I have watched, on You Tube, Ezra Levant’s appearance before the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Every American should watch it.
For those who still don’t know, Ezra Levant was the editor of The Western Standard (now defunct) when the magazine, two years ago, published the notorious “Mohammed cartoons.” They were published to illustrate a news article about the world-wide Muslim outrage over the cartoons, which originally appeared in a Danish newspaper. Levant thought his Canadian readers ought to see the cartoons so they would know what all the fuss was about.
Some Saudi sheik living in Canada took offense. First he went to the police and demanded they arrest the editor. That’s how it’s done, where he came from, but they haven’t quite gotten to that point in Canada: not yet.
But then the sheik had a better idea. He scrawled out a complaint and submitted it to what Alberta laughingly calls its Human Rights Commission—which for the sake of accuracy we shall hereafter refer to as Kangaroo Kourt—has the power to do anything, to anybody, anytime. It derives its authority from a Canadian law that makes it a hate crime to say or write anything that might—whether it actually does or not is totally immaterial—expose some individual belonging to one of several favored minority groups, at some indefinite time in the future, to some unspecified kind of hatred or contempt. Because there is no substance whatsoever to such a complaint, there is no possible defense against it.
As an added inducement to thin-skinned prigs to take offense, the state will pay all the plaintiff’s legal fees. The accused, of course, must pay his own. The Kangaroo Kourt is not bound by law, or rules of evidence, or precedent. It is not obliged to consider whether anything the accused said might happen to be true. After all, the fact that some doofus says he found the defendant’s speech offensive is proof that it offended somebody and therefore must be punished.
Which brings us back to Ezra Levant. The Kangaroo Kourt wouldn’t let him be counseled at the hearing by a lawyer of his choice; but what they didn’t anticipate was that he would bring a video camera and record the proceedings for posterity. They had no rule against it, for no one had done it before. And so we are able to witness an incident in the demise of freedom in the Western world.
No reporters were allowed to cover the hearing, nor was the public invited to be present. It was all done behind closed doors, in an ordinary conference room.
We may marvel at Levant’s eloquence as he denies the Kourt’s right to put him through this inquisition, which has so far cost him some $100,000. We may marvel at his courage, his pluck, and the unassailable logic of his arguments.
But what is more marvelous still is the bovine indifference of the hearing officer. Levant would have done little worse, talking to a bottle of carpet cleaner.
What we see here is a petty bureaucratic tyrant who knows that the accusation alone is enough to find the defendant guilty, and that the whole procedure, as she understands it, is a waste of breath. She knows she’s not obligated to listen to a word the defendant says. It’s all she can do to restrain herself from cutting out paper dolls while Levant speaks.
She also knows that she and her Kourt are accountable to no one; that they, and they alone, decide what is permissible speech in the Province of Alberta; and finally, she knows that the Kourts have a 100% conviction rate. It’s Stalin’s show trials all over again, without the firing squads.
Tune in to You Tube, Americans, and watch these proceedings. Take a good, long look—
Because there are uncounted hordes of politicians, academic pinheads, media mullahs, gay activists, and other “leaders” who just can’t wait to hammer these fetters onto this country. They want it so badly, they can taste it; and they think each election will bring them closer to their goal.
Copyright by Lee Duigon
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Lee Duigon is a Christian freelance writer whose work can be seen regularly at www.chalcedon.edu .
