Pajamas Media

48 Comments

1. rocketeer:

Ezra Levant is my hero. This 1984, big-brother crap has to stop here and now. We’re facing the beginning of complete government tyranny by unelected, unaccountable, government bureaucrats. If we can’t get it straight who the real hate-mongers are and start facing reality, we’re in big trouble. Keep up the good work and fight the good fight!!

Aug 8, 2008 - 8:17 am 2. Phil Magness:

Mr. Levant is an inspiration to freedom-loving peoples everywhere.

I am reminded about the personal sacrifices of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and wonder how many Americans will stand up against tyranny when the speech codes of our campuses become our national laws.

With the Democrat-controlled congress starting to make noises about a new “Fairness Doctrine” in the media, and America swooning over charismatic socialists like Obama, this test may come soon.

The public schools stopped teaching civics from an American patriotic perspective a couple of generations. Most folks under 40 don’t have an understanding of what makes our nation exceptional. Add that to the many Baby Boomers who just don’t appreciate our country and you have a recipe for us to become another Canada.

Aug 8, 2008 - 8:27 am 3. tanstaafl:

…the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities won’t have to pay me a dime. Neither will Syed Soharwardy, the Calgary imam who abandoned his identical complaint against me this spring.

Both managed to hijack a secular government agency to prosecute their radical Islamic fatwa against me — the first blasphemy case in Canada in over 80 years. Their complaints were dismissed, but it is inaccurate to say that they lost: They got the government to rough me up for nearly three years, at no cost to them. The process I was put through was a punishment in itself — and a warning to any other journalists who would defy radical Islam.

The type of persecution experienced by Mr. Levant is an intentional prong of jihad, a device for infesting and weakening secular/western governments. Apparently, members of the AHRC were willing stooges.

The fact that the complainants bear no financial responsibility for bringing their absurd action means look for more of the same.

Offense allegedly taken at the Danish cartoons was not particularly “real”, but served (around the world, from Denmark to the Middle East to Pakistan to Canada) as a disruptive device from those who will not be shutting up anytime soon.

As I read (the phrase) elsewhere, Islamists happily stirred up a real “tempest in a teapot” over the cartoons.

Aug 8, 2008 - 8:56 am 4. Jay Kactuz:

Tanstaafl has it right. The fact is that there is nothing that Muslims – all Muslims – radical and moderate – hate more than free speech. Any word, any idea, any thought that challenges Islam cannot be tolerated. The radicals know that once we lose the right to voice our opinions the battle is over and they will their battle will be downhill, just mopping up the few that dare resist. They will use the power of the state for this.

This victory is great, but it is just one small battle in a long war. Islam will be back with more hurt egos and more compliants of offended feelings. They will call these ‘racism’ and ‘hate.’ Even as they do this, Muslims will continue to persecute, do violence, preach hate and say “Praise be unto him,” after the name of a man that raided dozens of villages, murdered, tortured, enslaved, raped and even beat his wife (the one that Random House refused to publish a novel about this week, even though I doubt the books mention any of the sordid, violent details of Aisha’s life).

Ezra has stood his ground for all of us. I appreciate it greatly.

Kactuz

Aug 8, 2008 - 9:21 am 5. Johnny Maudlin:

Ezra Levant, like the author of this piece, Kathy Shaidle, is a self promoter. He is selling the notion that he deeply cares about freedom of speech. Do a little research on the lawsuits and threats of lawsuits he employs to deal with those whose free speech agendas cross his own. Levant and Shaidle are attention mongers, advancing nothing but their own online pursuits of prestige and dollars.

Aug 8, 2008 - 9:55 am 6. Jay:

It doesn’t matter if he is an “attention monger” or not. This battle over free speech must be won. F%#k these Islamist idiots I’m tired of bending over backwards for these ingrates as they ask for “Special laws” or “understanding” of their religion. If the west doesn’t demand they intagrate or they are not welcome here then we deserve what we get. Now tell me what an a^%hole I am for saying that but you know it’s true.

Aug 8, 2008 - 11:04 am 7. Yawn:

So? What’s the point of that Maudlin? If he is doing it with his own dime, as crappy as that is, its his dime to use. But since we have an obviously biased government entity (appointed, not elected) that uses taxpayer money to go after someone, that is a whole different story. If you want to spend your money sueing others, have fun. But why should taxpayer money be used for it? If he was violating a real law, then its goes to the courts. These HRC are not the law or the courts, but somehow they have this power and get funding from the taxpayers for it. That’s a no go at this station, as we say where I work. Ezra may be a horse’s rear-end (I don’t know if he is or not), but that doesn’t change the fact that these HRCs are crap and shouldn’t be allowed to do what they are currently doing. Whether you like him or not, he is right on this one.

Aug 8, 2008 - 11:22 am 8. Assistant Village Idiot:

This is not the first time Johnny Maudlin has tried to change the argument into whether Levant and Shaidle are nice people. Maudlin dislikes them and their views, and believes we should allow their rights to be trampled on that basis. He doesn’t think that’s what he believes – he thinks he supports free speech. But his complaints are selective, and oft turn aside to catalogue his opponents’ awfulness.

Aug 8, 2008 - 11:35 am 9. Matt P:

Johnny,
that kind of personal argument might actually work in a CHRC case where the truth of the issue at hand is irrelevant. People who support Ezra, however, understand that he could be a wife beating Pope stabber (or for that matter a Pope beating wife Stabber) and he would still have the right to say what he wants.

In cases of law it is the facts that count not spurious allegations about personal lives. Ezra’s case is based on the facts of law, your argument “I don’t like the way Ezra acts so he must be wrong, so you shouldn’t listen to him” is based on… well… ummm…. the kindest thing I can say its baseless and move on. (I would actually be more insulting to take your argument as seriously as you propose it.)

As for Ezra, I am glad he is a self promoter. Do you think this issue would have gotten the press it did without him? Do you think any change to this system would take place with out people like Ezra ’self-promoting’” Then again you probably don’t care, you don’t like Ezra or what he’s saying and apparently that justifies taking away his rights. For your sake I hope people like you never fully get there way because eventually people will get tired of you and take away your rights.

Aug 8, 2008 - 11:36 am 10. Cletus:

The HRC better beware. The public just might get a little pissed, despite their massive liberalism, and descend upon them with torches and pitchforks

Aug 8, 2008 - 11:52 am 11. Kathy Shaidle:

You’ll have to forgive that anonymous coward Johnny Maudlin, folks.

Up here in Canada, you see, “self-promoter” is considered the second worst insult next to “racist.” My countrymen on the left (95% of the population) live in a perpetual state of envy towards anyone who makes something of themselves. It makes them look lazy and stupid by comparison, you see.

Google “tall poppy syndrome”

Glad to see that the rest of you get it. Thanks for reading!

Aug 8, 2008 - 11:53 am 12. Johnny Maudlin:

The name is John Daly (aka Johnny Maudlin). The point is obvious, albeit unwelcome here where the bias is also obvious. Shaidle and Levant are phony. And you ought to be interested in what is genuine. If Shaidle considers her studied efforts at gaining attention by posting cut lines like: Mohammed rapes little girls! Now come and get me you fairies…” and you all think that is a worthwhile pursuit, well what can be said for you?

How amazingly unintelligent. Is it beyond your comprehension that you can support the ideal of free speech without baiting folks? Of course Shaidle is racist. By her actions. And proud of that. Challenging folks to do something about it.

Be in support of freedom of opposed to fascism but understand that attending the circus to watch a side show like Levant and Shaidle is unnecessary. As some wag wrote, recently, he thought Levant’s real name was “Donate”

Aug 8, 2008 - 12:08 pm 13. willis:

“The HRC better beware. The public just might get a little pissed, despite their massive liberalism, and descend upon them with torches and pitchforks.”

I’m sure they are quaking in their boots. The liberal fascists that you good people insist on putting into office can’t abuse you enough to get turned out. From our vantage point in the U.S. a majority of Canadians prefer to be ruled rather than governed.

Aug 8, 2008 - 12:16 pm 14. Johnny Maudlin:

Willis

Like many participants in this kind of forum you have some skill at assembling words that say nothing. “The majority of Canadians prefer to be ruled rather than governed.” A decent line for a folk song, but otherwise just flatus. More idiot wind.

Let me explain the obvious: we are online, yeah? Why? Bored? Yeah. Head in your chin while doing this? Good chance. Feeling a little…disempowered? So make the major effort of clicking the mouse and go somewhere where a big tough Canadian straight shootin’ broad writes things to provoke those icky scary Muslims. You get a little pup tent about that. Yeah? The numbers of folks who return, like a school of fish, to these sites, is impressive. And it proves? Political activism? A shift in the cultural winds? No.

Boredom. Period. If Shaidle was posing starkers and Levant doing the same they would generate approximately the same amount of interest and traffic, for exactly the same reasons.

Aug 8, 2008 - 12:39 pm 15. Dave ll:

Hmmm…let’s see, Johnny M. calls Levant and Shaidle “self-promoters”, “phoney”, and throws in “racist” for good measure.

Ain’t free-speech GRAND, Johnny???

A word of caution though: Just don’t call any Muslims those things! It may cost you some money in court to defend your right to say it!

Just pathetic.

Aug 8, 2008 - 12:52 pm 16. ChrisGreen:

Johnny Maudlin,

Your point is that Levant’s motivations are far from pure and he (and Shaidle) are probably racists and that they bait people to sue them or attack them.

However, you need to argue against the following ‘core’ beliefs held by most commenters on this site if you really want to make a case against what Levant is doing:

1. Its better to force the issue now by ‘baiting’ certain groups then to wait for 15 years until the speech control has been so institutionalized that you can’t do anything about it. Speech control is very dangerous and if you wait till the problem becomes painfully obvious to everyone, it is probably too late.

2. What the HRC is doing is wrong. Who cares who brings them down as long as they are successful.

3. Levant may be a self-promoter, but you need to offer evidence that he does not care about free speech for most commenters on this site to believe it.

You will probably have a good response to this comment. I look forward to reading about it.

Aug 8, 2008 - 12:54 pm 17. Kathy Shaidle:

Mohammed did rape a little girl, Johnny. I just report the news.

How is my informing people of Mohammed haeing sex with a nine year old girl actually worse than the crime itself? Why aren’t you outraged about that, and about his male followers around the world who imitate him — rather than getting angry at a woman who merely points that out? Oh I forgot: it’s the “way” I write about it. I should be more polite about the statutory rape of little children.

If you hate my blog so much, why do you read it? And why do you come here and parasitically ride my coattails? I know your blog only gets about 1/1000 of the traffic mine does, but really? Are you that desperate for readers?

Your jealousy is obvious to everyone but you. So very sad.

Aug 8, 2008 - 1:02 pm 18. Mikee:

The best way to stop this foolishness is through massive civil disobedience. Place posters of the offending cartoons all over Canada in public places, like the walls of local government offices, post offices, schools, churches, bars, and grocery stores. Publish them on the front pages of every printed journal, magazine, newspaper, and HOA newsletter in the country. Show them for the first 5 minutes of every hour on every TV channel in Canada for a week or a month. And in every instance, note that freedom of speech means that those who are offended have a right to peaceably, civilly, non-violently, publicly, privately, and at their own expense speak back, but that their offense is their business, not ours.

Aug 8, 2008 - 1:34 pm 19. Matt P:

Johnny,

With you clear arguments and cogent thought you have won me over. Those who are mean and bad, especially if they make people uncomfortable, should not have the right to speak in public. I mean, if that happens people may be forced to hear things they don’t like and we all know we have a absolute right to not be offended. After all isn’t that what tolerance really means. My eyes have been opened I now see that truth can only come from certified ‘truth tellers’ whose lives and personalities have been approved by Johnny Maudlin himself.

But Johnny have you ever considered a life of professional debate? Based on your efforts here I must say there isn’t a person alive that could withstand you logical, impartial, and reasoned arguments. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel that I came across you post, to see you in action will be something I can tell my grandchildren about.

Still as much as I appreciate your thundering intellect, I need to ask, have you considered that your talents are wasted here on this website? As much as it hurts me to say this, Johnny you’re too good for us — your wit and wisdom is needed elsewhere.

They say if you love something you’ll set it free, so Johnny on behalf of all here let me say “You are free, go be the soaring intellect we all know you are somewhere else. Today this website, tomorrow a bitter hand scrawled letter to an editor in a small town newspaper! Find your greatness Johnny, live the dream!”

Aug 8, 2008 - 1:42 pm 20. uburoisc:

Yeah, actually, there is a very good case that Mohammad is a child rapist.

Aug 8, 2008 - 1:44 pm 21. David W. Lincoln:

What I find interesting is a piece that aired yesterday on the Charles Adler show. Ezra and the complainant were interviewed on a show from Hamilton. Needless to say, the complainant did not own up to abusing the process that others abused.

Balsam wood would be a better foundation than Islam when it comes to building a society, and frankly unless Muslims get it that they are spinning their wheels – the rest of us will have
to be on a heightened awareness level to deal with their attacks which eloquently communicate how small they are.

Aug 8, 2008 - 1:56 pm 22. Steynian 218 « Free Mark Steyn!:

[...] THE SHAIDLE– “Ezra Levant 1, Canadian Thought Police 0″ …. [...]

Aug 8, 2008 - 2:18 pm 23. Steve Gregg:

Good on Ezra Levant for not resting after his tactical success, but rather pressing his attack to the root of evil: the very existence of this phoney human rights commission gone amok. How insane is it to provide our Muslim enemies with the funding and tools to attack our most precious rights? The human rights commission must be dismantled and abolished. The financial assault on Levant made by the government of Canada must be made right. Most of all, whatever laws must be passed should be passed forthwith to stop Muslims from making a mockery of free speech in Canada.

Aug 8, 2008 - 2:35 pm 24. Mary Jackson:

posting cut lines like: Mohammed rapes little girls! Now come and get me you fairies…

Mohammed did indeed rape a nine-year-old girl. Or rather, he “married” her when she was six and “consummated” the “marriage” when she was nine.

One of Ayatollah Khomeini’s first actions on taking over Iraq was to lower the age of “consent” for “marriage” of girls to nine. This was based on the fully accepted hadiths of Bukhari and Muslim. Mohammed, in Islam, is the perfect man for all time, so his “marriage” to a nine-year-old girl is – indeed must be – considered not just acceptable but estimable. Thousands and thousand of Iranian girls were “married” in this way. Thousands were killed for committing “adultery” when another pervert, not their husband, violated them.

By the way, I don’t usually use quotation marks as much – they can be a bit precious – but I couldn’t bring myself to write “marriage”, “consummate” and “consent” without them.

This is child rape we’re talking about. Any attempt to excuse and equivocate is despicable.

Now come and get me, you fairies.

Aug 8, 2008 - 2:42 pm 25. Johnny Maudlin cuz I'm drunk:

Just went to Johhny’s blog. It’s a little bit self promotional don’t you think? If this is what he writes sober maybe we should all chip in and buy him a bottle of scotch.

Aug 8, 2008 - 3:12 pm 26. For Fredom Hope Remains ! - Politics:

[...] For Fredom Hope Remains ! For those of you that love your freedoms , take heart . Pajamas Media

Aug 8, 2008 - 3:31 pm 27. sestamibi:

Ezra, I am so proud that you’re Jewish too. Don’t ever let those bastards do you in.

Aug 8, 2008 - 4:36 pm 28. Blazingcatfur:

Ezra & Shaidle are fighting the good fight. The best way to deal with Maudlin is simply to ignore him.

Aug 8, 2008 - 5:18 pm 29. Eowyn:

BCF, there are so many Maudlins (too many) refusing to condemn immorality — defending ignorance, and cowardly refusing to stand up for principles like free speech simply because they don’t like the messenger.

Case in point: Look at the huge outpouring of support for the Harry’s Place blog when it was under threat. Harry’s Place is left-leaning. Most of the bloggers pledging support were right-leaning. Didn’t matter. Politics goes by the wayside when freedom of speech is under attack.

You’re right, of course — best to ignore people like that — but now and then, people get pi$$ed, and can’t help rebutting

Kathy, compliments on a compelling read, rich with links, in support of someone who’s my hero, too.

Aug 8, 2008 - 5:37 pm 30. Blazingcatfur:

You raise a good point Eowyn it was amazing how Harry’s Place garnered so much support from the right side of the blogosphere while the Left – certainly the Canadian Pseudo-Left, couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger. Principles over personalities and in this case ideology at work.

Aug 8, 2008 - 5:50 pm 31. richard:

I first became aware of Ezra when he was blogging from the “trial” of Mark Steyn, another target of political correctness gone wild…the respect I have for these two men is bottomless, and to let them know that this “Yank in Texas”(oxymoron?LOL) supports them 100%

Aug 8, 2008 - 6:32 pm 32. aloysiusmiller:

Naming names Good! Pardeep Gundara Pardeep Gundara Pardeep Gundara.

Any artice that names names is good. More names please. Whenever the name Pardeep Gundara is searched on the web it should be associated with this infamy.

Aug 8, 2008 - 8:19 pm 33. canuck:

Unfortunately for Canada the airheads of John Daly’s “Not-for-profit” ilk (read his profile) have become a force as more of the country live like robotic parasites off the few that are working. Hopefully, Americans will see the foolishness of empowering the US equivalent of the NDPer….the Democrats. This leads to the feminization of society, exactly what has happened in Canada which in my time has turned into a nation of whiners and wimps from one with some rather spectacular gonads. They are the reason why so many of us that served have bailed out to live in the USA where this nonsense is not only not tolerated, but punished.

The various HRCs are mostly a method of suppressing thought and debate. As Daly demonstrates, most on the left are intellectually barren and cannot impart logic to any conversation so they are left to call names (Racist, bigot, homophobe,entrepreneur being the most popular. When this fails to impress anyone but themselves they run to their quasijudicial body to shakedown the “offending” individual for relief at taxpayers expense.

Individuals like John Daly and Pardeep Gundara make the South look great. They would last about ten minutes here…twice as long as they would have ten years ago. Until individuals like Steyn and Ezra are able to recover their losses from the budgets of these parasitic organizations this will go on. Believe me, Pardeep and his Sikh buddies will think twice if they are going to take a cut from the government trough for their misconduct.

Aug 9, 2008 - 4:49 am 34. Cartoon publisher has a win : Stop The ACLU:

[...] Source [...]

Aug 9, 2008 - 6:06 am 35. Stublore:

“Johnny Maudlin:

The name is John Daly (aka Johnny Maudlin). The point is obvious, albeit unwelcome here where the bias is also obvious. Shaidle and Levant are phony. And you ought to be interested in what is genuine. If Shaidle considers her studied efforts at gaining attention by posting cut lines like: Mohammed rapes little girls! Now come and get me you fairies…” and you all think that is a worthwhile pursuit, well what can be said for you?”
It’s a fact among muslims that mo did rape Aisha, afterall how can a child who is betrothed at 6 and married at 9 with consummation be called anything but rape? All of this is recorded in the “most reliable” of the hadiths. Making the general public aware of this facet of islamic belief is imo a very worthwhile pursuit, afterall if mo is the perfect man and all good muslims should try to live up to his example(which muslims believe), is this the the sort of man that most people would call perfect, or want to emulate? I most certainly would not, I would call him a rapist and paedophile, someone to be vilified and not someone to look up to for guidance.

“Johnny Maudlin:

How amazingly unintelligent. Is it beyond your comprehension that you can support the ideal of free speech without baiting folks? Of course Shaidle is racist. By her actions. And proud of that. Challenging folks to do something about it. ”
How exactly is she a racist? You are aware that muslims are not a race are you not? They are followers of a particular religious belief, it is something they have chosen. You cannot choose your race anymore than you can choose your eye color, and to level accusations of racism against someone who criticises a belief system shows either you are ignorant of what race means, or you are just trying to demonise someone whom you disagree with, using the “most vile accusation” that can be levelled at someone in today’s liberal PC world, racist!

Aug 9, 2008 - 8:08 am 36. Johnny Mudflap:

Not Maudlin again. The shallow and false one.

Maybe this piece from your own blog explains why you defend fanatic muslims treatment of women….From your own blog Maudlin about how you terrorize your partner just because you are busy being you..

“I demanded (strongly encouraged) that we turn off the television again last night, and sit quietly without the incessant ridiculous and damaging programming raining down on our senses, harming us. The Sleepy Time With The Poppy is just that.

And more delusion from the so very extremely morally bankrupt Maudlin on Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan….

I said, and meant, that I will attend no more (to the very best of my ability) to wars raging. If a young Canadian man or woman chooses to take up a weapon and go-a-killing Afghanis on Afghani soil, then take the bullets that come and be damned. I oppose you and your delusions and bullshit about fixing things you don’t understand to begin with. It is on you. Toss your life away and take other lives? Then die and be dead.

The rest of us will make shallow and false shows of giving a shit. But trust this: the vast majority of us are more concerned with the price of fuel than the price of blood spilled in foreign lands. Same with Iraq and all the other hots spots. Let every man who is weaponized die violently. I will give it as little thought as possible.

We all hope you get off the dope Maud, and re-join your family or donate your time to projects other than polemics-wannabeeism.

Aug 9, 2008 - 11:30 am 37. jim:

the hrc was ment to handle real discrimiation cases not crap like what was brought by the Supreme Islamic Council

Aug 9, 2008 - 12:15 pm 38. Joe Kaffir:

To Kathy Shaidle,
Why should Ezra Levant or any other rational,nondelusional human be happy to be on the hook in the first place? Perhaps you would find your happiness being on a hook.
Your profound logic eludes me.
Feel free to expaciate your rational.

Aug 9, 2008 - 12:31 pm 39. Johnny Mudflap:

Kaffir
“…expaciate” Try spellcheck snob. And then get boned up on the issue before “expanding at length on your thinking”. The danger is that now that the rights commission has “done the right thing” and SHIRKED OFF INTO THE CORNER, They get/hope to still co-exist with the judicial system and adjudicate matters like ethnic hurt feelings, provocative debate and passionate offensiveness, you know ruin life as we know it. Little thing called free speech.

Aug 9, 2008 - 2:37 pm 40. Ezra Levant » Winds Of Jihad:

[...] The case against Levant has been dropped, but Levant is still angry. Find out why. [...]

Aug 9, 2008 - 2:49 pm 41. Argento:

When Soharwardy dropped his complaint, Levant, a practicing defamation lawyer, had publicly mused about suing the imam in civil court to recoup his legal costs. (HRC complainants have their legal fees paid by the state.)

But now Levant tells Pajamas Media, “My lawyers say there is no redress allowed in terms of suing my HRC antagonists — the statute forbids it. I may have that option in some of the 17 other legal assaults I’m facing.”

Then Levant and other Canadians should file a bunch of lawsuits against those imams and Islamic groups. Heck, file more against the self-appointed thought police like that lesbian heckler. It costs nothing, right? All you’ve got to do is just complain. Just for fun, make complains about the involved bureaucrats, too. This can have the following effects:

1. Expose the absurdity of the system.
Let all Canadians aware of the threat to freedom of speech and freedom of thought and of how the taxpayers’ money fund the supression of FoS and FoT. If enough citizens getting angry, then there may be hope against the thought police.

2. Bury the system under avalanche of complaints.
When the number of complaints gets very high, they can consume HRCs’ resources and make them grind to a halt. When they can no longer respond to legit human rights abuse complaints, the HRCs will be under a spotlight. The effect can be two things, they must:
a. prioritize the cases, which means they must do the right thing: focus on real issues
b. increase the resources which means consuming more taxpayers’ money and increase Canadians’ displeasure at the thought police.

Sometimes, things must get worse before getting better. If you wait for the other side to make it worse, you aren’t going to win the battle. Take the initiative and control the outcome.

Aug 9, 2008 - 3:57 pm 42. John R. Lancellotti:

The guy is obviously wonderful. Bravo. I applaud you Ezra Levant. Even down here in America, we recognize courage, idealism and a sense of justice.

Aug 9, 2008 - 4:58 pm 43. Johnny Mudflap:

Time and much effort is required to focus enough peoples attention on the dire issue of rights commission statutes like the federal Section 13.1 and Alberta HRC Section 7 which have been used in this new way to stifle free speech. Initially this issue was painted as feeble unwarranted complaints by so-called “neocons white power freaks and christian extremist bible thumpers. Steyn, Levant, Macleans, Shaidle, SDA were branded in this fashion and were wrongly framed as being party to such white power folks. BUT, finally The Nat’l Post clued in, Toronto’s gay Eye Weekly clued in, PEN Canada weighed in, then the Globe n Mail, then also the left’s favourite supporter the Toronto Star weighed in MP’s, MLA’s, many traditional rights organization, ETC ETC. It crossed all political lines, for the right reasons. Warring K is on the wrong side of this debate….all because he feels some of the players are too offensive. Sorta funny coming from a over the hill punk musician. The beat will go on however, if we all remain informed and active on these HRC issues. These issues really challenge us but we must learn to know why the preservation of speech is so very vital…even if offensive.

Aug 9, 2008 - 6:03 pm 44. cejac:

Way to go Ezra. We need a thouisand of Ezra’s levant. There has to be room to be able to say I do not like your religion, and that is OK and it doesn’t make me your enemy. Youmake us your enemy. You are the one with the proble. We have the right to sya we do not like their way of thinking, living and lifestyly. Let say NO to Islamic imposition to our ways of living.

Aug 9, 2008 - 8:07 pm 45. Eowyn:

NOTHING is more important than free speech.

Aug 10, 2008 - 5:51 pm 46. Brian:

Bravo!You tell them.This is Canada not Saudi arabia!We ridicule our leaders all the time.These Muslims better get used to learning and living with OUR values.Otherwise heres a plane ticket back to Saudi for you so you can live under religious law.
We had 10 years of liberal rule.Our military was gutted.Lots of pet projects the libs had.And to boot they tried stirring up anti-US sentiment which really didnt work at all and backfired.
Now Prime minister Harper has pledged to rebuild our military to deal with unexpected world threats as he should and ill support Harper for that in the next election.

Aug 14, 2008 - 1:11 am 47. Rebecca:

Every Canadian should be aware of what has happended at Canada Post.Like mother public institutions Politicans,so called heads of crown corporations and labour unions have signed collective agreements that effectively have caused a role reversal between the agressor & the victim. This doctrine of the “11 prohibited grounds” means Canada Post has as many as 40% modified employees,32,000+ grievances, and many false human rights complaints. The Canada Post workplace is a disgrace and Canadians need to worry. Bad employees are protected from accountability as tghe truth was bargained away in exchange for labour peace. CUPW is on a membership drive maybe we all should sign membership cards and buy our human rights.

Sep 20, 2008 - 12:06 pm 48. Eugene:

You guys eat up everything Lerant (typo intended) says as fact. The guy is supposedly a lawyer, yet he doesn’t even know (or maybe purposely leaves it out of his rants) that the CHRC and the CHRT are two TOTALLY separate bodies, with separate legislated mandates (any dummy can figure that out by reading the Canadian Human Rights Act).

Furthermore, contrary to Lerant’s “musings” the CHRC has not and cannot “rule” that something is hate–they can only refer things to the CHRT for further inquiry. The CHRT makes the decision. Again, this is something established in the CHRA–something any good lawyer would know.

Also, you cannot be “charged” under the Canadian Human Rights Act, nor does the CHRT “convict” or “prosecute”–these are criminal court terms, which as a lawyer, Lerant should know. A complaint is filed and a decision rendered–period. The participants are “complainants” and “respondents” not the “victim” and the “accused”.

All of you that praise Levant and call him a genius, consider this: Levant is a lawyer–an expert at law. Levant claims that all HRC staff are nothing more than second-rate bureaucrats. Yet at the same time he pays thousands in lawyer’s fees (which apparently he funds from the dummies that eat up his one-sided, first-year lawschool-journalistic-activism) to fight the HRC’s. Now, wouldn’t a lawyer of his calibre be able to defend himself? After all, there are federal inmates with less than a grade 10 education that manouver their way through the CHRC process–WITHOUT COUNSEL!! Similarly, many ferderal government departments have staff who are not lawyers defend them when CHRC complaints are filed against them.

Granted, if a case goes to the CHRT, which is a formal administrative tribunal with all sorts of legal rules and procedures, a lawyer is required. Speaking of which, complainants in HRC cases pay their own lawyer’s fees–they are not paid by the government. Yes, the CHRC may intervene in a Tribunal hearing, but the complainant has their own counsel and is responsible for the bill–unless of course, the Tribunal awards costs to the complainant (then the respondent pays).

While all of this may seem trivial, it shows how Levant will manipulate facts and language to hit his readers at a base, emotional level (suckers).

So, do you want section 13 (1) taken out of the Canadian Human Rights Act?
Instead of listening to Lerant go on about the crooked CHRC (which has yet to be proven as both the RCMP and Privacy investigations are ongoing), we all need write our MPs and demand that it be repealed. This will be far more effective than sitting at your computer eating up Lerant’s highschool-like character assassinations of average Joe public servants (character assassinations that are created by skewing facts and taking quotes out of context).

AND if you have made it this far in my rant, you may want to ask yourself if Lerant REALLY does want the hate provisions gone from our HR legislation. After all, it is his ‘fight’ against them that makes him a hot commodity online, in the papers and on TV. Without hate provisions, Lerant is just another right-wing windbag with not too much to say.

Lerant says he’s disgusted by, and has contempt for, the entire “human rights industry”. Yet at the same time, it is the HR industry that butters his bread.

Think, research and form your own rational opinion. Don’t be duped by a second rate lawyer who is more interested in skewing facts and cashing in on it, than he is in furthering the cause free speech.

Oct 23, 2008 - 8:54 pm

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