Canadian Website Anti-Semitic?

The BC chapter of the B'Nai Brith has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, under Canada's Hate Laws, against a popular Victoria based website, Peace, Earth and Justice. Chris Cook, contributing editor to www.pacificfreepress.com, host of Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, and former editor to www.pej.org , as well as "the Editor, Managers and Directors" have been singled out in the complaint. 

The complaint alleges that articles on the long established website "contrive to promote ongoing hatred affecting persons identifiable as Jews and/or as citizens of Israel.", a quote from an article by Sid Tafler for the Globe and Mail. The full article is reproduced here.

"There are a number of calumnies that need to be exposed." Mr. Harry Abrams, a Victoria businessman, and B'Nai Brith representative said in an interview. "The idea that Israel has no right to exist or that Israel is an apartheid state," he cited as examples.

Peace, Earth and Justice, with over a half million international viewers, had published 18 articles B'Nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress purport to be anti-semitic in nature.  Contributors to the website which "..provides news, opinion and analysis of peace, environment (earth) and justice issues." have been critical of Israel's reprisal attack on Lebanon last year and the ongoing treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.  The articles, acknowledged for being unflattering to Israeli policies in the Middle East, have been taken down from the site pending a settlement or a judgement by the Human Rights Commission.

Mr. Cook says, in a recent article for Pacific Free Press criticizing the nature of the charges and questioning B'Nai Brith's motives for filing them; "For American readers who value and feel protected by the 1st Amendment (right to free speech), it may seem strange that a country would enshrine in law the opposite condition; but Hate Crime legislation in this country is widely supported. Canada is an ethnically, and politically diverse country, consisting of minority populations from the world over, and it was deemed fair-minded to ensure all are protected from the "tyranny of the majority." But it's a double-edged sword, making possible an abuse of the statutes, allowing an equally odious tyranny, the stifling of dissent and criticism by a dedicated minority."

In this article, Mr. Cook suggests he considers the complaint an unwarranted attack on the site, and an effort to stifle criticism; "It would be ironic indeed, if an organization of volunteers dedicated to peace, earth, and justice were to be shot down for criticism of an entity that regards those tenets worthy only for its own, identifiable citizens."

-Peter K. Vickers for Now Public