Shakedown: The book you need to buy to understand Canada today

The first thing you will notice about Ezra Levant's book, Shakedown, is that its title is printed upside down.

Don't let that deter you.

My friend David Warren, columnist at the Ottawa Citizen, was approached to provide an endorsement, and obliged (along with many others, including Mark Steyn, Rick Mercer, Raymond de Souza, and Peter Worthington). His comment was,

I would also put [Ezra Levant] at the top of any current list of those who actually deserve the Order of Canada, for valiant action of permanent value to our country.

And I agree.

This is from Mark Steyn's Introduction: But please buy the book and read the whole thing:

Before they made the strategic miscalculation of going after Ezra's Western Standard and then me and Maclean's, Canada's "human rights" racket had spent the last 30 years picking on nobodies - minor targets too poor or peripheral; to fight back. If you were unlucky enough to attract their attention, you were guilty: in the entire history of the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission, not a single defendant charged with at federal Section 123 "hate speech" crime has ever been acquitted. The sole exception was the "Canadian Nazi Party," which got off on the quaint technicality that it did not, in fact, exist. (The fact that the CHRC was reduced to prosecuting entirely fictional entities tells you a lot about how necessary Section 13 is to the Queen's peace.) (p. xiii)

Know nothing about Canada? No worries, welcome!

Despite the temporary facial blight of "human rights" commissions - which are rapidly outwearing their welcome - we are "the True North Strong and Free!"

We are fighting back against social engineers. Hey, we LOVE real engineers. And we hate the other kind.

Wanna be a Canadian? Wanna live here? Go here for basic info.

The thing that most impresses me about Shakedown is that it talks about the reality of living in Canada today. Most of what I hear in media is nonsense, carefully crafted to avoid trouble. The people who craft it may not even realize that they are doing so, in which case I would fully expect them to deny it.

The key point is, many media people don't ask themselves the one key question: "Why can't I say what I know is true, based on best information?" They simply tack away from it.

Mark Steyn introduces Levant's work by pointing out how social engineering was snuck into Canada on the basis of largely non-existent problems:

Before they made the strategic miscalculation of going after Ezra's Western Standard (p. xiii)

See also: Ezra Levant's Shakedown: A Preliminary Note

Update:

The meeting in London, Ontario, April 13, 2009, that the censors tried to stop, is now moved to a larger venue. It features Salim Mansur, Ezra Levant, and my friend Kathy "Five Feet of Fury" Shaidle.

Other resources:

From Franklin Carter at the Book and Periodical Council's Freedom of Expression Committee:

Michael Coren interviewed Ezra Levant about the book for an hour on television. The entire show is available here. Here's Raymond J. de Souza's review in the National Post. Carter also notes that Nigel Hannaford reviewed Shakedown in The Calgary Herald here.