Conclusion
While the importance of Canada’s new international commitment to fighting Internet bigotry should not be underestimated, a simple amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act would go a long way towards such efforts. We recommend that successful complainants dealing with Internet hate be able to obtain their costs, as is currently the case with all other types of complaints under the Act.
Room for further federal action by Industry Canada and its partners also exists under the government’s official strategy for dealing with Illegal and Offensive Content on the Internet. Although laudable steps have been taken to deal with child pornography on the Internet, including the establishment of a Canada-wide reporting centre, Industry Canada’s efforts with regard to web-based hate have sometimes seemed to lag behind.
The past year has seen some indication that the Canadian Human Rights Commission, as gatekeeper to the federal human rights process, is taking positive steps to lessen the amount of time it takes to render a decision about whether to refer a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for hearing. In addition, the hosting by the Commission in December of 2005 of an international forum to address the issue of hate on the Internet demonstrates an invigorated resolve to treat the matter as a serious problem. In the future, the Commission will need to maintain its recent efforts to ensure consistent enforcement of Tribunal and Federal Court orders. This will maximize the value of an ounce of prevention in early cases being worth a pound of cure in terms of deterrent to later misconduct by others.
Lastly, the dialogue begun between the Commission, law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and Canadian ISPs needs to continue, in order to ensure the most coordinated and cooperative approach possible to addressing the scourge of hate on the Internet.
