How human rights legislation became a weapon against Canadians who disagree

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]The idea was to end discrimination based on sex, race, ethnicity, so that it would become illegal for an employer to say, you know, women need not apply or blacks need not apply or Catholics or Jews need not apply.

[00:00:19]Uh to end discrimination in tenancy and housing, so that a landlord couldn't say, you know, this uh this apartment apartment rentals available for whites only.

[00:00:31]So, that was the thrust of it.

[00:00:32]Unfortunately, some of the provisions have been interpreted as uh giving human rights commissions the power to go after people to censor speech. In British Columbia, you've got the most prominent example with Barry Neufeld, who in in February 2026, not that long ago, was ordered to pay $750,000 to some gay teachers in Chilliwack, who apparently felt offended by his uh criticism of human rights uh his criticism of transgender ideology. He was an elected school board trustee. He said that we should not be imposing transgender ideology on children.

[00:01:14]And uh just over the expression of opinion, which is part of his job requirement really as an elected official, but but whether he was school trustee or not.

[00:01:26]And I could go on and on and on. The report has these examples from all over Canada where people are being prosecuted by human rights commissions over expressing their opinion publicly.

[00:01:40]And this is decidedly not hate speech.

[00:01:43]These are not criminal prosecutions. Uh these are not people who would ever be charged with hate speech. They're simply expressing an opinion on a topic.