BC HRT Decides to Hear "Hate Speech" Case Against Former School Trustee Barry Neufeld

UPDATE: Aug. 8/24 BC Human Rights Tribunal:
"CONCLUSION We conclude that the application of s. 7 of the Code to discriminatory publications on the internet is within provincial jurisdiction. The Complainants’ allegations regarding Mr. Neufeld’s online speech will be decided on their merits, at a hearing."
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Please consider a donation to Barry's legal fees by visiting this link:
https://rightsandfreedoms.org/support-barry-neufeld
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From Barry:

Hello friends and supporters:
Despite all the troubles I seem to be going thru, I can’t get over how wonderful people have been to me. I was resigned to attending the Human Rights tribunal July 4 with no support: completely overwhelmed by the THOUSANDS OF PAGES of complaints about me, expecting to be totally trashed. But literally at the last minute, (9:30 pm the night before) my friend Brent from Oklahoma called and set up a zoom conference with Kari
Simpson, one of the first activists who discovered what SOGI 1-2-3 was all about. Kari offered to be my “LAY” counsellor.

The only purpose of the one day hearing was to determine if a provincial body like the BC Human Rights Tribunal had the jurisdiction to punish me for making remarks on the internet, specifically FaceBook and the now defunct Valley Voice online newspaper. I had just received in the mail, a binder of ~500 pages of Printed Screenshots of my online posts over the past 6 ½ years. But what is puzzling, is if they were so HATEFUL, why did FaceBook allow me to post them? Despite making some extremely controversial posts, I have NEVER been in FB jail!??! It makes you wonder, tho…why would FB allow me to post them unless the BCTF have a deal with FB to “give him enough rope to hang himself!”

This argument that only the federal Canadian government has jurisdiction over remarks on the internet had been strongly presented a year ago in BC Supreme Court by my government paid lawyers, David Bell and Shauna Gersbach. They had attempted to persuade a BC Supreme Court Judge to quash the Chilliwack Teacher’s complaint about me before the Human Rights Tribunal. But the Judge thought the Tribunal should proceed. Alas, they can no longer defend me because the insurance company cancelled their contract when I refused to cave in to a compromise “settlement out of the Tribunal.”

The morning began with Kari and I making strong opening remarks. I said that it all began when I made the public statement that “transitioning children is child abuse.” It was not directed at schoolteachers: I was thinking of the psychologists, endocrinologists, pharmacists and surgeons who destroy healthy young bodies. I also said that treating gender dysphoria as a human rights issue was the wrong venue to cure their suffering. I consider it a child and adolescent development issue. I also asked how my opinions could be considered hate speech in BC when it is government policy backed by research in a growing number of European nations, US States, and the next province over, Alberta?

Kari made a convincing argument that the Tribunal must protect the rights of ALL citizens, not just a select group of “marginalized” individuals. She also took a run at Kasari Govender, the BC Human Rights Commissioner who publicly made hateful, incendiary remarks about all the thousands of concerned parents who turned up for the Million March 4 Children last fall. Here is what Ms. Govender said: “I am very disturbed by news of hate fuelled marches planned for Sept. 20, 2023, in several places across B.C Denying the existence of trans and gender diverse people—including calls to erase trans and LGBTQ2SAI+ people from our province’s curricula—is hate, and hate should have no place in our community or in our schools.”1

Kari Simpson had previously laid a Human Rights complaint about Ms. Govender, and she said Ms. Govender was too biased and hostile to participate in the complaint against me. Ms. Govender’s representative had not heard about the complaint yet.

We then heard from the THREE lawyers representing the teachers, a representative from the Human Rights Commission, and a representative from the BC Attorney General’s office. What they all had in common was the ability to put together word salads full of twisted logic, sophistries and legalese, such that an average citizen could make no sense of what they were talking about.

Gone are the days of courtroom drama where Perry Mason or Atticus Finch used impeccable logic and stirring oratorical skills to persuade judges and juries. I saw that in the four court battles I have taken part in lately. Post-post modernism has taken over the legal profession, and old-fashioned logic has been tossed out the door. They do not have to worry about such things when their conclusion is also their premise: they start with the conclusion they want and then circle backwards. Today’s lawyers and judges have coined new words and used old words with different meanings: this is a programmatic campaign of linguistic engineering by news anchors, reporters and lawyers. It is an act of linguistic sleight of hand.

This corruption of language had already been predicted by George Orwell in his descriptions of the pernicious functions of Newspeak in his novels 1984 and Animal Farm. 2

One word not common in daily use was “pith.” They all repeatedly referred to the “pith and substance” of Section 7 of the BC Human Rights Code, which empowers the Provincial Tribunal to control hate speech. They kept using the word pith so much that I was getting pithed off! (Look it up.)

The day ended with Kari and I making closing statements. Kari reiterated that the Tribunal should protect EVERYONE’S Human Rights, not just a select few who are considered “marginalized.” Kari asked why the Tribunal accepted some complaints and ignored others? Moving forward, I will insist that they define the category “marginalized person” and then I will prove that it is not the Alphabet people who are being marginalized, it is dissenters like myself.

I said that they were putting the cart before the horse. All day long there was an assumption that I was already guilty of hate speech, but that has not been proven yet. I assured them that I do NOT hate any gay, lesbian or person who identifies as “transgender.” It was my firm conviction backed up by recent research that transitioning young children did far more harm than good, and my goal was to prevent children from damaging their bodies. I knew I was getting off topic, but I wanted to remind everyone why we were here.

The three tribunal members: Eileen Myrdahl, Sarah Khan and Ijeamaka Anika will discuss today’s arguments and deliver a decision in a few days or weeks. But this was only the beginning of the battle.

UPDATE: The main hearing begins November 25th, 2024 and will continue for about two weeks. James Kitchen, is now my lawyer.

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Thanx to James Loewen who persevered through the long boring process of the day staying until he interviewed Kari and I right after the hearing.
https://rumble.com/v55qj48-hate-speech-orfreedom-of-speech.html

I’ll close with a quote from Albert Einstein: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

I just today received the link to the video of my Moral Courage Award Ceremony. Thanks to Rod Taylor and Ron Gray for this! ➔ https://www.chp.ca/media/post/2024-ron-graymoral-courage-award-presented-to-barry-neufeld

Barry Neufeld
July 9, 2024

If you wait until voting day to perform your democratic civic duty, you have waited too long, and it is too late for you to make any difference.
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Understanding how language is being changed: Dr. James Lindsay: The Need For Linguistic Discipline.
https://rumble.com/v46g926-the-need-for-linguistic-discipline.html
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https://barryneufeld.com