Thursday, June 12, 2008
A prediction
I am no Delphic oracle but I am inclined to think that the huge negative publicity surrounding the "human rights" trial of Mark Steyn in Canada might cause the tribunal concerned to back off and find Steyn not guilty.
Steyn himself has said that he hopes they find him guilty so he can appeal the matter to a proper court and thus restore free speech to Canada. If that happens and the court overturns the tribunal, the continued existence of the tribunal would have to be doubtful -- as it is already under heavy attack.
Bureaucrats have a great instinct for self-preservation so they might do an historic first and make Steyn the first man they have found not guilty.
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5 comments:
Hello Good Gentles All!
Hello John Ray!
I suspect you may be on to something.
Once a court has ruled a law illegal it is stricken from the books. However, any law not ruled illegal can stay on the books.
(BTW, this is why, priot to its current makeup, the Supreme Court had refused all appeals on gun control laws for the last 60+ years. A liberal court wanted those laws on the books but recognized that if they took the case they would have to strike them down.)
It is an old and disreputable ploy.
I am reminded of the Zimmerman trial regarding PGP. The Feds went right up to the wire and then dropped the case because they knew they would lose on appeal and they wanted to keep the law on the books so they could use it to intimidate other people.
Zimmerman himself said that he welcomed the trial so that he could strike the law from the books on appeal.
Pax,
InFides
so, if you are found innocent, can you appeal that?
Most likely they'll delay their verdict until such a time as they can get the Canadian government to change the law to make appealing their verdicts impossible.
After all, once it's proven you're guilty of hatespeech there's no reason to appeal that, is there?
No one Expects the Canadian Inquisition!!! Meanwhile, in England, law-makers still wear funny fake white wool hair hats.
"A man may very well be feared and yet not hated, and this will be the case so long as he does not meddle with the property or with the women of his citizens and subjects. And if constrained to put any to ruin, he should do so when there is manifest cause or reasonable justification." - Machiavelli
"Till tree from tree, tree among trees, tree over tree becomes stone to stone, stone between stones, stone under stone for ever." - Joyce
This may shed some relevance on the matter at hand:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12hate.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
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