Robyn Urback: From Quebec, another human-rights-commission farce

Robyn Urback: From Quebec, another human-rights-commission farceThe Quebec Human Rights Commission (HRC) has ordered a man to pay $8,000 in moral and punitive damages to a Montreal panhandler. In a decision released late last month, the court ruled that Robert Delisle had violated the rights of Francine Beaumont, who was a habitual beggar outside of a liquor store in northwest Montreal. Delisle, a store regular back in 2010, was infuriated by Beaumont’s persistent presence outside the shop, and he wrote a letter to the store manager proposing four “solutions” to the problem. Such solutions included “a bullet” to the back of Beaumont’s head and “napalm or flame-throwers,” with a nod to how “Americans used that technique for much better people than this.”

Montreal man to pay $8,000 for writing ‘diatribe’ against panhandler outside liquor store

The Quebec Human Rights Commission has ordered a Montreal man to pay $8,000 in moral and punitive damages to a woman who was begging outside a Montreal liquor store, after he wrote an email to the liquor board suggesting four ways to kill the woman.

In his defence, Robert Delisle argued that it was the liquor board that eventually printed the email and showed it to the woman, and he had never intended for her to read it.

The case dates back to 2010, when Mr. Delisle, a regular customer at a Société des alcools du Québec store in northwest Montreal, spotted Francine Beaumont panhandling outside the store.

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It wasn’t exactly tactful. To the (dubious) extent the letter constituted a serious threat, perhaps it might have been criminal. But police were reluctant to take on the case. When store officials showed Delisle’s letter to officers, the police responded that they could not take complaints from third parties. So the same store officials then showed the letter to Beaumont herself, who was in turn advised by police to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

Three years later, the court has found Delisle guilty of infringing on the panhandler’s right to dignity, reputation and recognition. Delisle is to dole out $7,500 in moral damages — that is, compensation to Beaumont for her pain and suffering — and an extra $500 in punitive damages, which will also go to Beaumont as a deterrent, we are told, to all those other people who might be tempted to go around affronting the “dignity” of others. Try to forget about that whole napalm thing; the real damage here, apparently, is that Delisle made Beaumont feel bad.

Once again, a Canadian human rights commission has proven itself to be the obnoxious little brother of Canadian natural justice. While big brothers civil law and criminal law went out together for a beer, the human rights commissions snuck into their room and logged onto their laptop. After tapping into a document called “human rights,” the mandarins spilled grape juice on the keyboard, slammed the laptop shut and ran out of the room in hysterics.

(2013-08-10/fullcomment)