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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Message to Canadian readers: Make intellectual freedom an election issue

Rob Breckenridge, host of The World Tonight, weeknights from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on AM770 CHQR, urges Canadians to make free speech an issue in the current Canadian election campaign (vote October 14):
Election gag laws are just one symptom of the malaise descending over Canadian society. When freedom of speech is ailing, democracy itself cannot be well.

Let's take advantage of the opportunity presented to us, and use this election campaign to find out how committed all of the parties are to the issue of freedom of expression, and what if anything needs to change.

It's not as though the politicians need to be dragged kicking and screaming into a debate over freedom of speech - it's right there beneath the surface:

The national critical issues survey sent out to Conservative candidates includes this question: "Do you agree that some of these 'human rights tribunals' have overstepped their bounds?" Sounds like the perfect question to ask during the leaders debate.

Earlier this year, a Liberal MP brought forward private member's motion M-446, which would eliminate Section 13(1) from the federal human rights legislation, thus removing the ability of human rights commissions to take on complaints regarding speech. How do the various parties feel about M-446? Or about Section 13 itself?

The opposition parties, meanwhile, have assailed the government over Bill C-10, which could deny film tax credits to Canadian-made movies deemed to be "too controversial" in content. While denying a tax credit is hardly tantamount to censorship, one could envision financial pressures exerting a chill of sorts on the Canadian film industry.

By all means, let's revisit that debate and gauge the parties' views on artistic expression. Whether it's "Young People F---ing" or the infamous Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons, artistic freedom and freedom of speech are one and the same.

For what it is worth, here are my views on the three key topics Rob raises:

- Election gag laws. They are supported by all parties because they benefit the professional politician over against the voter. Conservative Stephen Harper, Liberal Stephane Dion, socialist Jack Layton, that Green party gal - politicians from fruit right over to nuts - benefit from restricting the issues that people are allowed to bring up during a campaign.

Essentially, under an election gag law, all the politicians can agree to ignore an issue and then no one else can bring it up in advertising - no matter how important the electorate feels it is. So are you surprised that they all tend to support election gag laws? We should all join Rob in opposing them.

- the infamous Section 13 and the Canadian "human rights" commissions in general. I have written much on them, and have appended some links below. Essentially, when you ask your local politicians where they stand on Section 13 and the "human rights" commissions, you are asking them whether they still think liberal democracy is a worthwhile form of government.

Expect to hear massive hesitancy and qualification from some. Some politicians enjoy wielding unchecked power. And the pay isn't bad, either - they vote their pay themselves, of course.

- Bill C-10. Happily, I cannot yet be forced to see the awful "controversial Canadian films" that opponents of C-10 want to protect. However, until we shut down the "human rights" commissions, I agree with Stephen Harper that the government should distance itself as far as possible from anything that might "offend" anybody. Taxpayers cannot be on the hook for massive awards to people who are offended by garbage whose only connection to us is that fatuous civil servants agreed to front it.

However, if the commissions are shut down and no one can get awards simply for feeling offended, I won't get my shirt in a knot about the government throwing some cash at Moon Bat City's many film crews. It's a bit better for national stats than just putting them on welfare. We can pretend a little longer that we have a viable film industry that isn't merely Hollywood North.

E-mail Rob here if you want to comment on the article linked above.

Here's Suzanne Fortin on free speech:

We're at a crucial juncture in the history of Canada. We either protect free speech, or we go down the road of imposed ideological conformity.

This may sound a little alarmist to the average Canadian, who probably does not have a lot of time for these issues. I know this-- I'm a mom, and I know I can't follow all the issues, either.

The erosion of free speech is nothing less than the erosion to seek and expound Truth. How can I find Truth if I am not allowed to ask uncomfortable questions? How can I spread the Truth-- or even just test a working hypothesis-- if I cannot say what's on my mind?

Suzanne! Why don't you trust government-paid hacks to tell you what you may think? You must need therapy! You can be ordered into therapy, you know ....

(Note: Readers, if you are just itching to write and remind me that Rob and I were recently involved in a public squabble over his membership in the ridiculous Darwin cult, save your typing fingers. We both want to live in a country where his membership is okay, and it is okay for me to make fun of it. )

Recent posts on Canada's intellectual freedom crisis:

Liberal fascism: A survival manual for non-fascists in Canada (and probably in Europe)

Intellectual freedom in Canada: Political science profs nervous about coming here ...

Intellectual freedom: Survival is design not chance. O'Leary's plenary address to Write! Canada 2008, for which she received a standing ovation

Canadian election nears ... a chance to vote for freedom?

Intellectual Freedom in Canada: Oops ... a political party has actually noticed the problem? Not just collecting fat pay cheques?

The Mark Steyn show trial in Vancouver

Canadian radio bureau chief: Yes, the campaign to suppress free speech in Canada does affect the United States

Intellectual freedom: Is misunderstanding of Internet
part of Canada's "human rights" problem?

Write! Canada coverage highlights intellectual freedom risks, troubles of book industry

Open letter to comedian Guy Earle ... the latest to be charged by a Canadian "human rights"commission

Intellectual freedom in Canada: Friends fear the comics won't dare be funny in ways that matter

Intellectual freedom in Canada: ... Look out, PC bigots! The True North strong and free is shaking off your chains ...

Canadian comics rally for freedom: Let's
LAUGH Canada's "human rights" commissions out of existence!

I must reserve a ticket for the Canuck Comics' rally for freedom

Intellectual freedom in Canada: The first order of business is comedy!

Dutch cartoonist arrested for rude cartoons

No, not without a fight ...

Roundup, plus, Focus, guys, focus: To restore civil rights, get our laws changed, don't attack individuals

To find out why there is an intelligent design controversy, read:

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Excerpts from Ezra Levant's freedom of speech talk at the Bar Association in Toronto June 16 2008


There is growing ferment in Canada over our shadow justice system, known as "human rights commissions." They are the "human" face of fascism, so far as I can see, and Alberta civil rights lawyer Ezra Levant (one of those charged, along with Mark Steyn ) has distinguished himself by exposing what really happens when the social engineers take over a country.

This just in: "Red Fred., Bishop Henry (perhaps the only Catholic bishop in Canada to speak out), has just "blasted Alberta premier Ed Stelmach for the deepening disgrace of our shadow justice system:

"Each judgment emanating out of our various human right commissions seems to be more brazen and bizarre than the one that preceded it. However, for inane stupidity and gross miscarriage of justice our own Alberta Human Rights Tribunal deserves to take first prize for its treatment of [Protestant pastor] Stephen Boissoin. "
(And yes, there is a science component to this. A senior scientist has formally advised Canadians to quit feeding growth hormone to the Nannysaurus. As the only alternative to extinction, she should be put on a strict diet.)

Anyway, I am posting excerpts of Levant's talk, as I type them:

********************************************************

Sections (not yet linked)

* Burning books and censorship just "not a Jewish way of thinking."

* The need for anti-hate organizations to drum up business

* Canadian Jewish organization helped found the Nazi Party in Canada? (!?)

* Shutting down Internet sites likened to twentieth century book burning

* Gay activists protest silencing of Christian pastor

* Canada adopts staggering new science fiction concept in law: the "pre-crime"

* Is there no longer any separation of mosque and state in Canada?

* The "human" face of fascism: Stopping hate by creating much more hate

********************************************************

I thought I would start out by doing some thinking about our people and censorship - how Jews and censorship worked out over the past two thousand years. The first case of Jewish censorship I remember was by a Jewish high priest named Caiaphas. He put Jesus on trial. ... That first and most important exercise in Jewish censorship didn't quite work out the way we thought.

And from that time on I went through history and really Jews haven't done a lot of censoring because to censor you need the power of the state and we truly hadn't had a state for two thousand years. By contrast, we were the subject of tremendous censorship through the ages.
Burning books and censorship just "not a Jewish way of thinking."

The Jews got involved to our great discredit with the Communists in Russia, ... and helped set up rules of fascism and censorship which were later used against them in Stalin's purges against the Jews. That exercise in thought control and political control backfired on the Jews."

And the only other instance I can think of of Jews really using censorship laws was in Weimar [pre-Nazi] Germany, which had laws similar to Canada's [current human rights] laws - I would say less vague than Canada's anti-speech - hate speech - laws. And about two hundred hate speech trials happened during Weimar Germany. Adolf Hitler himself was caught up in them. And how did that work out for the Jews? Well, those two hundred trials afforded a tremendous forum for haters and anti-Semites to spread their views, with the newspapers in attendance. People who would have been ignored or dealt with otherwise were made important, sort of like the Jewish Congress made Ernst Zundel and James Keegstra international celebrity superstar Jew haters. People who never would have been heard of before ....
The need for anti-hate organizations to drum up business

Levant argued that there is a "symbiosis" between official anti-hate groups and otherwise insignificant anti-Semites:

Because when there's not that much real hate out there, there is not a lot of business for the anti-hate industry.

Two hundred trials of anti-Semitism didn't stop the Holocaust. Of course not. Did it help the Holocaust? Arguably so, in that it gave publicity to Nazi Germany. And, when Adolph Hitler took over, he had that law at his disposal. And he used it himself.

So those are the three main instances of Jewish censorship that I can think - Caiaphas, and that didn't work out well, the Soviet Union didn't work out well for the Jews, and the Weimar Republic.

He noted that Israel has military censorship, as it is in a perpetual state of war, and agreed that limits on speech are justified in certain instances (serious threats, copyright, fraud, forgery, defamation), but noted that all these types of law have built-in (in some cases centuries) of legal defenses. However, in the case of defamation law, truth and fair comment are defense, and damage must be measured in a reasonable way.

Canadian Jewish organization helped found the Nazi Party in Canada? (!?)

But what happens when you support censorship, as historically, Canada's official
Jews do? By official Jews I don't mean rabbis, I mean people who are Jews for a
living. [much laughter]

There's a lot of moral hazards when you are a Jew for a living, not a rabbi. When part of your organization's mandate is fighting against "hate" there is a moral hazard: You want to see hate out there to fight. Otherwise, what's your purpose in life? If you're a hatebuster, you need something to bust.
Mr. Levant indicated that he would shortly publish to his Web site a 1966 Maclean's magazine story that recounted that the Canadian Jewish Congress helped to finance and organize the Nazi Party of Canada.

In the Sixties the Canadian Jewish Congress helped to finance and organize the Nazi Party of Canada. You heard me right. Just twenty years after the end of the Second World War with all these veterans, ... was there really a risk that Canada would go Nazi? Why were they doing that? They would say they were doing that to infiltrate. Perhaps. But I don't think there was any real risk that Canada in 1966 would turn Nazi. I think it was that symbiosis. If you're in the anti-hate business and there is not a lot of hate out there, you'd better drum it up.

And here it is 2008 and the Canadian Jewish Congress is persecuting ... folks like David Ahenakew, a septaguenarian Indian chief in Saskatchewan ... no one listens to him. And he's babbling on about the Holocaust. We have turned Ahenakew into a national, an international figure. And we have done something else. We have fulfilled the anti-Semite's prophecy of a Jewish conspiracy.
(Note: Levant, himself Jewish, was speaking to a primarily Jewish audience. Incidentally, as someone who was 16 in 1966, I can comment that there was zero risk that Canada would go Nazi.

I am certainly not claiming that there was no racism, anti-Semitism or discrimination in those days. But Nazism was about the least cool thing anyone could imagine. And I would sure like to see that 1966 article.)

Shutting down Internet sites likened to twentieth century book burning

Mr. Levant said that shutting down Internet sites and issuing lifetime speech bans is equivalent to twentieth century book burnings.

Later several bloggers present enthusiastically agreed, as Web sites are the "new books." (So are blogs the new magazines?)

Bnai Brith and Simon Weisenthal Center should know better than to be a part of all that, he said, but "the Canadian Jewish Congress has never known better." He expressed concern that the number of Jewish people in the anti-hate industry could bolster anti-Semites' arguments, because in many cases, the laws were "essentially, to prosecute the Jews' political enemies."

Some reactions to the talk just in: Ezra Levant's own thoughts on how it went, particularly in relation to an opponent, Leo Adler from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who spoke up during the question period:

But then Adler made my point for me, writ large: he noted that when the SWC started fighting against Internet hate, there was just one anti-Semitic website, and that now there are 8,000 of them. I think Adler was trying to prove just how big of a problem that is (though, in a world with a billion web pages, I'm not particularly alarmed). But I pointed out it did the opposite: if, despite destroying our fundamental freedom of speech, and building a jurisprudence of censorship that anti-Semites like Mohamed Elmasry are now using against Jews, Adler and company haven't been able to stop the proliferation of anti-Semitism on the Internet, wasn't that proof of his own failure?

I called Adler and his fellow "Official Jews" the super-agents who turned nobodies like Jim Keegstra and David Ahenakew and Ernst Zundel into international superstars. I pointed out that Weimar Germany's anti-hate laws didn't work either -- other than to give Hitler a head start when he took over. I just thought that summed it up perfectly: a man who claims Internet hate has increased 8,000-fold on his watch, but keep swearing by his high-tech book burning.
And my friend Kathy "Five Feet of Fury" Shaidle recalls,

Leo Adler really embarrassed himself at Ezra's talk. He unburdened himself of a long, defensive pre-fab speech instead of asking a question. At one point Wendy yelled, "It's Ezra's speech, not yours."

Ezra left out the best part in his post above: trying to be gracious, Ezra thanked Adler for at least bothering to show up and confront him. Adler huffed with palpable hostility:

"Well, it's a free country!"

At which point half the audience broke out laughing, and Wendy and I called out, "Yeah, right!" and "So why are we here??"

[O'Leary was doubled over with laughter at one point and straightened up only when she realized that her midriff was muffling the tape recorder.]

Old guard time servers like Adler and Siddiqui are intimidated by unfettered free speech because their own speech -- unlike that of Steyn and Levant, who are talented phrase makers -- is riddled with stale dated, tone deaf cliches that actually undermine their own weak arguments: "It's a free country." "You're entitled to your opinion." "Everyone must obey the law."

After the talk, one audience member muttered that Adler was a "classic Red diaper baby."
Oh well, then. Another possible client for that fine organization, ohjustgrowup.com?

Gay activists protest silencing of Christian pastor

Readers may recall the Stephen Boisson case, where Boisson, an Alberta Christian pastor was condemned to lifelong silence on homosexuality and ordered to deny his Christian beliefs on the subject. Levant brought up the fact that a number of gay activists have protested the ruling.

Also, referring to the "basement-dwelling schmucks" who keep neo-Nazi Web sites, he notes


There are no real Nazis in Canada, these are dress-up parts and they know that the swastika has a lot of power to offend, and unfortunately the hammer and sickle does not ... and these nobodies feel like somebody when they go on line.
Yes, one thing the anti-hate industry has done - which I would have thought impossible - is make Nazis sound cool to schmucks.

More important:



I put it to you that over the last ten, twenty, thirty years, by prosecuting our political opponents for merely being political deviants, we have laid down ten, twenty, thirty years of jurisprudence that it is okay to take out your political opponent, absent any proof of damages, absent any crime, absent any acts, you can take out your opponents if you can define them as haters. So is it any surprise that with the great influx of Islam into Canada in the last ten or fifteen years, including radicals like the Jew-hater Mohamed Elmasry ... is it any surprise that he has said, 'I'll take those precedents, I'll use them.'?
Canada adopts staggering new science fiction concept in law: the "pre-crime"

Mr. Levant then read the exact wording of the hate crimes provision that he and Mark Steyn have been charged under, noting that among the 14 human rights commissions in Canada, the wording is pretty similar in the jurisdictions that have it:

It is illegal to publish anything that is



likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt. So Steyn is charged with this and I am charged with it.

Let's go through that for a second, as lawyers, and look at the words.

likely to expose That's future tense.

Not "that you did expose them" but likely

I loved Tom Cruise's movie, Minority Report where he played a police officer in the future where they had psychics thinking that crimes would happen. Just before the crime happened, the police swooped in and arrested the guy and said, "You were gonna kill him but we stopped ya! You're charged with a pre-crime."

With a pre-crime ... Well, how do you plead when you are charged with a pre-crime?

You can't say, I didn't do it ... No one said you did do it. We just said you might do it! Likely ... Likely to be exposed.

Not "did expose"or "have exposed."

How can you plead "not guilty" to that?

Exposed a person or persons to hatred or contempt: What is hatred? What is contempt? Those are emotions.

Is there anything we see or hear or read or see on TV in politics, in sports, in sports, in art, in comedy that doesn't make us feel love or hate or respect or contempt?

I feel most of those feelings every day when I read the newspaper. I have contempt for things that are contemptible. I hate things that should be hated, and I love things that should be loved.

It's human nature. You cannot ban emotion. You cannot pass a "let's love each other" law and expect it to happen.

But that's what this law is.

The test is subjective and it's future tense. It is a pre-crime, and it's an emotional crime. Not to cause someone damage, not to hurt someone, not to violate someone's property rights or right to life or right to self-defense, or to break the contract ... but to expose them to feelings.

So how can you plead anything but guilty?!

And so when I was charged under Alberta's Section 3, ... I pled guilty.
The notorious 100 percent conviction rate under Section 13 is best understood in the light of the concept of the pre-crime. Given what I have learned about the quite serious inroads of materialism into the justice system, I am not surprised by the social engineering concept of the pre-crime, only surprised at how few knew or cared, including people in the affected communities.

*[equivalent to Section 13 the pre-crime section of the national law]

The key question, of course, is how to shut the monster down.

Is there no longer any separation of mosque and state in Canada?

The first complaint by an imam (Mohamed Elmasry) against Levant was dropped. (But a second complaint by the Edmonton Muslim Council proceeded.) To give his audience some idea of the nature of the complaints accepted by Canada's "hrc's", Mr. Levant explained,



The imam's case had various verses from the Koran as his justification.

He didn't cite Canadian law. He cited the Koran.

And he explained that he was a personal descendant of Mohammed so he was personally offended.

Instead of throwing it out, they have been prosecuting it for over 800 days and in an Access to Information request, I found that fifteen government employees are beavering away on my file. Fifteen.

I'm an industry. [much laughter]
He went on to explain that in real law, in real courts, a complaint of this type this would be "void for vagueness."



So is it any surprise that under Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, when this has been prosecuted, mainly by the Jews, that there is a 100 percent conviction rate? No one has ever been acquitted, because no one could ever be acquitted. I have probably committed six or seven hate crimes just in my talk. Because what I said it may exhort someone to some feeling. Maybe I've even committed a crime against myself.

And so what happens is that we have granted absurd discretion to politically charged activists to go after whoever they like. And so is it any surprise that 98% of those charged with Section 13 offenses are white Christian men?

Mr. Levant pointed out that if there was an even application of this law the odd fire-breathing imam (of which there are certainly some in Canada) would be charged, but the law is so vague that it is up to the discretion of the Commissioners to charge who they want.

Precisely. The law is not about stamping out hatred, as if that were possible. It is about enlarging the scope of interference in the lives of citizens. At present, it may suit a Commission to hear the hurt feelings of a Muslim descended from Mohammed against the conservative Jewish publisher who ran the Mohammed cartoons, because the Commissions are engaged in is social engineering according to a leftist agenda.

For example, in my view, they probably do not care if the complainant is descended from Mohammed or from the Wilson family across the street. They care that hearing his grievance gives them an inroad into controlling what media can publish.

Incidentally, I have found that many middle class busybodies do hate white Christian males. Anyone who has had the misfortune to listen to a certain sort of post-Christian divorcee, who is "into" therapy, will hear the topic of "what is wrong with him/them" raised rather often.

Seldom, in my experience, does anyone present suggest that there is anything wrong with the ex-wife's obsessive abuse. She is, after all, the designated offend-ee in any dispute with him.

The "human" face of fascism: Stopping hate by creating much more hate

Picking up on the theme of the human rights laws' vagueness, Mr. Levant observed,


It's even more vague than the Weimar Republic's laws. Now do you trust the Human Rights Commission to pick and choose who it will follow as targets? I don't.

Here is another thing I learned, and this was after my own hearing. I started reading up about all these cases, and I found that more than half of all the Section 13 cases in the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and in fact every single case for the last four or five years has been filed by one person. Richard Warman is his name. He used to work for the Human Rights Commission as a hate squad investigator. And then in the evenings he would file complaints and then go in to work the next day and his buddies would work on the complaints he generated. And he did this for a few years, and he's won every case and he's also won about $39,000 in tax-free pain and suffering money in addition to his other income.

But even that isn't enough because Canada just isn't that hateful a place, especially if the mosques are a no-go zone ... if you're not allowed to go after Sikh or Tamil hatemongers, there's not a lot of folks to go after.

So Richard Warman went on line in drag as a neo-Nazi. He had various code names - Pogue Mahone, that was one of them. Other human rights staff got other code names - Jadewarr, Lucy, I can't remember all of them. They would join these neo-Nazi groups like Stormfront and go on line, pretending to be Nazis, post bigoted remarks, to stir up the discussion. When someone would put their hand up, they would lay a complaint.

I put it to you that there is no greater source of anti-Semitic, anti-black, anti-gay bigotry in Canada today than the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Richard Warman himself posted 93 remarks in his code name Pogue Mahone including the following - I've read it so many times, I've memorized it -

"The founders of National Socialism - another way of saying Nazism - were against sexual deviants who are a cancer to our society."

Mr. Levant pointed out that this is not merely entrapment, because the poster actually makes bigoted comments himself ("a spewer himself of bigoted filth," in his words.) Then, having got someone charged, he gets paid for his "pain and suffering" for having joined these Web sites as a neo-Nazi member and having gone through this.

In other words, in Trudeaupian Canada, persons acting in the name of the Human Rights Commission incite hatred by repeatedly uttering it themselves.

And what is their effect on those they do not succeed in entrapping? It is common knowledge that most people are encouraged in their opinions by finding and interacting people who agree with them.

A key outcome of this supergrunge undercover operation is that we don't really know how much "hate" in Canada has actually been generated by the "human rights" commissions themselves.

Don't ever tell Maxwell Smart about this, promise? I am sure he would die of envy.

Other Resources

Here’s Ezra Levant on the Michael Coren show:
Ezra TV Segment 1
Ezra TV Segment 2
Ezra TV Segment 3
Ezra TV Segment 4
Ezra TV Segment 5
Ezra TV Segment 6

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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Intellectual freedom in Canada: So Mark Steyn was acquitted - what about the rest of us?

Do you want to know what it looks like when the Canadian "human rights" commission is snooping around your blog? This is for Blazing Cat Fur who says it is okay to quote because they visit all the time.

Number of Entries: 1

Entry Page Time: 11th October 2008 07:34:19 AM

Visit Length:

Browser

OS Resolution unknown

Returning Visits: 0

Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Hostname: ns.ccdp-chrc.ca (198.103.143.130) CHRC [Edit Label]

Entry Page: http://www.blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/

Exit Page: http://www.blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/

Referring URL: No referring link

And Blazing Cat Fur adds "HI Denyse, the info I gave you is the CHRC, they are a daily visitor to me, along with the CJC, the Justice dept shows up less frequently."

Here, via Kathy "Five Feet of Fury" Shaidle, is her co-author on The Tyranny of Nice's comments on the recent acquittal of popular columnist mark Steyn and Canada's historic Maclean's Magazine on "hate" charges:

the Muslim community was screwed over in my opinion because this decision comes out on Friday, the Muslim day of faith, when many devout Muslims cannot respond. Moreover, as the Muslims point out, every other special interest group in the country has [ab]used these tribunals to get their way. But once again, nobody said anything until the Muslims came along, at which point they bear the brunt of a backlash.

Well-placed sources in the the Muslim community have told me they were encouraged by Canada's so-called 'human rights' industry to launch these complaints. I believe them.
I suspect these so-called human rights commissions and tribunals were probably looking to expand their power, and thought they could do so on the backs of Canada's Muslim community.

After all, it's pretty slim pickings with the basement nazis today, who cannot earn enough of paycheck to move out of their parent's basement and purchase their own under-arm deodorant, let alone organize the takeover of my Polish grandmother's favorite bakery (as Kathy would say).
But having built an entire government department around a problem that no longer exists, the department must now find a new problem (or expand the old one) to justify its existence.
Alternatively, the "human rights" commissions can all be fired.

Another screen shot of a suspect appears below these links:

Here are some links:

From Free Mark Steyn (but please, spare a thought for the little people that the "human rights" commissions will go back to attacking on Tuesday morning. (Monday is a statutory holiday in Canada.)


Today’s Links
Mark Steyn talked to Rob Breakinridge
Steyn on the Corner
Kathy Shaidle at Pajamas Media
The Toronto Star, Reuters, the CBC, The National Post, The Vancouver Sun, the CTV
Steyn & Maclean’s Acquitted / System Still Guilty
Scaramouche
N.S. Scott: “BC HRT on Steyn article: We deem it publishable”
Jay Currie I, Jay Currie II
Covenant Zone
Gyapong I, and Gyapong II
the Canadian Arab Federation, and the Canadian Islamic Congress
In Canada, free speech does not exist in any meaningful way
Denyse O’Leary
The Weekly Standard
SockPuppets.com.. nada
Re: The Steyn Verdict
Mark Hemingway
LifeSiteNews
Andrew Bolt
Hot Air
Robert Spencer
Hyacinth Girl
Eowyn
Girl in Blue

More as we find them.. or put them in the comments if you do. Let’s give the HRC people visiting here a clear idea of how big, widespread and serious we all are.

Yesterday’s Links

Mark Steyn and Maclean, acquitted (BlogFree)
MARK STEYN Online
NROTC: Complaint Against Steyn Dismissed
Aw nuts, we won, says Coyne
Ed Driscoll: Steyn Survives The Tyranny Of Nice
Steyn to appear on Rob Breakenridge
BC HRT dismisses case against Maclean’s and Mark Steyn (Gyapong)
The Actual Verdict (.pdf)
The NatPost; The VanSun; CTV
Western Standard
Breakenridge: Steyn & Maclean’s Acquitted / System Still Guilty
Andrew Coyne is blogging on the decision.
Flaming Catfish: “The BCHRT Roo’s save their butts - Islamists sent packin Macleans and Steyn Walk!
Teh Shaidle
Michelle Malkin and comments
Jay Currie
“Aw nuts, we won” scared of their lame status BCHRC aint taking Steyn to court
Small Dead Animals and comments ensued
Rightgirl
Pundita
Covenant Zone
Damian Penny
Denyse O’Leary
Daily Bayonet
Ghost Of A Flea
Laywers Are Cool?.. nada!
Protein Wisdom.. pithy as ever__._,_.___

Screen shot of potential "human rights" suspect blogger:


see they were at Covenant Zone at 6.24 AM ET, via blackberry - are they so personally dedicated in preserving their business, or, notwithstanding the blackberry person, is it that they have some kind of computer program visiting and taking snap shots of blogs?
Domain Name

gc.ca ? (Canada)
IP Address

198.103.143.# (GTIS)
ISP

GTIS
Location

Continent
:
North America
Country
:
Canada (Facts)
State/Region
:
Ontario
City
:
Ottawa
Lat/Long
:
45.4167, -75.7 (Map)
Language

unknown
Operating System

Unknown Unknown
Browser

Default 4.2.2BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/126
Javascript

disabled
Time of Visit

Oct 11 2008 3:24:21 am
Last Page View

Oct 11 2008 3:24:21 am
Visit Length

0 seconds
Page Views

1
Referring URL
unknown
Visit Entry Page

http://covenantzone.blogspot.com/2008/10/bchrt-decision-now-available-on-elmasry.html
Visit Exit Page

http://covenantzone.blogspot.com/2008/10/bchrt-decision-now-available-on-elmasry.html
Out Click


Time Zone

unknown
Visitor's Time

Unknown
Ottawa Ontario Canada

* One friend writes,

As far as I know GTIS is just a general Government of Canada IT service, not used by the CHRC. I get a lot of traffic from GTIS domains, it's probably nothing more than civil servants reading blogs (on taxpayer time).

This is the information I found for GTIS: Subdomain : CANADA.GC.CAAlias : http://www.gc.ca/Organization/Department : InformationbDelivery Services/GTISStatus of Application : Delegation of Authority

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunals domain looks like this:

Subdomain : CHRT-TCDP.GC.CAAlias :Organization/Department : Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Status of Application : Delegation of Authority

Provincial HRC hits look like the one that was checking out our soon to be disappeared friend BCF this morning.

having said that, I could be wrong. see you in the gulags.

(Friend adds later: I hope you didn't interpret my message as defending the HRC's, I don't. The visit that BCF got was definitely an HRC goon, but Covenant Zone could have been from anywhere. I only wanted to make that clarification. I've been getting visits from HRC's for months, especially the BCHRT after I followed the Steyn/Maclean's trial closely. So far I've not been disap.....)

Okay, friend. The main thing to see here is that Canadians have absolutely no rights in these matters. If your view is correct, I would recommend assuming that any track from gc.ca IS the Canadian "human rights" Commission. Let the non-snitches, non-sneaks, non-STASI-gc.ca deny it!
More from Blazing:

Here's the rest of the Days CHRC visits, someones putting a long shift, 7:34 am start, 6:15 pm finish

VISITOR ANALYSIS
Referring Link No referring link
Host Name ns.ccdp-chrc.ca
IP Address 198.103.143.130 CHRC [Edit Label]
Country Canada
Region Ontario
City Ottawa
ISP Gtis
Returning Visits 0
Visit Length 2 hours 47 mins 45 secs
VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser
Operating System
Resolution Unknown
Javascript Disabled

Navigation Path
Date Time WebPage
11th October 2008 03:27:41 PM No referring link
www.blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/
11th October 2008 03:57:21 PM No referring link
www.blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/
11th October 2008 04:14:13 PM No referring link
www.blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/
11th October 2008 06:15:26 PM No referring link
www.blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/

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Friday, September 26, 2008

Shoot Borovoy's Monster now: Why civil rights needs a newer, younger vision in Canada

Scaramouche, a blogger who was at the "Human Rights Commissions: Censorship or Protection?" meeting (September 25, 2008), along with Five Feet of Fury and me, knows the participants pretty well and offers an excellent account here.

About the meeting, organized by Speakers Action Group and the Canadian Jewish Civil Rights Association, she comments,
Food for thought: If one has been immersed for some time in the issues pertaining to censorship and Canada’s parallel totalitarian “justice” system, listening to three gentlemen pontificate on the subject while trying to eat is perhaps not the best idea. Not if you hope to digest both discussion and your grilled veggie wrap. Yesterday, I endeavoured to do both, as three men, attorneys, with a direct connection to the HRC system—Leo Adler, of the Canadian branch of the Wiesenthal Center; Alan Borovoy, head of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association; and David Matas, counsel for B’nai Brith Canada—spoke to a group of about 75-80 in the board room (and a mighty roomy room it was) of one of the city’s pish tosh downtown law firms. The topic being tackled: How do we here in Canada “balance” free speech and “human rights”. A weighty and often indigestible subject, indeed, one which, on its own, has been known to induce dyspepsia.
Actually, Mo, the smoked salmon and cream cheese wraps were, in my opinion, great! I was tempted to also sneak one out (but didn't). One thing about big downtown law firms like Cassells Brock, they sure do know how to eat.

Now, I am not Jewish, but I got the impression that here - as at a previous meeting on this topic - the audience largely was. So it might be useful for me to offer an outsider's perspective, to complement hers.

There are advantages in a close-up view, a middle distant view, and a distant one. Ideally, we get all of them.

Leo Adler, Director of National Affairs of the Friends of Simon Weisenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, Canada was there to defend the current "human rights" situation in Canada.

I confess, that listening to him, I experienced a sense of the surreal. The infamous Section 13 of our Canadian human rights act was working, he told us.

Well, yes, it's "working," all right - that is why there is a Web site called Free Mark Steyn (a popular Canadian commentator who got trapped in the federal commission's toils, along with historic Maclean's Magazine for writing an article about the growth of Islamism*).

On the whole, it did not sound to me as though Mr. Adler grasped what has happened: Starting in the 1960s, human rights organizations put in place an extra-judicial agency with legal powers to persecute active neo-Nazis, of whom there were actually few in Canada.

These agencies have now been co-opted by

- Islamists seeking to enforce "respect" for (their version of) Islam,

- gay activists - opposed by other gay activists - seeking to prevent traditional Christian clergy from instructing the faithful that the gay lifestyle is not an option in that tradition,

- people who get into a squabble with a late nite comic in a venue where it is reasonable to suspect that most attendees have had a lot to drink, and

- ... well, maybe, anyone who feels grievously dissed.

Alan Borovoy, General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, is - as Scaramouche points out - the Frankenstein who created this Monster. That fact is in itself amazing.

I wish he were clearer about what he would like to do about the Monster. Shooting it through the head strikes me as the right solution.

David Matas, Senior Counsel at B'nai Brith Canada, seemed to want some kind of reform, but it wasn't clear to me that his "reforms" would check any important abuses. The main problem right now is that anyone who feels dissed can be a "human rights" commission client.

None of the speakers seemed to grasp what my father so swiftly concluded in a memorable recent conversation - if we just SHUT DOWN all the "human rights" commissions, the radical Islamists, gay lifestyle fanatics, and asserted grievance mongers would not have a forum apart from the regular courts. Which means, in turn, that only grievances that have some basis in normal law could be heard.

"I feel bad about how that guy feels about me" does NOT equal "That guy owes me thousands."

My father called that "living by extortion." And Borovoy's Monster has enabled living by extortion.

I say: Shoot. It. Now. Aim for brain stem.

Further thoughts:

1. All the speakers were old men, near my father's age. I got the impression that they were stuck in the past (unlike Dad).

I heard from them about "Nazis" but not "Ahmadinejad," Iran's Prime Minister, who apparently denies the Holocaust and is acquiring nuclear arms (which the Nazis, as it happens, were never able to do, though they certainly tried).

Surely, what the Canadian Jewish community needs right now is young men like Ezra Levant, who are prepared to take on its real, present enemies in a way that respects our traditional freedoms. Like Levant and my father, I believe that can be done.

In fact, the overwhelming irony - for me at least - is that Levant suffered from the legal regime shaped by these very old men. He was charged when his magazine had published the Danish "Mohammed" cartoons, in an effort to begin the process of a real dialogue with Muslims - apart from the power-seeking Islamists. One outcome would be a chance to confront and defuse one possible real source of anti-Semitism in Canada. How many Muslims really want to cloud their new lives in Canada with the ancient hatreds of other parts of the world?

2. What has happened in Canada is appalling. As a Canadian, I am embarrassed. We put in place a justice system not governed by rules that protect the accused - and we are paying for it now, both in people's lives and in international disrespect.

The old men in that room were - understandably - trying to talk around the evil they have played a large role in creating. But it must be undone.

Shoot Borovoy's Monster now.

* Note: He was making, essentially, the same argument as Phillip Longman made about evangelical Christians and Mormons in the United States - but Longman faced no charges, only opposing views from other commentators.

Further note: More on comedian Guy Earle here.

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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Intellectual freedom in Canada: Political science profs nervous about coming here ...

Kevin Libin reported yesterday in Canada's National Post (August 23, 2008) that
A group of U. S. professors launched a campaign this week protesting plans by a prominent political science organization to hold its annual conference in Toronto next year, claiming that Canada's restrictions on certain forms of speech puts controversial academics at risk of being prosecuted.

Bradley Watson, professor of American and Western political thought at Pennsylvania's St. Vincent College, said he will present a petition calling for the American Political Science Association (APSA) to re-evaluate its selection of Toronto for its 2009 conference at this year's annual meeting, taking place over the Labour Day weekend in Boston.

His protest has garnered support from dozens of professors across the United States, including prominent scholars such as Princeton University legal philosopher Robert P. George and Harvard University's Harvey Mansfield.

"Our belief is that the APSA should choose its sites carefully, with particular regard for questions of freedom of speech and conscience," Mr. Watson told the National Post by e-mail. "We therefore believe Canada to be a problematic destination."
Go here for the rest.

I am told that journalists who broke the silence here, like David Warren, helped the profs make up their minds. And the profs are very right to be concerned.

As I have pointed out here, the "Human Rights" Commissions make themselves judges of a clergyman's advice to the faithful and a late-nite comic's jokes. They would not hesitate to go after a visiting prof. And all that is required is for someone, somewhere in Canada to feel offended and decide to lay a complaint.

What prof, I ask you, who has ever been of any consequence has not offended someone somewhere? And if you are a prof, is this how you want to be remembered?: "She was a sweet, quiet little lady who presented the party line impeccably and was very careful to stay out of trouble"? Or "I can't imagine him doubting that the current authorities are always right"?

Kathy "Five Feet of Fury" Shaidle comments,
Toronto taxpayers especially may want to make a VERY big stink about this -- after all, those precious tourist dollars are now at risk.

I'd also invite you to join me in thanking Dr. Watson for his inspirational stand in favour of free speech."
You can find his e-mail address here.

A quick primer if you are a prof (or anyone) who is new to the issues and struggling to make up your mind:

1. Liberal fascism is nanny state fascism. Expect to see failed nannies, not failed generals harassing, bossing, and bullying, exhausting people's life savings and wrecking their health.

2. Currently in Canada, media and artsies have been too nervous to say much. So it is best to rely on blogs like Ezra Levant (charged), Free Mark Steyn, Deborah Gyapong, and Kathy "Five Feet of Fury" Shaidle for information (as well as those to whom they link). And of course, to Kevin Libin and Jonathan Kay (charged) of the Post, Calgary radio host Rob Breakenridge, and the CBC's Rex Murphy. (Many able free speech warriors have doubtless slipped my mind, and I will try to remember them next time.) This will link you to the many posts here at the Post-Darwinist on intellectual freedom in Canada.

3. Why don't Canada's artsies speak up? Many are supported by and co-dependent with liberal fascist government. They are interested in keeping and extending their grants and they display little interest in the problems of writers and artists who make a living by their work, not arts welfare. Their idea of risky speech appears to mostly be creative obscenity, and they are irrelevant to a battle for intellectual freedom.

4. Why can't we all be instant experts on this issue? As a Canadian, I am very grateful to those Americans who have spoken up, assome of Prof. Watson's colleagues are doing. However, if your knowledge of Canada is limited to three hours of Canadian Studies in Grade Seven twenty-eight years ago, be cautious about jumping to conclusions. Liberal fascism got started here not with Confederation in 1867 but with "Trudeaumania" in 1967. Pierre Trudeau was a charismatic elitist who started the ball rolling fast toward the nanny state that justifiably concerns the political science profs today. After Trudeau's death, his biographer revealed that he had been a Catholic fascist in his youth in Quebec - something that had been kept well hidden from his adoring public in his lifetime.

5. Don't think it isn't happening in the States. It is happening, but mainly on university campuses where your future leaders are formed - and where their political allegiances develop. The most important way you can help us is by fighting fascism (including its leftist varieties) where you are.

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Monday, July 28, 2008

No, not without a fight ...

In "Not Without a Fight" (Ethics and Public Policy Center, July 14, 2008) Stanley Kurtz offers hope for beleaguered Canadians fighting the "human" face of fascism, in the guise of the "human rights" commissions:

I don't think it's too strong to say that the CIC's Human Rights Commission complaint against Mark Steyn is a totalitarian document. If the complaint carries - or is even partially vindicated - public discourse in Canada on the war on terror, Muslim immigration, and related topics will be transformed out of all recognition. It is as if, instead of simply rebutting or railing against conservatives and Republicans, liberal Democrats in the United States went to the Supreme Court and had the right side of the blogosphere and nearly all conservative opinion magazines placed into receivership. It is evident that the complainants are aware of this ambition. They announce their determination to reshape fundamentally a kind of journalism "that has become increasingly pervasive in Canada in the last few years." Read closely, the CIC's complaint is not really levied against any particular factual claim or rhetorical move. It is instead a request that vast sections of heretofore legitimate reporting and opinion journalism be banned. Even a failed complaint would have a chilling effect on public discourse. Complaints accepted by Canada's HRCs are investigated and prosecuted free of charge to plaintiffs, while the accused must foot huge legal bills. The mere threat of the spectacle and its cost suffices to shut down debate on controversial issues, especially for outlets and commentators less prominent that Steyn and Maclean's.
I really like Kurtz's analysis because he gets right a critical features of the civil rights collapse in Canada: While state hate appears to be directed against traditional Christians or conservatives, its net effect is to expand the power of the state against any and all citizens. Going after trad Christians was easy because they are typical targets of sanctioned bigotry, so many people would cheer their destruction without noticing what the fact that the state can destroy them means.

Kurtz writes,

Let's bust some myths. It's certainly true that Canada's Human Rights Commissions (like Europe's hate-speech laws) are wielded chiefly by minorities, immigrants, and those on the left against Christians and those who lean right -- a fact that points to their status as illegitimate and illiberal weapons of political-cultural warfare. Yet left-liberals are far from untouched by the new assault on speech. Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud, an American bestseller, and a book beloved of Bush opponents during the 2004 presidential election, was banned in Britain under the same libel laws that suppress Rachel Ehrenfeld. Ruling against another British libel decision, the European Court of Human Rights declared that free speech rights of anti-corporate protesters had been violated when they were forbidden to hand out leaflets against what they believed to be economic, ecological, and humanitarian malpractices by McDonald's Restaurants. With McDonald's deep pockets and an effective presumption of guilt, it was impossible for these protesters' allegations to pass muster in British court. Here, in an attack on the left of the political spectrum, lies a slippery slope from British libel law to the end of political freedom. To call this banning of anti-McDonald's leafleting a product of British culture is an offense to the liberties of us all, born as they were in Britain, our mother country.
Unlike so many Yanks (who love to hold forth on the alleged flabbiness of Canucks), Kurtz acknowledges the fact that many Canadians are throwing themselves into the fight, heedless of danger:

The tide began to turn about a month after Steyn and Maclean's were accused. Ezra Levant, a blogger and former publisher of Canada's Western Standard, was hauled before a Human Rights Commission in January of 2008 for the supposed hate-crime of reprinting the Danish cartoon caricatures of Mohammed. Levant managed to videotape his interrogation, and the spectacle of a journalist being interrogated by a bureaucrat for his supposed thought-crimes became an instant hit on the internet. Once again, dystopian science fiction seemed to spring to life, as the slippery slope from hate-speech legislation to the suppression of fundamental political debate played out for all to see on the worldwide web.

Three months later, the case against Steyn and Maclean's remains unresolved, yet political momentum in Canada has clearly shifted against the HRCs. Levant's tireless exposure of HRC abuses on his weblog has brought the sordid truth about these speech suppression mechanisms to light. It turns out that, to date, no speech defendant has ever been acquitted of a case brought before a Canadian HRC. These commissions effectively act simultaneously as investigator, lawyer, and judge, and the 100 percent conviction rate means that, as in British libel cases, we are looking at de facto presumption of guilt.

Some Canadian officials now receive more mail protesting HRC abuse than on any other issue. ...
Readers, please understand, we face a very difficult fight. Canada's nanny state can make another grab against civil rights and exhaust the power of the citizens who must work and pay taxes to continue to try to respond by their main fruitless letters.

Also, if you want to help, please acquaint your self with basic facts about Canada. The fact that we have an alleged "Conservative" government does not mean that we have a government that supports civil rights. The government has in fact supported the "human rights" commissions that are stamping out civil rights.

From what I can tell, the current Canadian government's cynical theory is that the most frequent targets (typically traditional Christians) don't have any choice but to support the Conservatives because the Liberals would step up the persecution.

Do not mistake the lack of voice for absence of resistance.

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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Chill out moment: Intelligent design really coming to Canada?

First, here's the Eric Pianka (ebola will claim 90 percent of us) story, and also go here and here. That's all I have blogged so far, but it is a fair whack. I will post the transcript of Dr. Pianka's remarks as soon as I have it.

Now I want to talk about something else for a minute:

Brian Alters, director of of McGill University’s Evolution Education Research Centre, is disgruntled because he was denied $40 000 in Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Funds on account of allegedly assuming “evolution to be scientific fact.”

He is "shocked," according to the Ottawa Citizen, and wants the public to believe that his misfortune means that intelligent design is gaining a foothold in Canada..

I am sure that all the appropriate people will be equally shocked or pseudo-shocked, or realize that they must act shocked.

First, let me say that - as a longtime starving hack - I am sympathetic to anyone whose application for funds has been turned down. I would buy Alters a beer in a heartbeat. Or three. And never miss the change.

BUT, here’s the problem: I have been covering the intelligent design controversy for years. It's currently my major regular beat. I correctly predicted in 2002 that it would be big news by 2005, hence my book, By Design or by Chance?. I know my own country, Canada, pretty well, and have written three chapters for a textbook of Canadian history (covering 1945-1969). So my approach to the situation is somewhat different from that of the Ottawa Citizen reporter.

Here was the reason given for turning down the grant:

The committee found that the candidates were qualified. However, it judged the proposal did not adequately substantiate the premise that the popularizing of Intelligent Design Theory had detrimental effects on Canadian students, teachers, parents and policymakers. Nor did the committee consider that there was adequate justification for the assumption in the proposal that the theory of Evolution, and not Intelligent Design theory, was correct. It was not convinced, therefore, that research based on these assumptions would yield objective results. In addition, the committee found that the research plans were insufficiently elaborated to allow for an informed evaluation of their merit. In view of its reservations the committee recommended that no award be made.

I recall that Brian Alters made a rather silly presentation at the 4th World Science Journalists' Conference in Montreal in October 2004, wasting our time by ridiculing creationism museums.

At the time, I was somewhat amused by it. I had driven in from Toronto to present a poster session on the REAL intelligent design controversy - which does not involve creationist museums - but rather the fact that science has never really confirmed the no-design/no-meaning/no-purpose view of the world abundantly promoted in science classes under the rubric of Darwinism, and all the evidence is against it.

I have no interest in creationism as such, and would not have been concerned about Darwinism if I had not learned for myself all the nonsense talked in support of it - which is why I wrote By Design or by Chance?. I had my nose rubbed in Darwinism then and since. So have a lot of other people. That is the real intelligent design controversy.

If SSRC changes its collective mind and decides to shovel $40 000 to Brian Alters to pretend that the controversy is a big deal in Canada, well, I can think of WAY bigger government boondoggles, some going through the courts at present, so don't confuse me with someone who much cares. I just want to set the record straight.

Now here is the decision again, with my interpolations:

The committee found that the candidates were qualified. However, it judged the proposal did not adequately substantiate the premise that the popularizing of Intelligent Design Theory had detrimental effects on Canadian students, teachers, parents and policymakers.

[Well, that was the main problem, really, wasn't it? Alters did not demonstrate his thesis. Probably because he has no evidence that there IS any detrimental effect in Canada.]

Nor did the committee consider that there was adequate justification for the assumption in the proposal that the theory of Evolution, and not Intelligent Design theory, was correct.

[It probably never occurred to Alters that SSHRC would want evidence instead of assertions. Look, it's taxpayers' money. They DO have rules.]

It was not convinced, therefore, that research based on these assumptions would yield objective results.

[Translation: ID is not a big cultural issue in Canada right now, so another paper bashing it - whose only merit is that a McGill guy wrote it - is a waste of SSHRC funds. Quite apart from the fact that Alter is anything but an objective witness, it's not even clear what he is a witness to. ]

In addition, the committee found that the research plans were insufficiently elaborated to allow for an informed evaluation of their merit. In view of its reservations the committee recommended that no award be made."

[One problem may be that (see above) ID is not a big cultural issue in Canada, and maybe never will be. To understand why not, it helps to know a little bit about Canada.]

Lots of media people have phoned me up to ask about whether ID is controversial in Canada, and I usually tell them:

1. Here in Canada we do not hear huge public noise about separation of church and state. Our constitution allows tax-supported Catholic schools, and some provinces have limited funding of other religious schools, but it's not much of an issue.

2. We have no equivalent of the ACLU or Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

3. There also isn't a Religious Right of any significance.

4. Local school boards don't tend to engage in Dover-style antics.

So what's to study? If Alters knows where something big is happening in Canada that concerns the public in general, I sure hope he'll tip me off. He would have been wise to start by tipping SSHRC off at least.

Look, Canada is the kind of place where gays can marry each other and Catholics can start each day with the Hail Mary in tax supported schools if they want to. That's just how things are here. Everyone here finds something to hate. Not everyone expects to be paid for it.

Are you looking for one of the following stories?

A summary of recent polls of US public opinion on the ID controversy

An ID Timeline: The ID folk seem always to win when they lose.

O’Leary’s comments on Francis Beckwith, a Dembski associate, being denied tenure at Baylor.

Why origin of life is such a difficult problem.

The Pope using the term "intelligent design" to describe the Catholic view of origins, go here.

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams attacked by Darwinist, hits back. Will he now cartoon on the subject?

"Academic Freedom Watch : Here's the real, ugly story behind the claim that 'intelligent design isn't science'?".

Roseville, California, lawyer Larry Caldwell is suing over the use of tax money by Darwin lobby groups to promote religious views that accept Darwinian evolution (as opposed to ones that don’t). I’m pegging this one as the next big story. See also the ruling on tax funds. Note the line that the “free speech” people take.
How to freak out your bio prof? What happened when a student bypassed the usual route of getting frogs drunk and dropping them down the chancellor’s robes, and tried questioning Darwinism instead.

Christoph, Cardinal Schonbon is not backing down from his contention that Darwinism is incompatible with Catholic faith, and Pope Benedict XVI probably thinks that’s just fine. Major US media have been trying to reach rewrite for months, with no success.

Museum tour guides to be trained to "respond" to those who question Darwinism. Read this item for an example of what at least one museum hopes to have them say.

World class chemist dissed at Catholic university because he sympathizes with intelligent design.
Blog policy note:Comments are permitted on this blog, but they are moderated. Fully anonymous posts and URLs posted without comment are rarely accepted. To Mr. Anonymous: I'm not psychic, so if you won't tell me who you are, I can't guess and don't care. To Mr. Nude World (URL): If you can't be bothered telling site visitors why they should go on to your fave site next, why should I post your comment? They're all busy people, like you. To Mr. Rudeby International and Mr. Pottymouth: I also have a tendency to delete comments that are merely offensive. Go be offensive to someone who can smack you a good one upside the head. That may provide you with a needed incentive to stop and think about what you are trying to accomplish. To Mr. Righteous but Wrong: I don't publish comments that contain known or probable factual errors. There's already enough widely repeated misinformation out there, and if you don't have the time to do your homework, I don't either. To those who write to announce that at death I will either 1) disintegrate into nothingness or 2) go to Hell by a fast post, please pester someone else. I am a Catholic in communion with the Church and haven't the time for either village atheism or aimless Jesus-hollering.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Intellectual freedom in Canada: Mark Steyn, MacLean's acquitted

From Mark's blog:

Steyn Today
Friday, 10 October 2008
CANADA vs FREE SPEECHFREE AT LAST! (pending appeal)Their Marsupial Majesties at the British Columbia "Human Rights" Tribunal have dismissed El-Mo's complaint against Maclean's and voted unanimously to acquit the hatemongers:

[(full monster ruling here)]

The panel has concluded that the complaints are not justified because the complainants have not established that the Article is likely to expose them to hatred or contempt on the basis of their religion. Therefore, pursuant to s. 37(1) the complaints are dismissed.

We'll post the full ruling as soon as we can (the piece of wet string holding together New Hampshire's Third World Internet service fell down down during the night so we have a few technical problems). I'll be discussing the verdict later today after 6.30pm Mountain Time with Rob Breakenridge on 770 CHQR Calgary.

Here's the National Post story.

This is good news, but it is NOT a solution. Canadian journalists and publishers must not be dragged through kangaroo courts - in which civil liberties mean nothing - just because someone is offended by something they wrote.

Essentially all that happened was that they woke up and blinked when they realized that they were no longer trampling mere "little people." They may need to back off for a bit, plan their attack strategy better. That is as much of a victory for civil rights as Canada can manage at this time.

The view from O'Leary:
For what it is worth, Mark Steyn said little more or different re Islamic extremists than Phillip Longman has said about Christian fundamentalists and Mormons. (They have more kids, so their influence will grow ... ) See also Shoot Borovoy's Monster Now.

Will it? That is a contestable - and contested - argument, to be sure. For one thing, it has always been true that religious people had more kids. If that changed the political landscape, North America would long ago have evolved into a theocracy, but it hasn't.

The useful discussion would be why it hasn't, not wasting a lot of time, money and grief on tribunals and commissions trying to police thought.

Here's Deborah Gyapong of the Parliamentary Press Gallery

The good news is that more Canadians are waking up.

Here's way more Steyn Maclean's trial feedback than your betters want you to know, courtesy FreeMarkSteyn.

Update EST 3:09 PM: Here's the press release from the publishers of The Tyranny of Nice:


MARK STEYN NOT GUILTY OF "FLAGRANT ISLAMOPHOBIA," SAYS TRIBUNAL AUTHORS OF NEW BOOK ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONS CALL VERDICT THE EXCEPTION WITHIN A SYSTEM STACKED AGAINST THE ACCUSED

TORONTO (October 10, 2008) -- Today, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal handed down a not-guilty verdict in the case of Maclean's magazine and its columnist Mark Steyn. The case, prompted by charges of "flagrant Islamophobia" made against Steyn and Maclean's by the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), focused critical attention on Canada's controversial Human Rights Commissions.

Today, the Tribunal ruled that Mark Steyn and Maclean's did not violate the human rights of the complainants merely by reporting facts and accurately quoting sources.

The Steyn trial, along with other lesser known but equally troubling cases, are chronicled in the new book The Tyranny of Nice: How Canada crushes freedom in the name of human rights, written by Kathy Shaidle and Pete Vere. Authors Kathy Shaidle and Pete Vere commented today on the verdict in the Steyn & Maclean's case:

"Unfortunately, this decision is only a partial victory for Mark Steyn, Maclean's magazine and every other writer and publisher in Canada. This Kafkaesque trial cost taxpayers dearly, while many Canadians struggle to make ends meet.

"More importantly, it cost Canada its international reputation as a free, just and tolerant country. While Steyn and Maclean's won, most defendants are found guilty; the HRCs boast of a nearly 100% rate of conviction. We can only hope that this case and all the others chronicled in our book will help make the continued existence of Canada's out of control, draconian Human Rights Commissions an issue in the coming federal election.

"If elected Prime Minister, what will Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton or Elizabeth May do to rein in the powers of human rights commissions and protect freedom of speech and freedom of the press?"

CONTACT:

Kathy Shaidle (co-author): kshaidle@rogers.com

Pete Vere (co-author): petevere@msn.com


Further comments:

Pundita says: When the Maclean's hearing began in B.C. I observed something to the effect that what happened in the hearing room would help decide the course of Western civilization. The remark must have seemed laughable to people who were unfamiliar with the issues. If they've read The Tyranny of Nice I doubt they're laughing now: [...]"

Also: Want Nice? Move to Canada and give up on human dignity, okay? Free speech and intellectual freedom: Some thoughts Oops, a political party has actually noticed the problem. Political science profs nervous about coming here.

Note also further reports from Further reports from Reuters, the CBC, The National Post, The Vancouver Sun and CTV, plus comment from Andrew Coyne, Mark Hemingway, Michelle Malkin, The Weekly Standard, the Canadian Arab Federation, Hot Air, Jay Currie, Stage Left, Deborah Gyapong, The Western Standard, the Hyacinth Girl, Scaramouche, and Kathy Shaidle & Pete Vere, with more at Free Mark Steyn! And there's never been a better day to pick up a copy of The Tyranny Of Nice.

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Monday, December 07, 2009

Intellectual freedom in Canada: American journalist detained and searched at border - for fear she'd criticize the Olympics

As if there wasn't a lot to criticize about the Olympics ...

Canadian border guards detained and interrogated American journalist Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now on US public radio, because border agents feared she would criticize the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, according to CanWest.

CBC reported that she was asked repeatedly what subjects she would cover at her speaking engagements in Vancouver and Victoria.
Goodman said her car was searched and the officials demanded to look at her notes and her computer," reported the CBC. "I am deeply concerned that as a journalist I would be flagged and that the concern – the major concern – was the content of my speech," said Goodman.
American journalists are apparently in a "tizzy", now that they have had a taste of where their wonderful new "hate speech" laws really lead.
“I could see any country in the world doing this, except Canada,” Lucy Dalglish, head of the Washington-based Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press, said yesterday. “I was stunned by what happened.”
I wasn't.
And the vast, online social media network south of the border, much of it spawned by the Barack Obama presidential campaign, is feasting on the story.

- Rick Mickleburgh, Globe and Mail, December 5, 2009

US journalists, if any are listening: Here is what anti-hate legislation does: It is a huge moral hazard. It attracts to the government payroll a whack of busybodies, social engineers, shakedown artists, bounty hunters, pipsqueak Torquemadas, snoops, sneaks, spies, and fascists. People you would not ever wish to know have unaccountable power over you.

Slowly but surely, we are taking out that trash here. But it takes time, and brave, committed citizens.

And Amy, I would love to have more sympathy for you. But if you can't take it, please don't go home and dish it out, crowing over "anti-hate" laws. I am glad to think that your experience will help you to be a free speech journalist and fight back, as many of us are doing here, despite many obstacles.

See also: The stupidest, smuggest press release I ever read.

While we are here, here's the Writers' Union of Canada's open letter:
December 3, 2009

Dear Premier Campbell,

On behalf of The Writers’ Union of Canada, I wish to record our strong objection to perceived attempts to censor and stifle the right to express dissenting views regarding the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

On November 26, 2009 U.S. reporter Amy Goodman was detained by Canadian Border Services Agency, Pacific Region, while attempting to enter Canada to give a book promotional speech at the Vancouver Public Library. Ms. Goodman was repeatedly interrogated as to whether she was planning to speak about the Winter Olympics. She was photographed, control documents were stapled to her passport, and her vehicle and computer were searched.

This treatment of a distinguished American journalist has damaged Canada in the eyes of the world.

Earlier this year I was compelled to write with regard to intimidating behaviour on the part of the Integrated Securities Unit (ISU) while interviewing Dr. Chris Shaw, the author of Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games. Now, as then, The Writers’ Union of Canada requests a formal assurance that the freedom of writers and journalists to criticize the Canadian Olympics will be respected, as befits the guarantees outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Erna Paris
Chair
The Writers’ Union of Canada
Oh sure. This all sounds very fine, but when Canadian journalists and magazines were under assault last year from extraordinary "human rights" commissions, I heard nothing from the Writers' Union. Which is why I dropped out. If they had to wait till an American was targeted before they noticed, they sure won't get my membership dollar ever again.

Hat tip Franklin Carter at the Book and Periodical Council's Freedom of Expression Committee, also J-Source .

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