’s time for Parliament to act on free speech.
While Prof. Moon’s report is excellent, the actual power to implement his recommendations, or any others that relate to the CHRA, resides not with the commission but with Parliament. It [...]

Saudi billionaire and banker to the Saudi royal family Khalid bin Mahfouz took a serious dislike to Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld’s book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed — and How to Stop It. Even though Dr Ehrenfeldt is American and her book was published by an American firm, he decided to sue her for [...]

So says British Conservative MP Nick Herbert.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said the controversial act, brought in by Labour, has had the opposite effect of its intentions by devaluing human rights and led to “distorted prioirities” [sic].
He said the result has been to devalue the very language of rights by associating serious violations and abuses [...]

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has released Prof Richard Moon’s report on Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act and the regulation of hate speech on the internet. I have only read his conclusion but, based solely on that, we can say that the report is not what was expected.
This is the full [...]