A note to my international readers
This blog, like many Canadian news blogs, will be all human rights commission, all the time this week. Many of you may not know much about it. Others, like my lucky American readers, will be incredulous that we don’t have a First Amendment here.
I encourage all of you to stay and read this week’s coverage of Mark Steyn and Maclean’s magazine in front of the British Columbia Human Rights Commission. If these things continue to happen in so-called civilized Canada, it is only a matter of time before it happens elsewhere. It is already happening around Europe, whereBrigitte Bardot was just fined the equivalent of $25,000 for slurring Islam.
On American campuses, there are “free speech zones”, and anywhere else on campus your speech is restricted. You can’t wear or say what you want anymore. Debate is being stifled on both sides of our border. I urge you to stay here at Girl on the Right (and other Canadian blogs who are covering this) throughout this week, and educate yourselves about what is happening here. The more you know, the less likely you will be to allow this to creep into your own country. Arm yourself with this knowledge. And know this:
We did this to ourselves. We allowed this to happen. When these Commissions were going after neo-Nazis, we ignored the news. It was easy. After all, who cares if some skinhead gets his just desserts? Who wants to defend a Holocaust denier? But now it’s us. We are the ones being rounded up. We can’t expect sympathy from those Nazis and skinheads - some of them must be sneering at our ignorance right now. Yet even as members of the press, like the publishers at Maclean’s, are being hauled in front of the thought police, there are others now who are turning away from the news. Many bloggers and journos who have different views from those of Steyn, or Levant or any of us, are saying we are either barking at the wind, or they are actually cheering for the HRC’s. You know what? I’m ok with that. We did it. We cheered for the Ernst Zundel’s of Canada to be prosecuted. And now those who are ideologically opposed to Steyn and Levant are cheering for their demise. I suppose what goes around comes around, right?
And so it will go, and someday, ten or twenty years down the line, it could be one of them. There are many Thought Crimes - misogyny comes to mind immediately - that come from those opposed. How long before they are hauled before these Kangaroo Courts and tried for their views, their words? Asked to defend themselves for speaking their truth? It could be a blogger who refers to women as “cunts” or one who says “fuck the Jews”. It may be one of their rabid commenters who puts them in hot water. Or it could be an anti-Semitic journo from the Toronto Star. It could be Toronto City Councilor Adam Vaughn for calling Americans “gun toting Yanks”. And they will look back on the cases of Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, and wonder why they didn’t speak up. Just as we are doing now, with Zundel.
I can only hope that when that day comes - and it will, if we lose our chance to make changes to the law - we on the right side are willing to set aside our differences and defend them as we did not do for others before us. And as our opponents are not doing for us. I hope, but I really doubt it will happen. We, too, will most likely sneer from the silent sidelines, watching those we dislike be brought under heel.
Nice rave. I said the near same thing to a Macleans blog. Not as nice though, or as well written.
Comment by Revnant Dream — June 4, 2008 @ 3:28 am
Very true, and I’m certainly guilty of saying nothing until a few months ago. Yep, I cheered when Zundel was prosecuted. And even though I started to finally wake up several years ago (I’d say the late 1990s), when I heard crazy stories about HR tribunals and their nutty decisions, I just shook my head and laughed it off. It didn’t affect me directly, or so I thought.
Well, hopefully it’s not too late, but you’re right: we brought this on ourselves.
Comment by sjt — June 4, 2008 @ 6:58 am
Well said Wendy!
I queried the Editor of the London (Ontario) Free Press, to which I subscribe, whether they would be carrying any stories about the BC HRC debacle currently underway in Vancouver.
It seems they are interested only if the CP wire service provides a story!
The London Free press is the sole daily in London, a city of near four hundred thousand plus it covers the region of south western Ontario, yet this tragic story of the HRC kangaroo court has no interest in the editorial board room at the LFP.
Dead silence from the very voice of a “free press”.
Go figure that one!
Comment by Joseph ( Joe ) Molnar — June 4, 2008 @ 8:45 am
[...] GIRL ON THE RIGHT: “A note to my international readers”; plus “Khurrum Awan isn’t praying. He is [...]
Pingback by Steyn Showtrial Day 3.0 « Free Mark Steyn! — June 4, 2008 @ 9:09 am
Joe,
That doesn’t surprise me one bit. I used to subscribe to the Freeps, but I got fed up with the ultra-Liberal bias on just about everything they print.
I say it doesn’t surprise me, but it does make me a little sad. I get my news online from more reliable sources. Occasionally I check out the Freeps online - like once a month.
And I pretty much guarantee if you write a letter to the editor about the HRC fiasco, it will probably be ignored. I’d give odds on it.
Comment by sjt — June 4, 2008 @ 9:55 am
Say, I almost forgot about our own little HRC issue here is London years back when Mayor Haskett “punished” by them. She refused to make a gay pride proclamation because of her personal religious beliefs. I wrote a letter to the editor in support of her, but I think I was in the minority. Most people seemed to feel she should be FORCED to make such a proclamation; I felt she had every right to decline - it was her CHOICE. Apparently, I was wrong - she had to pay a big fine.
But that was back in the days when the Freeps printed most of my letters; for a little while now (since Larry Cornies left), my letters have not been welcome because I don’t conform to their viewpoint.
Comment by sjt — June 4, 2008 @ 11:26 am
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You are so right. Excellent piece, well put. Thank God our rights are much stronger in America. We all must help Canadian bloggers get this out to the world. Bludgeon the HRC through the blogosphere, continue to mock and expose their lawbreaking. We must keep educating people about this stuff so we stay far away from that PC craziness.
This whole Steyn, Levant and the Canadian bloggers V Mark Warman thing may end up being the first death knell, the beginning of the end of the HRC’s lawless actions.
Canada’s Supreme Court and Parliament will eventually be getting involved I imagine. I certainly hope so.
Let real Lawyers battle it out in argument. Of course the Left doesn’t want this. They know they have the weaker case.
I can’t wait to see a tape of Steyn in front of the commission. The one with Ezra Levant was a real hoot. Ezra skewered them. I hope Mark will too.
Mark Steyn is totally excellent, someone MUST give him his own show!
We should all go hear him speak if we ever get the chance.
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absurd thought -
God of the Universe likes
human rights commissions
that violate human rights
while claiming to protect them
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe hates
real freedom of speech
an American concept
which is NOT for Canada
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. If there is no freedom of speech, then there can be no real freedom.
.
Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
.
Help Halt Terrorism Now!
.
USpace
.
Comment by USpace — June 4, 2008 @ 10:53 pm