Review: Shakedown by Ezra Levant
You are sitting in your office, going about the business of your business, when someone presents themselves at reception, saying they’ve come to confiscate your hard drive, your hard files and any peripheral e-storage devices. They have no warrant to back them up, and they don’t need one. They are from the government. They are valiantly fighting for the cause of human rights. You do not have the right to turn them away, and you must give them all they request.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have read Shakedown on a windy, rainy night. Maybe then I wouldn’t have written Ezra with a short email review: Bone-chilling.
While not necessarily the horror of Stephen King, Shakedown is a series of Orwellian tales perhaps worthy of the Twilight Zone. In Canada, Section 8 of our Charter (what passes for a constitution in this country) protects the proletariat from illegal search and seizure. Except when it doesn’t. Like, where the “human rights” commissions are involved.
Operating completely outside the law of the land, these “human rights” commissions and tribunals across the country have no set operating procedure. Every case is different, civil law and the Magna Carta have no bearing, and rules are made up as they go along. In addition, though they portend to be a wall of defense between hatred and the population, their employees and cronies are some of the largest purveyors of hate in the country.
If, for example, you and I were to write about niggers and kikes in an effort to foment hatred and possibly violence, the aforementioned Gestapo of the “human rights” rackets would invade our personal files and steal our computer equipment. Yet if one of their employees - past or present - did the same thing under a pseudonym, it would all be in the cause of fighting hatred.
Tell me, dear readers - especially those outside of Canada - does what I’ve written make you feel like you’ve fallen through the looking glass? Me too. The Queen of Hearts (in this case, Jennifer Lynch) passes judgment on intention and tone, branding people from all walks of life to be outside civilized society. Well, almost all walks. Like, for example, you can’t really be charged if you are a lesbian, or a Muslim. After all, you are one of your precious protected people. You are free to make spurious claims - at no cost to yourselves - against small business owners, private citizens and anyone who you may feel has slighted you. In turn, they must pay and pay throughout the process of being found guilty (for no one is ever found not guilty - ever), and then pay again upon being found guilty.
In Shakedown, Ezra Levant tells us these tales of horror, in his usual witty and bombastic manner, as well as telling us of his own infamous dealings with the Alberta “Human Rights” Commission for daring to report on a news story that Muslims found offensive.
Money quote: You can always ignore a racist. You can’t escape from the government.
Ezra has waged an almost three year battle to denormalize the “human rights” apparatus in Canada and to expose their unconstitutional practices to the sunlight of public opinion. Shakedown is his story, along with the stories of many other less connected Canadians who have suffered at the hands of the Court of Marsupial Magistrates.
Is this a book just for Canadians? No. Any country that subscribes to a politically-correct orthodoxy at the expense of common sense (I’m looking at you, Britain) is at risk of having quasi-judicial bodies break the law of the land in an effort to protect people from being offended.
Shakedown by Ezra Levant is available as of Tuesday, March 24th in Chapters/Indigo branches across Canada, and worldwide via Amazon. You can pre-order it through Amazon today
UPDATE: D’uh. I thought it was a little odd that the book would be launched on a Tuesday, and I was right. It in fact launches today, Monday the 23rd of March. I actually saw it in Indigo last night after dinner.
Ooh, I see a couple words there that could be “clipped” and used against you in that ransom note racist kind of way.
I’ve pre-ordered Ezra’s book and looking forward to it. It actually gives me chills just reading your review.
Now, when they come for your hard drive, etc., do they bring police with them to enforce it? Because I’d tell them to go to hell otherwise.
I’ve been thinking, as much as we want Section 13 gone, I don’t think that’s near enough. The whole bloody lot of the HRCs and Tribunals need to go. The real courts are all we need.
Comment by natasha — March 22, 2009 @ 3:47 pm
Good review Wendy….shocking perspective…perhaps we need to shock a lot more smug government worshipping dupes into the realization that petty political memes like global warming or pandemic islamophobia and homophobia pales in comparison to the threat of big government-iron fist solutions for some hyped up social foibles….and it IS a matter of perspective.
Perspective allows us to stand back and actuall see the dangers presented by alrmist bogey men as opposed to the remoseless steam roller of mega statism.
I can put up with some people with stupid ideas and crappy attitudes,(even some nasty mouthed ones), a lot easier than the brave new world envisioned by big government utopians….unfortuanely for us a lot of these statist utopians are concentrated in quasi-authoritative commisariats which exude the absolutism of dystopian state solutions to non problems.
Comment by WL Mackenzie Redux — March 22, 2009 @ 6:43 pm
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Pingback by Webloggin » Review: Shakedown by Ezra Levant — March 22, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
Dear Wendy:
Hey, great stuff and sad to say, much the same in Australia. In 2001 the Bracks Labour Government [think "respectable" PC smug, morally vain and fashionable eco-leftards via unionism and their eternal "consultancy" gravy train] well, Stevie passed the Racial and Religious Vilification Law.
It’s now illegal to “ridicule” or “bring into comtempt” a religion. Guess which single religious group has been prosecuted by which other er, political project so far? Yep, Muslims prosecuted Christians. Big ‘effing surprize, eh? Er, no.
A Christian Pastor was fined for reading from, and I kid you not, the Krazy Koran, or the “filth of the Koran” as Christopher Hitchens rightly noted.
Australia dear Wendy, is perhaps no more than five years behind Gutted Britain. We have no free speech as you can see. Just call yaself a religion and say you are offended! We also had our guns taken away by an alleged conservative in John Howard. Go figure.
Only America is left, kid. Just a matter of time and degrees here in the Oz dreamtime.
Colonel Robert Neville blogspot com.
Comment by Colonel Neville. — March 23, 2009 @ 8:48 am
Wendy,
Chilling is the right word. I live in the US, and, although we may not be as far along as Canada in trampling freedom of speech, we’re moving in that direction, thanks to our President and the Dem controlled Congress. Looking forward to throwing the bums out next election!
Comment by Tim — March 23, 2009 @ 9:27 am
[...] REVIEW: Shakedown by Ezra Levant …. [...]
Pingback by Steynian 338 « Free Canuckistan! — March 23, 2009 @ 10:52 am
How very odd. Your review states that “you can’t really be charged if you are a lesbian, or a Muslim. After all, you are one of your precious protected people”.
The precious protected people in Canada are not lesbians or Muslims, but Jewish. Jews are the ones who brought these laws into being in Canada, (1953) and Jews are the ones who created the HRC’s. (Borovoy, et al)
This must have escaped your notice because you were too busy shouting “Israel Lives!”
Comment by Shlomo Morell — March 23, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
Hello, my charming new Antisemite. Perhaps you should spend a little less time trolling Wikipedia and a little more time paying attention to what goes on in Canada. For example, the HRC complaint against B’nai Brith that dragged on for FIVE LOOOOONG YEARS by Shahina Siddiqui of the Islamic Social Service Association of the United States and Canada.
Anything else you’d like to add to the conversation?
Thanks for stopping by!
RG
Comment by Right Girl — March 23, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
Please list the date and place where the B’nai Brith was compelled to appear in front of a Human Rights Tribunal. Please list the fine they received, the jail sentence they received, and which jail their sentence was served in. Thanks in advance.
Then we can discuss how many court cases the B’nai Brith was granted intervenor status on the side of the CHRT’s. The side that put people in jail and ruined their lives. If facts are actually what you are interested in.
But, I suspect that, like the HRC’s themselves, you will find the facts are “anti-semitic”.
Comment by Shlomo Morell — March 23, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
Wendy, you also have no rights if ‘animal control officers’ show up at your door looking for your pitbull. I HAD to have a microchip put in each dog. I MUST send animal control a mug shot and a full body picture of each dog every year when I renew their licenses. I MUST pay an extra pitbull tax on each dog above and beyond the regular licensing fee every year. Thank you Dullton McGuinty. A place to stand, a place to go, Ontari- ari- ario.
Comment by Rick A — March 23, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
Oooop, didn’t mean to interrupt this guys tirade against the dreaded Jooooos.
Comment by Rick A — March 23, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
Please list the dates and times that lesbians and Muslims have been… ah ferfucksake you’re a dullard, aren’t you?
You will get no argument from me - or from Ezra the Jooooo for that matter - that the “professional Jews” of Canada wrought this scourge themselves. But just like the human rights agencies of the Wiemar republic, the tables are now being turned against them. In this case, the B’nai Brith third-hand Islmophobia claim.
Now, run along and get your head shaved before your mother calls you upstairs for dinner. Heil Hitler and all that (is that you, Dicky Warman?).
RG
Comment by Right Girl — March 23, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
The point is, dear Yalmulke wearer, that you are 1) busy avoiding the facts, and 2) when called on the issue, you wail “anti-semite”!
Spare me your melodrama about the Weimar and the Third Reich. I know more about this subject than you could ever hope to.
When Jews are jailed in Canada for offending white people, then the tables will be turned. Right now, the only people jailed in Canada for offensive words are those whose words offended Jews.
I will never cease to talk about facts when there are bug eyed fanatics like you trying to deflect from the facts, or pretend they didn’t occur. As if these HRC’s and Canada’s “hate laws” just happened, rather by a deliberate, long tern concerted plan.
BTW, if you can infer I am a nazi, it is certainly fair play to infer you are a Jew. But perhaps you are?
Comment by Shlomo Morell — March 23, 2009 @ 5:41 pm
Shlomo
Dunno if it’s fair play or not but I not only infer that you are an asshole I can 100% confirm it.
Now go polish your Doc Martins, wipe off the pimple cream and start working on perfecting the seig heil salute in front of your mirror.
Comment by BoomNoZoom — March 23, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
Yes, I am an asshole. I wear Doc Martins, I have pimples, I live in mom’s basement, I raise the Hitler salute in front of a mirror, and I am a nazi. Did I miss anything?
When will you hysterical freaks learn that all the name calling in the world will not change the facts?
Comment by Shlomo Morell — March 23, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
Shlomo
You missed a spot.
Comment by BoomNoZoom — March 23, 2009 @ 7:19 pm
I missed a spot?
If I did, it must have been when I failed to mention that John Taylor Ross was the first person jailed in Canada for offending Jews. He was 80 years old or so at the time.
Truly, he was a security threat.
Comment by Shlomo Morell — March 23, 2009 @ 7:25 pm
Oh, and is this the spot I missed?
The B’nai Brith was intervenor in the Taylor-Ross case.
As they are in most “hate speech” cases.
Comment by Shlomo Morell — March 23, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
You should look up “portend”.
Comment by girlontheleft — March 23, 2009 @ 9:32 pm
BTW, in between your ablutions, did you happen to notice that Jew judge (Kershman) Jew lawyers, (Katz, Spear), Jewish certified plaintiff (warman)have been successful in ordering that Freedominion turn over the IP addresses of all John Does, so they can be sued and/or imprisoned?
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/images/motion_decision.pdf
When the fuck are you going to wake up?
Comment by ShlomoMorell — March 23, 2009 @ 9:47 pm
Shlomo
You are missing the point in your rush to be over-combative and ill-mannered. No-one denies that some of the ‘professional Jews’ have been enablers of the ‘human rights’ bullies. Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant (himself Jewish) have both often criticsied the Canadian Jewish Congress for its propensity to fight for the restriction of free speech.
What you seem to find hard to grasp is the CJC and like asssociations are not and cannot be described as “the Jews.” Anti-semitism comprises of ascibing to all Jews the deeds or ideology of one group of Jews.
Comment by Peter the Australian — March 23, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
Thanks Peter the Australian for making the point clear. I guess Shlomo is too much of a dullard blinded by his zeal vs Jooos to make the distinction. It may be true that a Jooo like Ezra hasn’t ended up in jail yet, or had the harshness of the penalty that a Christian like Stephen Boissoin has been handed, but he has taken up Boissoin’s cause and exposed himself to more SLAPP crap suits. Ezra’s troubles aren’t over yet by a long shot. The chill that HRCs have cast is making free speech (written or oral) a minefield that many publishers shy from. The lawfare being targeted by bin Marfouz and his ilk, (he’s a rich Saudi Muslim), in having books banned and pulped (ie Alms for Jihad) and threats against the likes of Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld (Funding Evil), seems to have escaped Shlomo’s notice.
Comment by paul — March 31, 2009 @ 9:22 am
[...] Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Righs (see here, here, and here). So I will keep mine short if not sweet: I’m sorry Ezra, but your book is [...]
Pingback by A horrible book : Brigitte Pellerin Online — April 2, 2009 @ 8:28 am
[...] Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (see here, here, and here). So I will keep mine short if not sweet: I’m sorry Ezra, but your book is [...]
Pingback by ProWomanProLife » A horrible book — April 2, 2009 @ 11:14 am
In the end, he stole away in the middle of the night to somewhere else he judged to be safer. ,
Comment by His_wife41 — October 22, 2009 @ 2:54 pm