This HRC Tidbit Smells Like a Rat

So, the corgis were following along the live-blogging of Andrew Coyne yesterday - and so much has already been said about the farce taking place in BC that really, what can we add? - but noticed this tempting tidbit from Tarek Fatah in the comments:

two of the Human Rights Commissioners who sat in on the Barabara Hall decsion to convict Macleans without a trial, were pals and associates of Elmasry, and had worked with the Canadain Islamic Congress at difefrent levels. One of them is a supporter of Ayatullah Khomeini, but managed to convince the mCguinty govt to appoint him on the commission.

Naturally, ears pricked up and whiskers began to twitch at that juicy little morsel.

One of the members of the OHRC is Ghulam Abbas Sajan. His biography on the OHRC site describes him as "An active member of the Shi’a Islamic Community [and a former] president of the Jaffari Islamic Centre." Is Sajan one of those Tarek Fatah is talking about? We don't know for sure.

However, a little sniffing around Google did yield the interesting factoid that Sajan is involved with another "Human Rights" organization, but one considerably less savoury than the OHRC, if you can bend your mind around that concept for one second.

The organization in question is the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" which is an international body with local organizations in many countries. Sajan is a "Commissioner" which means he is a member of the Board of Advisors of the CCHR. The CCHR is, in its own words:

...a non-profit public benefit organization that investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights.

Their site is devoted to anti-psychiatry propaganda. Some memory stirs... what other international organization is vehemently opposed to the profession of psychiatry, and devoted to debunking the use of pharmaceuticals to treat mental illness?

Dig a little deeper, and we find that the Board of Advisors contains many actors and other celebrities known to be members of a certain 'church'; dig further and we find that many of the international web addresses of the CCHR are co-hosted or share the same DNS registration of that absolute bastion of Human Rights, the Church of Scientology. Yes, the CCHR is a front organization of the Church of Scientology.

Now, either Sajan has some squaring to do, explaining his participation in a Scientology front organization in the context of Shi'a Islam, or he was duped.

Either way, I'm not feeling my confidence in the OHRC growing any right now.