Paranoia is not befitting of a government agency

The idea of the locked-down government agency – hunkered down in the midst of constant threat – is something that you would expect to see in a rollicking Jason Bourne movie, or in the instances of the more high-profile agencies and government buildings on this earth, such as the CIA, or in the centers of American power in Washington, the pentagon, the White House, embassies, Canadian Parliament, and the like. Anything other than those sorts of high-level forms of government just isn’t worth the effort, with the possible exception of North America’s various post offices, and even then, the protection should be from within; against occasionally insane employees should they ever snap and start taking orders from their dog…

An agency which most definitely does not need protection is the Canadian Human Rights Commission – the glorified bureaucracy whose sole purpose is to find and expose discrimination in Canada; although their methods are questionable and possibly illegal, their positions pose a moral hazard due to the nature of their work, and their ability to fight hatred any more than Canada’s legal system already does is questionable.

Never mind their corruption and inefficiency though. Apparently, they have taken it upon themselves to live in world that poses a threat to what they do.

What follows is an account by Connie Fournier, of the Free Dominion website. Apparently, the CHRC has a file on Free Dominion, and Connie and her partner are filing a freedom of information request to see their files. It was in the process of doing this that they came across such a bizarre display of utopianism and paranoia:

Mark and I drove all the way to Ottawa to take some paperwork to the CHRC. They have been stonewalling us since April on our Access to Information request for the files on Free Dominion and I had a document that I wanted to give them in person that would clear the way for them to fulfill our request.

We got to the building on 344 Slater St. and took the elevator to the 8th floor.

When we walked in, we did not encounter a receptionist like we expected. There was a security guard behind glass, instead. When I wanted to hand him the letter with my case number on it, I had to slip it through a little slot in the glass.

He directed us to sit in two chairs across from his station and he disappeared into the back. He came back out in a couple of minutes and told us that he had given the letter to someone who would pass it along until they found someone who could “give us an answer”. I thought that was rather strange since I had already said that I just wanted to talk to Heather Throop and give her a document.

As we were waiting, we heard a huge commotion in the outside hall, which had been utterly deserted. A guy came barrelling down the hall with a cart loaded with files, grabbed an elevator, and disappeared. I turned to Mark and whispered, “There go our files”.

A few moments later, a young, timid-looking girl came out and handed something to the security guard, whispered something to him, and then retreated quickly from our sight. I honestly thought the poor girl suspected we were wired with bombs!

The security guard then told us that Heather Throop wasn’t in, but asked if we would like to talk to Deborah Cansick. I said that that would be fine because I have talked to her by email several times.

Mark and I stood waiting as the security guard walked out the back door of his booth and we prepared to go in to see Deborah Cansick.

To my utter astonishment, he, instead, picked up a phone in the waiting room, dialed a number, and handed it to me. I wasn’t even allowed to see Deborah Cansick…I had to speak to her on a phone while she hid in another room!!

Well, to make a long story short, Cansick told me there was no point in giving her the paperwork I brought because they weren’t planning on fulfilling my request.

I hung up the phone, took my letter back through the little hole in the window, and Mark and I left the office for the elevator. As we were waiting, an older woman and a guy with a bunch of earphones attached to him came and waited with us and got on the elevator as we rode down. I said to Mark later that it seemed like they appeared out of nowhere to make sure we actually left the building!

Both Mark and I were spooked by our experience at the CHRC. It was unlike any other government office we have ever seen. Talk about “faceless bureaucracy”! It is absolutely frightening that these people, who spend their days hidden behind a security guard and bulletproof glass, have the power to utterly destroy the lives of Canadians, and they don’t even have to look their victims in the eyes.

Just take a minute to think about that. How many white-collar bureaucracies do you know that are that highly guarded? And just think for a minute, how high an opinion the CHRC officiati must have of themselves, to think themselves worthy of this much protection. Or perhaps they merely had a surplus of cash – after all, why bother to spend money on a cleaning-house effort, in order to clear out some of their internal corruption? They might as well hire a few more guards, and get a nifty little intercom system installed for the same price.

Or perhaps they simply like the intimidation that such measures instill in the targets of their investigations – and any who might wish to investigate them as well. I think that’s more likely. It fits with the CHRC’s general pattern of thuggish techniques, and disregard for any sense of fair play or reasoned approach in their efforts.

Connie makes the remark, toward the end of her post, that “George Orwell would be spinning in his grave”, but I don’t think so. I think this fits in exactly with what George Orwell had in mind. Now, obviously, nothing that we have in Canada can equal what George gave life to in his novels, but science fiction is a parody and a caricature of some part of reality, no matter how small. George Orwell, I think, would have seen this as a basis for something much like what he wrote. I certainly do, although to be fair, I wasn’t in the room at the time, I tend to have a very low opinion of bureaucracy in general, and I have a very low opinion of the CHRC in particular. I don’t want to be guilty of the crime of hyperbole, so I won’t out and out accuse the CHRC of being fascistic, but at the same time, I think that their removal from the ‘little people’ shows the general mood of any kind of socialist movement – the rejection of the individual for the facelessness of the group.

But on a lighter note, and moving slightly away from hyperbole, just think of the arrogance that one would have to have to merely deign to communicate with someone by phone like Mrs. Cansick. Again, a form of disregard and intimidation which fits well with the CHRC pattern.

And perhaps such measures are false in and of themselves, like children playing dress up. The CHRC wants to feel persecuted, and its’ investigators and officiati want to feel like they are doing what they do in the face of danger and death. I truly hope that is not so, for it shows an almost dangerous form of psychosis.

And if such measures are indeed rooted in true paranoia, then that only adds to the argument that there is a moral hazard inherent in the CHRC bureaucracy. The moral hazard argument is that the CHRC was created for the purpose of combating hatred. But what happens when there is less and less hatred to combat? Well, instead of downsizing, why not just simply investigate and prosecute more and more things as hateful; moving into the realms of the increasingly banal, until you are left with nothing but minutiae? If the CHRC officiati display this sort of paranoia, then it shows that they distrust the public that they investigate just that much. And if the CHRC has much distrust, in the face of the general obliviousness of the general public toward them, then that does not bode well for their ability to sense when they are no longer needed.  How can these people be expected to ‘police’ hatred, if they cannot distinguish what hatred really is; when they use such measures in the face of such little threat?  It’s like asking someone who is color-blind to choose between the yellow and green buttons.

I’ve said it all before, but I’ll say it again. There is no place for the CHRC in Canada. Its’ paranoia, its’ mandate, its’ performance, and its’ purpose are all at odds with what it is that a free society truly needs. If our government wants to prove itself worthy of our support, it will limit those branches of its’ bureaucracy which are continually limiting our freedom. And it will remove those arms of its’ bureaucracy which display such forms of paranoia – not a good sign of a reasonable group to begin with.

To steal the line from Ezra Levant: Fire. Them. All.

And let’s end this farce.