SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A recent decision by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal shouldn't affect provisions on messages of hate contained in territorial legislation, says Therese Boullard, director of the NWT Human Rights Commission.

On Sept. 2, tribunal chair Athanasios Hadjis ruled that section 13.1 of the Canadian Human Rights Act violated Canadians' charter rights to freedom of expression after reviewing a complaint filed by Ottawa lawyer and human rights activist Richard Warman against Marc Lemire, the webmaster of freedomsite.org, a website the Canadian Human Rights Commission accused of harbouring racist content.

Warman's complaint dealt with hate-filled messages posted on the site, particularly those targeting the French, homosexuals and Jews. qThe NWT Human Rights Act has its own version of section 13.1, but Boullard said no one has ever filed a complaint under it since it came into effect on July 1, 2004, and she doesn't see how Hadjis' decision would have much effect on territorial legislation.

"In order for a complaint to be filed under the NWT Human Rights Act, the publication would have to be in print format," Boullard wrote in an e-mail, while adding the publication would have to be in the form of posters, signs, brochures, and newspapers distributed within the NWT.

The federal act, however, goes another step further and contains a phrase on telecommunications regarding hate messages, something not included in territorial legislation.

"Telecommunications, including Internet, are federally regulated," Boullard said. "Any complaints alleging hate literature on the Internet Ð even if the website is hosted in the NWT and the author of the alleged discriminatory material is within the NWT Ð would fall under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Human Rights Commission."