Savage Washington

Luiza Ch. Savage covers political life south of the border. Follow Luiza on Twitter: @luizachsavage

Categories: Savage Washington

So Much Bigger Than Ezra

by Luiza Ch. Savage on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:50am - 0 Comments

It’s been an odd experience working on my story that appears in this week’s print edition of Maclean’s. Some of the Canadians I have talked to about his incredibly important subject — freedom of expression — seem to lose their love of freedom and their s**t their cool when confronted by two words: Ezra. Levant. I spoke to one intellectual luminary whose ability to make a rational argument not to mention his sense of decorum suddenly deserted him and the best he could muster at the mention of Levant was to compare him to a walking piece of male anatomy. Fine. I get it. A lot of people don’t like Levant and a lot of people disagree with him and a lot of people are offended that he published the Muhammed cartoons in his magazine. How can I put this simply? With apologies to the band: This.is.Bigger.Than.Ezra.

So much bigger.

When you read the story — and it’s long and complicated — please note the comments of Louise Arbour, as well as those of the UN rapporteur on free speech. This is not a right wing or left wing issue.

In a nutshell:

“…Pakistan and the other nations that have banded together in the Organization of the Islamic Conference have been leading a remarkably successful campaign through the United Nations to enshrine in international law prohibitions against “defamation of religions,” particularly Islam. Their aim is to empower governments around the world to punish anyone who commits the “heinous act” of defaming Islam. Critics say it is an attempt to globalize laws against blasphemy that exist in some Muslim countries — and that the movement has already succeeded in suppressing open discussion in international forums of issues such as female genital mutilation, honour killings and gay rights. …”

Maclean’s: Stifling Free Speech Globally

Tags: Defamation of Religions, Ezra Levant, free speech, Louise Arbour

More by Luiza Ch. Savage

http://www.pointdebasculecanada.ca Annie Lessard

About Hérouxville. Here is what Jonathan Kay wrote in the National Post, in a column titled “In the Defence of Herouxville”:

“But what starts in Quebec won’t end here. The debate will spread, and we should be glad of that. For all the rhetorical stock Canadians have put in multiculturalism over the years, the fact remains that it is fundamentally incoherent:How do you intellectually defend a doctrine that preaches “tolerance” toward imported cultures that, themselves, are fundamentally intolerant toward women, gays, heretics and infidels?”

“Giggle all you like at the bumpkins of Herouxville. At least, they’re smart enough to know this question can’t be answered. Maybe when the rest of us anglos get over our own guilty Western hangups, we’ll come to the same realization.”

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=248178ce-db43-4f7d-9370-f80dd141b69c&p=1
Jack Mitchell

Ma chère Annie, many thanks for proving my point! Of course I don’t think Quebec is more xenophobic than other parts of the country, but one of your fellow zealots was expressing his surprise that he could find spiritual kinship with people like yourself.

“We don’t burn down embassies, behead people or threathen to kill anyone.”

Indeed. In Hérouxville it is actually a crime to burn down an embassy or behead someone. It is very much the most progressive township in the country.

I’d like to say how wonderful it is to see xenophobic paranoia bringing people together like this across the linguistic divide. These are indeed universal, serious issues, passionately embraced by people with serious issues everywhere.
Ben Hicks

Jack Mitchell:
“Richard Evans, get with the times. Quebec just had a whole Bouchard-Taylor Commission in which full-throttle Islamophobia was a recurring theme (albeit over-reported).”

To me, Quebec’s decision to lauch the Bouchard-Taylor commision demonstrated how juvenile the rest of Canada is in comparison. They gave everyone, no matter how outrageous their views, a public venue to voice their concerns. It was like an province wide venting period.

Of course, in the rest of Cananda we could never have something similar. The idea behind the HRCs (and the hatephobes that defend them)is that Canandians are so feeble minded and impressionable that mere exposure to anything remotely hateful will turn the whole lot of us us into violent rascists – eager to commit unspeakable acts against the first member of a minority group foolish enough to cross our path.

This is, of course, complete foolishness. I say the rest of Cananda should follow the Quebec example and air our dirty laundry in the open air of public discourse rather than use the state to silence dissidents.
http://www.pointdebasculecanada.ca Annie Lessard

There may be part of the story about Herouxville, related to the topic of lawfare, that was not reported in other provinces.

A young Muslim guy published a poem calling non Muslim women in Quebec (and non veiled women) “drunken sluts”. Of course, there was a public outcry and he was later ridiculed by talk show hosts. He is suing the journalist plus the TV station for defamation. He also filed a complaint to the Press Council, claiming he was traumatized by the reaction to his poem. He never apologized for slandering us.

He later organized a delegation of Muslim women to visit Herouxville and lecture them about “tolerance”…. People in Herouxville may be hilbillies, but they know a hypocrit when they meet one.
http://no-libs.com Richard Evans

but one of your fellow zealots was expressing his surprise that he could find spiritual kinship with people like yourself.

Well, if wanting to be a free man in a country of free men makes me a zealot, then I guess I’m guilty as charged.

What I don’t understand, Jack, is why you and your comrades above are so eager to have others control your thoughts and expressions.
http://www.pointdebasculecanada.ca Annie Lessard

Québec has tabled a Bill titled:

An Act to amend the Code of Civil Procedure to prevent abusive use of the courts and promote freedom of expression and citizen participation in public debate

http://www.assnat.qc.ca/eng/38legislature1/Projets-loi/Publics/08-a099.htm

It will pass this Fall, all parties being in agreement. The Bill applies only to regular courts of law, not the Human Rights commission, unfortunately.

to promote freedom of expression and prevent abusive use of the courts, in particular the use of court proceedings to thwart the right of citizens to participate in public debate.

For that purpose, the bill allows the courts to promptly dismiss a proceeding that is abusive. It specifies what may constitute an abuse of procedure and authorizes the reversal of the burden of proof if the abuse of procedure is obvious.

The bill allows the courts to order the payment of a provision for costs, declare that a legal action is abusive, condemn a party to pay the fees and extrajudicial costs of the other party, and order a party to pay punitive damages.
Ben Hicks

Annie:

Well, it’s nice to hear at least one government in this country cares about the rights of its citizens.
http://www.pointdebasculecanada.ca Annie Lessard

Ben, I believe Jonathan Kay (link to his article above) is right, that resistance to curtailment of freedom will start from Quebec and spread to the rest of Canada. Being a minority, we have a strong sense of our identity and we defend our values, especially equality of women, secularism of public institutions and freedom of expression, very passionately.

Also, as I mentioned, political correctness is not as strong here as it is in the rest of Canada. Various outfits of the marxist-islamist alliance tried to have the hearings shut down, and some in the Anglo press expressed dismay at how candid citizens expressed themselves at the hearings.

Bouchard and Taylor acknowledged that there are not many countries in the world where a open debate on such sensitive issue could be held peacefully. This is democracy in action at its best. We need to fight to protect it.
Gerry Sheehan

I want to thank Mr. Izchek for his post. I trolled through Mr. Levant’s garbage and also found that he trashes eminent criminal lawyer Leo Adler who also provides his estimable services to the Simon Wiesenthal organization.

You really have to wonder about anyone who seems to make it a full time obsession to plant lies and exagerations about these 2 men who together have done more battling hatred in Canada than Ezra can ever hope to do. And perhaps that’s the rub, Ezra is jealous of real Jewish leaders knowing his buffoonery is laughed at by the mainstream of the Jewish community.
Jack Mitchell

Whoa Nellie, I actually just clicked on the “Annie Lessard” link (I tend to avoid doing that for some reason . . . I suppose to avoid writing direct ad homines).

But, uh, man oh man.

So it turns out that T. Thwim, Ti-Guy, et al. really HAVE been debating card-carrying Islamophobes & their fans for two days. And I was wondering why it felt like talking to a brick wall. Well, click “Annie Lessard” and pass the hat.

Jeepers.
http://www.pointdebasculecanada.ca Annie Lessard

Jack, members of the UN Human Rights Council say that criticizing stoning, flogging, amputations, denial of freedom of conscience, death penalty for blasphemy or apostasy is islamophobic. Our sites also documents persecution of religious minorities in muslim-majority countries.

What exactly is your own definition of “islamophobic”?
http://no-libs.com Richard Evans

So it turns out that T. Thwim, Ti-Guy, et al. really HAVE been debating card-carrying Islamophobes & their fans for two days. And I was wondering why it felt like talking to a brick wall. Well, click “Annie Lessard” and pass the hat.

Do you have anything to contribute besides the ad-homs? Maybe a comment on the idea that the right to free thought and free expression are more important than partisan politics?
Ben Hicks

Jack: “So it turns out that T. Thwim, Ti-Guy, et al. really HAVE been debating card-carrying Islamophobes & their fans for two days.”

Translation: “EEK! A WITCH!! I knews it all along I did! I knows witchery when I sees it.”

You’re really out of ideas, huh?
Pingback: “Stifling free speech — globally”