Testing yet another feature of this new blogspace
  

The Canadian Human Rights Commission dismissed a hate speech complaint against Maclean’s magazine on Friday in a decision the complainants blamed on “inappropriate political pressure.”

Brought by Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, the complaint was the centrepiece of a three-pronged, cross-jurisdictional offence against Islamophobia in the national newsweekly, with columnists Mark Steyn and Barbara Amiel the main alleged offenders.

The ruling means the CHRC does not believe there is evidence to support a complaint that the Steyn article was “likely to expose” Muslims to hatred or contempt.

Faisal Joseph, lawyer for the CIC, said the dismissal was predictable, given the political climate and the campaign against the commissions themselves.

“We are not surprised at the decision in light of the inappropriate political pressure that has been brought to bear on the commission and that has prompted the commission to set up an internal review of its procedures under (the hate speech section of the Human Rights Act),” he said.

A controversy over the CHRC’s online investigatory tech