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Human rights, the real ones, are ours from the beginning. They are not bestowed by the state, because the state does not "own" them; they are not a state's or a ruler's or, for that matter, a human-rights commission's to give. It equally follows that they are not a state's or a commission's to abridge, circumscribe, tamper with or make a toy of.

The concept of human rights, real human rights, has been long with us. But only in modern times did we learn what immeasurable darkness falls on the world when they are nullified. The butcheries of Auschwitz and Buchenwald followed as a straight and bitter line from Hitler's assumption of absolute power in 1933 and his cauterization and extinction of the concept of freedom in the German Reich. Nothing less than the Holocaust underwrites the modern understanding and appreciation of human rights. They are as profound and central a concept to the democracies of the world as we have.

They constitute the core of human freedom. They are the antidote to tyranny. They are fundamental.

Of late, in Canada, however, this most painfully acquired understanding has been utterly unmoored. The various provincial human-rights commissions and their federal godfather have been cutting away at the core of, and extending into utter fatuity the term, human rights. They are capricious, agenda-riven, a great mishmash of political correctness and "right thinking" bulldozing away at the basic freedoms of thought, speech and expression while they, under some osmotic impulse, investigate, prescribe and torment with zealous and self-righteous abandon.

"Our belief is that the APSA should choose its sites carefully, with particular regard for questions of freedom of speech and conscience," Mr. Watson told the National Post by e-mail. "We therefore believe Canada to be a problematic destination."
Mr. Watson said that professors signing the petition are concerned that recent human rights commission investigations into Maclean's and Western Standard magazines over articles concerning Islam, and the conviction of pastor Stephen Boisson, who was ordered by Alberta's human rights tribunal in May to cease publicizing criticisms of homosexuality, suggest that professors risk being chilled from discussing important academic subjects, or ending up in legal trouble. Mr. Watson said he plans to distribute hundreds of buttons to attendees at the Boston conference reading "Toronto 2009, Non!"
Several professors in the working group behind the protest "have written in areas that seem particularly disfavoured by the Canadian legal establishment," Mr. Watson said. "We are uncertain of the extent of the legal jeopardy that APSA members might place themselves in should they make public arguments in Canada, or post those arguments online, concerning hot-button issues like homosexuality, same-sex marriage, or the nature of the Islamist threat to Western civilization."

Inflation concerns dominated the recent findings of the Bank of Canada's business outlook survey. The survey indicated that "many" firms plan to pass along their higher costs to customers through higher prices. However, it noted some firms -- such as Mr. Hattin's Edson Packaging -- believe they cannot pass on higher costs due to competitive pressures.

Central banks raise interest rates in an effort to curb inflation, and bring it back to their preferred target rate. A rate hike could be in the offing in Canada, but economists say it is unlikely that, Mark Carney, the Bank of Canada's governor, will pull such a trigger when the bank issues its next interest-rate decision on July 17.

He said the United States has faced serious technical difficulties implementing restrictions on the payment system. "They are completely bogged down on how to block this system."

He acknowledged the Mohawks have had some problems with fraud. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which regulates Web sites operating from the reserve, fined one popular Web site -- Absolute Poker --$500,000 after players complained of irregular betting that was traced back to someone associated with the site. But he said most operations are transparent and credible.

Rather than attempting prohibition, Mr. Lipton said the government should bring the Kahnawake sites into the system and regulate them. He said this would protect the vulnerable, guard against money laundering, bring in tax revenue and provide a competitive edge in the gaming software market in terms of international trade.

"I think [Ottawa] should embrace this and recognize that people don't want to be in a position where the government tells them what they can or can't do in the peace of their own home," he said.

But, in addition, do they really want - after Ezra's example, mind you - to call Mark Steyn, the Victoria Falls ("The Smoke that Thunders") of prolific columnists - into one of their style-less chambers to "explain himself?" If Mr. Levant contains multitudes, how to describe Mr. Steyn? He is a prodigy of immense resource and industry. Compared to him, Trollope was a slacker, Dickens a wastrel, and Proust a miniaturist. He inundates. Books, columns, blogs and obiter dicta in a thousand venues - if Mr. Steyn goes before one or all of these commissions, he will be firing off columns between questions. He'll write a column on a question while it is being asked. I urge our guardians to consider their own interests: Stay a while before essaying this profitless and useless venture.

A Maclean's/Steyn confrontation, in tandem with the prairie whirlwind we all know as Levant rampant - this is too much at one time for the meticulous and tidy tribunals that alone are our guardians against every stray thought that might fracture our fabulously delicate Canadian sensibilities. While they are preoccupied with Steyn-Levant, overwhelmed, exhausted and undone by Steyn-Levant, battered, borne-down on and befuddled by Steyn-Levant - who will watch out for us? Who will there be to read before we read, and tell us what is proper for us? Who will be there to edit the editors, to copy check the copy checkers? Who will shield our vulnerable law-students, and who will tend to the commission's most industrious serial complainant.

Overlooked amid the coverage this week of a report on violence in Toronto's schools was the story of one of the city's most unfortunate, underperforming schools.

The First Nations School of Toronto suspends a full third of its elementary school students every year, while its entire Grade 3 class could not meet provincial standards in reading, writing or arithmetic last year, according to the Falconer report on school safety.

The school's record may raise questions about the possibility, now being discussed by the Toronto District School Board, of setting up similar specialized schools for black children.

The CBC version of the documentary was broadcast on Nov. 20. Since the original version is now available on YouTube, it is possible to compare the two.

The CBC's deletions were telling. One expunged segment was the playing of tapes of telephone admissions from hospitals in China acknowledging that they were selling Falun Gong organs. (Chinese government denials remained in the CBC version.)

The additions were typical Chinese propaganda. The CBC on its own, for instance, added this screen to the documentary: "Amnesty International does not have conclusive evidence to back up the allegation the Falun Gong are killed for their organs." (It should be obvious that Amnesty's silence is not evidence of anything. The organization does not claim to be an encyclopedia of all human rights violations.)

The CBC claimed that the changes it made strengthened the documentary. But that is not what happened. Instead, the CBC has weakened itself.

MANITOBA Public Insurance has told the Public Utilities Board it has no interest in using its rates to steer drivers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In its latest order to MPI, the board suggests MPI should look at setting rates to comply with obligations under the decade-old Sustainable Development Act. MPI rightly responded that if that is to be done, the government should direct it to do so.

By the time my turn was up, I'd thrown out my rather tame prepared speech in favour of a strenuous take-down of what I'd just heard. All of it, I said, was proof that radical anti-racism had become not only a cult of censorship, but a mental toxin as irrational and destructive as racism itself.

And since I was in the mood to make friends, I went further. I told the crowd that conferences like these were actually hurting minority communities by giving them a one-size-fits-all excuse to avoid confronting their problems. Talk about gang culture, AWOL fathers, teen motherhood and shocking crime statistics in black communities, and "diversity consultants" accuse you of racism. Connect the dots between Canada's radicalized mosques and the terror threat, and you get accused of Islamophobia. Write about the economic dysfunction and social pathologies that fester on native reserves, and Donald Worme accuses you of penning a new Mein Kampf.

During the Q&A, a school board official got up to tell me that I had no right to comment on issues affecting black people because I wasn't black. And a few other audience members added their own sneers at the angry National Post freak who, for reasons known only to himself, was ruining their fun. But otherwise, the discourse was relatively civil. Which is to say, no one else compared me to Hitler.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then New Zealanders had better settle for some less honest variety, at least when it comes to what's on offer from the voters in Ontario, Canada.

The 10 million voters last week chose a provincial government but rejected in a binding referendum a switch from the first-past-the-post (FPP) voting system to New Zealand-style MMP.

When it comes to robbing Canadians, the real dollar takers are state-run monopolies and other government sectors that don't have to worry about competition. Canada Post, provincial liquor monopolies, farm marketing boards, any government service that's not competitive -- which means all government services -- are notoriously indifferent to market forces.

Over the summer, when Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali was promoting her new book about the atrocities she'd endured in the name of Islam, she ended up on Avi Lewis' CBC television talk show, On The Map. The result, recorded for posterity on the Web, was one of those over-the-top examples of left-wing bias that critics of the CBC are forever mass-forwarding to one another. The biggest whopper came when Ali -- who'd endured both genital mutilation and forced marriage before escaping to the Netherlands -- explained one of the key reasons her early life was so hellish: Whereas the Koran invades every aspect of life in Muslim countries, Western Christians respect the line between church and state.

David Brown and Dana Chatwell found their family home alone behind the barricades -- on the native-controlled side -- during acrimonious and ongoing confrontations over disputed Six Nations land near Hamilton.

Life in their isolation has meant having to present a "passport" to natives when leaving or returning to their house, having their car searched by masked men at barricades, being refused access to their property, having no mail or garbage removal and enduring threats, noise and their house being ransacked.

All the while, police refused to intervene, including ignored 911 calls, they said.

In a $10-million lawsuit against the provincial government and the Ontario Provincial Police, the couple claims the refusal to enforce the law caused Ms. Chatwell to abandon her in-home business, Mr. Brown to lose his job and their teenaged son to live elsewhere.

"If the OPP cannot go on that property and the [native] chiefs can't discipline these protesters, when the sun goes down behind my home, where does that leave my family?" asked Mr. Brown, yesterday.

Some people in Quebec envy Alberta, which has fully eliminated its debt and enjoys the lowest tax rates in Canada, with no provincial income tax. Alberta has substantial oil and gas resources. Quebec, for its part, has renewable and low-cost hydraulic resources.

Alberta has left the exploitation of its natural resources to the private sector and pays for oil at market prices. If oil prices rise sharply, Albertans, like everyone else in Canada, must agree to pay more for their gasoline. Alberta receives high royalties from the private companies that handle the exploitation of its energy resources. The Alberta government does not, however, seek to set prices for gasoline.

Quebec has chosen a different strategy: With few exceptions, it is the government, through Hydro-Quebec, that handles the exploitation of our hydroelectric resources. Hydro-Quebec recently had to start paying a royalty for the use of water, but this is far from the level paid in Alberta for oil resources.

Following an extended rate freeze, Hydro-Quebec now can ask the Regie de l'energie for approval to raise rates, based on increases in its costs. In the last few years, however, electricity rates have risen far more slowly than the prices of oil products. This is why Quebec residents pay much less than market value for electricity. Residential electricity rates in Toronto are 75% higher than Quebec rates. In New York, the rates are three times as high.

Has the Fraser Institute gone mushy? Let's have a show of hands. How many people out there believe we have as much economic freedom as Americans do, that we're no more bothered by government than they are? The United States is a much more regulated place than folklore on the Canadian left would have us believe. But is it really as government-ridden as we are?

As usual, the devil is in the details. It turns out much of our economic freedom comes from the Bank of Canada's anti-inflation policies. On other aspects of freedom-- ones that probably have more to do with producing good economic growth -- we don't do nearly as well.

The Caledonia land dispute saga took a violent new twist last week, when natives from the Six Nations reserve used wooden beams to beat Sam Gualtieri, a construction contractor working one kilometre away from the Douglas Creek Estates property, which native protesters have occupied for the last 18 months. Unlike the protesters, Mr. Gualtieri was doing nothing illegal. His only crime was renovating a house for his daughter and her fiance. But native thugs have proclaimed that anyone working in the area must get their approval (i.e., pay protection money) first. As in all situations where a central authority refuses to apply the rule of law, mafia-like groups have rushed into the vacuum and proclaimed themselves a law unto themselves.

Mr. Gualtieri's brother claims the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers on the site "stood there, and they did not intervene" while the beating took place. We don't know whether this is true. But it is certainly credible given the precedents over the last year and a half. Since the crisis began, Dalton McGuinty's government has been petrified of taking decisive action, lest the Toronto media compare his actions to those of Mike Harris's government during the Ipperwash Crisis of 1995. At numerous points during the Caledonia standoff, the OPP has been ordered to sit on their hands despite numerous provocations by native protesters.

Is there any politics on Earth that is shallower, more boorish, less worthy of the attention of serious people than Canadian politics? Answer: There is none. Canadian politics is uniquely stupid. Our politics may not be quite as crude as the Americans, as cynical as the French, as corrupt as the Japanese. But for sheer vacuity, there is none to match us.

What did we talk about? My own pitch was that the biggest growth-sapping challenge in any democracy is and always will be rent-seeking: private groups seeking and often receiving favours from government, whether subsidies, protectionist regulations or tax benefits of the sort the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's John Williamson listed on this page on Thursday. (To illustrate the point I brought along a tub of Quebec margarine, which the country's stupidest current regulation requires be pallid white rather than butter-like yellow.) If the Finance Department's traditional job is to say "No" to people elsewhere in government proposing such favours, then it should keep saying No. I hope the message got across. There was certainly much comment around the table about the unwisdom of more Christmas-tree budgets like last spring's (though one or two participants did manage to mention things they'd like to find under the tree next spring).

Mr. Doerksen is a good example of what he's talking about. Something of a rarity today, Mr. Doerksen is a prosperous farmer. At a time when more than half of prairie farmers are either losing money or barely breaking even, the 32-year-old university graduate has annual revenues in excess of $1-million and takes three holidays a year. Last winter, he took his family to Costa Rica.

He has a degree in agriculture and regards his farm as a business as opposed to a livelihood. He's at home in the arcane world of agricultural futures, and he's equally adept at building relationships with customers. He recently bought a fleet of trucks as a way to provide better service to the food companies that buy his lentils and other non-wheat board crops.

One of the fundamental problems with the wheat board, Mr. Doerksen says, is its inability to take on risk, especially at a time when grain markets are flirting with record highs. If given the opportunity he would sell while prices remain high and get top dollar for his crop. Instead, he will be forced to take what he is certain will be a lower price from the wheat board, reflecting its more cautious approach and bureaucratic cost structure.

"I have a risk management team working with me, I subscribe to 15 different Web sites supplying me with market data, and I run my farm as a business," he said. "So its disappointing to see the wheat board interfering when I know I can do it better."

Manitoba laws, they say, restrict their entrepreneurial opportunities. When Maclean's magazine ran a story about the winery in May, for instance, they received e-mails from wine lovers in other provinces who wanted to try the wines and were willing to pay the shipping. But they can't ship across provincial borders, period. Saskatchewan is the only other province where they're distributed.

They also complain Manitoba is the only province that takes a cut -- about 30 per cent -- when a winemaker sells directly to customers at a winery.