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While Bill 59 is concerning in itself, its inspiration is far more so. Frémont has admitted that he based the provisions of Bill 59 on UN Resolutions 16/18, a brainchild of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), comprised of 56 UN member states plus the Palestinian Authority, which constitutes the single largest voting block in the UN. In 1990, the OIC rejected the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which assumes that all men and women, and all religions, are equal, and in its place adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. This document asserts the superiority of Islam over other religions and takes its definition of freedom of speech from the confines of Shariah law, according to which any criticism of the Prophet Mohammad is considered blasphemy and prohibited.

In 2011, the OIC introduced Resolution 16/18, a more nuanced version of the Cairo Declaration. Usually UN resolutions are just political documents, but in the case of Resolution 16/18, it moved on to “implementation” via the “Istanbul Process,” a series of conferences promoting the OIC agenda. The result has been a continuing push toward the stifling of free expression that is critical of any Islam-related topic. And even though no country is obliged to adopt the OIC’s illiberal definitions of defamation, when the same resolutions are passed again and again in UN bodies, there is a risk that they will eventually be deemed “customary and international law.”

The OIC’s objective is to see Western countries draft legislation that would penalize criticism of Islam. Most European Union countries have done just that. And Jacques Frémont is doing just that in Quebec. Freedom of speech is already in grave peril on university campuses. We should not expect to see that situation improve any time soon at the University of Ottawa.

National Post