Yesterday, I called Kathy and asked her if she was able to stay on top of all the news coming out of the Show Trial. She admitted that she had to step away from the computer to clear her head. My own noggin was spinning, my eyes nearly crossed. Reading the Lewis Carrol dispatches from Coyne and Levant, as well as Kathy’s source and whoever else Binks was linking to - it’s all too much. I doubt I would feel it weighing on me so much if it were in a real court, with a real standard of evidence, where truth is a defense. But alas, the Queen of Hearts does not work that way, and neither does the Human Rights Commission.

The fact is, our evidence is solid, our counsel is top notch, and the points we make are more than valid. But we are not in a court of law - we are on some kind of quasi-psychiatric couch, having the plaintiff talk about their feelings and emotions. How Canada ever decided to legislate based on such subjective evidence is beyond me. Somehow, despite the defendant’s case being more solid than that of the plaintiff, the plaintiff will still be awarded victory and damages. Because they were offended. Because their feelings were hurt. Because they loved themselves a little less after reading Mark Steyn’s article in Maclean’s.

I will do my best to stay on top of things, as well as to offer my own subjective opinions here at GOTR. But for the blow-by-blow, continue reading Coyne:

10:00 AM Maclean’s counsel Roger McConchie is working through her c.v., perhaps in an attempt to poke holes in her credibility. Personally, I think she’d make a fine human rights commissioner.

Her dissertation, he’s pointing out, was in Indian cinema and identity construction, and not, say, stereotyping of Muslims in Canadian national weekly current events magazines. Now going through her publications in refereed journals (sample title: When Local Meets Lucre: Commerce, Culture and Imperialism in Bollywood Cinema.) Other articles deconstruct Queen Latifah, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and … still more Bollywood.

10:20 AM He’s still working her over. Her master’s thesis, on Afghan women, looked at whether western media concerns with women’s oppression under the Taliban was merely a pretext to justify the war.

McConchie sums up for the tribunal: getting a PhD from a “reputable Canadian institution” — I believe he’s talking about Carleton — is a worthy achievement, but she hardly has the expertise claimed, particularly as she’s barely started her career.

Faisal Joseph for the complainants begs to differ. She was recommended by a world-renowned expert, Karim H. Karim, to make a presentation to a conference in Melbourne, which was supposed to deal in part with stereotyping issues. (Although in the end she only had seven minutes so it didn’t.)

The panel retires to consider.

10:55 AM They’re back, and they’ve decided they’re going to hear her evidence. Buffy scholars everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.

In other HRC news, SoCon or Bust posts a letter to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Mark Steyn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.