The Canadian Human Rights Commission really oughta sell tickets for this one, with all the money going back to people who have been unfairly persecuted by Richard Warman - AKA “one of the bravest people” Warren Kinsella knows. (BTW, Kinsella, the Canadian Jewish Congress and other serial censors are strangely silent on this interesting development. We’ll chalk it up to the High Holidays.)

Ezra - speech warrior supreme - has the scoop:

Richard Warman, the hate speech complainant who is personally responsible for all but two section 13 censorship prosecutions this decade, is now being investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for hate speech himself.

Keep in mind that for years, Warman has been posing as a Nazi on white supremacist websites, trying to entrap other Canadians into making racist remarks so he could slam them with a human rights complaint. And for the most part, it’s been working.

But then people - people like Ezra Levant and Kathy Shaidle - began to notice, and began to write about his use of racial slurs on these white supremacist sites. Instead of skulking away after being caught, Warman instead turned around and sued his exposers! Yes, apparently these claims that he had been doing… well, exactly what he’s been doing, actually, were libelous and defamed his “bravest people” character.

It’s been more than a year since Warman filed suit against the Canuck Six (Ezra Levant, Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan, the Fourniers and Jonathan Kay), and his lawyer hasn’t turned over any of the requested pre-discovery documentation. The reason of course is quite simple: He doesn’t want to case to go to discovery, because he is guilty of every claim made by the Canuck Six. And unlike in the Kangaroo Courts of the Human Rights Commission, truth really is a defense in a defamation suit.

Ezra closes out his post saying that he actually pities Richard Warman. I don’t. Karma’s a bitch, Ricky.

Join me and @kimberlyhaney as we chat it up about healthcare, privacy laws, invasive government and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. We are joined by Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn to discuss the Warman v. Lemire decision.

Download MP3

A Shi’ite who has been on death row in Saudi Arabia for 16 years for insulting the Prophet Mohammed was sentenced this week to another five years in jail for criticizing the Saudi justice system, an activist said.

Insulting the Prophet Mohammed. That’s what Ezra Levant was brought in front of the Alberta “Human Rights” Commission for. For printing the Danish cartoons in the now-defunct Western Standard magazine. But he wasn’t charged in Saudi Arabia - he was charged right here in “freedom-loving” Canada. A lunatic, illiterate Imam scrawled a complaint to the AHRC, and for two years Ezra was dragged through an expensive and ultimately bogus process.

No, he didn’t face death row for insulting the epileptic child molester who founded Islam as a land grab. Not this time.

You hear a lot of talk about the slippery slope. In Canada, the Human Rights apparatus was set up to make sure that minorities had equal access to housing and employment as other Canadians. It was a good idea at the time. But the slippery slope has slid us into a place where printing cartoons or writing a book about demography can get you hauled in front of a government body for years on end at high expense… for the good of the people.

Brass Balls Radio records tonight, and with me to discuss the outcome of Warman v. Lemire in front of adjudicator Athanasios Hadjis of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will be Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn. Yes, I’m asking these two great friends to give up part of their Friday evening before a long weekend to talk about the Kangaroo Courts. Again.

Download from iTunes on Sunday night or from the web on Monday morning to hear what they have to say about this recent - positive - turn of events.

If you’re very careful not to blink, you may glimpse the mysterious Binks the Web Elf at an upcoming event in Halifax, Sept 25-26:

Canada’s pre-eminent Freedom Fighter Ezra Levant will be our feature speaker on Saturday.

You will also hear from two other champions of freedom: Connie Fournier of freedom blog, Free Dominion, and Scott Brockie, an entrepreneur who was dragged through Ontario’s human rights system by a homosexual activist, but who has lived to tell the story.

At this conference, you will learn about the ongoing assault against our fundamental liberties in Canada. You will learn about the necessary link between our Judeo-Christian heritage and our tradition of liberty. You will learn about the link between the love of one’s child and a parent’s commitment to pick up his sword in this battle.

If you are a freedom fighter, this conference will encourage and strengthen you in this difficult battle. You will hear from motivating speakers and you will be able to network with other like-minded attendees.

LOCATION
321 Main Ave. - Trinity Anglican Church – the new location (at the top of Fairview), Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3S 0B5
get directions

Full price conference ticket: $75

Student price: $60

Early Bird price: $65 (over 10% saving)

Early Bird deadline is Sept. 5.

Let me count the ways… (actually, I’d better not. I’d hate to find out that the elusive Mrs. Steyn reads this blog)

Anyway, His Steynship is hosting a fundraiser all day today to deal with the pernicious problem of Khurrum Awan and his hilarious suit against Ezra, wherein Ezra calls the incompetent Awan, er, incompetent.

If you haven’t read Lights Out yet, now’s your chance to buy a copy and keep the lights ON!

Mark Steyns Final Sockquidation Day Sale!

Your chance to help Canada’s most sued freespeecher - and get a great read, too.

Which is perhaps why Ezra Levant questioned his intellegence in the first place. After all, intelligence isn’t a measure of how smart you are at the outset; it’s about your ability to learn.

You would think that a guy who had his ass handed to him most efficiently by Mark Steyn and Maclean’s Magazine would run and lick his woulds quietly somewhere. But alas not. Kurrum Awan, lead sock puppet in Mohammed ElMasry’s grievance/shakedown against Macleans, has decided to sue Ezra Levant for libel.

Shakedown

Khurrum Awan admitted under oath he had tried to get Maclean’s to pay $10,000 in penance for running Mark Steyn’s book excerpt. I call that a shakedown, Al Sharpton-style.

Awan? He has it both ways; he claims the money would be for a charity, not for himself (again, I charge I never made). And then he denies it was a shakedown at all.

I think Awan is too used to writing logically incoherent letters to the editor. It will be fascinating to hear what a real judge thinks of Awan’s little scheme to liberate $10,000 from Maclean’s. Shakedown? Hell yes it was. And I’ll always be proud of Maclean’s that they didn’t pay.

His Notice of Service was charmingly riddled with typos, and since he wrote it himself, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to write it in first or third person - so he kept switching back and forth.

There is no mention of the two hot booty-call sock puppets this time. Which is a pity - not only were those girls attractive, but I think they were a hell of a lot smarter.

Kurrum Awan will probably never be a lawyer of any great standing. He is clearly too hot headed and possibly mildly retarded (in that Muslim cave-dwelling way). But he may have a brilliant future ahead of him as Canada’s Al Sharpton.

Good luck in your endeavors, Kurrum. Or, you know, not.

Ezra couldn’t have had a better opportunity if he had scripted it himself.

Jennifer Lynch, the head of the Human Rights Commission, was supposed to appear on Canadian television to discuss the mandate of her Kangaroo Cournt. But when she found out she was supposed to appear with the mouthy Ezra Levant, she blanched. She told CTV that she refused to appear with Ezra, and that they should remove him from the roster.

CTV told her to go fuck herself. Ezra appeared. Lynch didn’t. Take that. This video is almost as interesting as the ones Ezra himself took last year.

CTV won’t be silenced (at least not yet). Read the whole story at Ezra’s here.

Um… I look like Rosie O’Donnell. I see this, I accept this, but please don’t feel you have to point it out to me. Thanks.

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Segment 5

For those of you who have been lining under a rock for the last seven years or so, you may only know Ezra Levant for his kerfuffle with Canada’s “human rights” apparatus, after his now-defunct magazine the Western Standard printed the cartoons of Mohamed. His struggle - and the struggles of others in Canada whose speech and “tone” have been deemed offensive - has been outlined in Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights. I had reviewed this book back in March and called it “bone-chilling”. Mike and I also had Ezra on Brass Balls Radio.

But there’s more to Ezra Levant than just being gang-raped by a band of quasi-judicial thugs. Did you know he has two other books?

Fight Kyoto, published in 2002, discusses the negative effect the enviro-hooey Kyoto Accord would have on Canadian industry and the public at large.

And The War on Fun details how health lobbies (modern-day prohibitionists) are cracking down on vices that the public enjoys. Drinking. Smoking. Eating. It’s timely, considering the current discussion in the U.S. about sugary drinks and the evil Cheerios. That’s right. We have Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and now Big Breakfast. I think (but am not sure) that The War On Fun is out of print, but the link above will take you to Amazon where you can buy it used (and dirt cheap). Now might be a good time for Americans to read this, while drinking a contraband Coke and eating Chinese take-out.

Speaking of out-of-print, I just snagged myself a copy of Kathy Shaidle’s earlier book, A Catholic Alphabet. She has made this available in e-book form via Lulu. The collected articles are a lot like Kathy: Short, quirky, full of pop-culture trivia, and with hidden depths.

Many thanks to the zillions of great people who came out of the woodwork last week when I asked for a ride to London. I’m really looking forward to tonight’s event.

Hitting the open road shortly on this lovely, sunny spring day. Expect a recap either late tonight or (very late) tomorrow.

PS - Toronto folk, don’t forget Ezra is doing a book signing downtown tomorrow. Another day I’ll be forced to rise before noon, but alas, it’s worth it.

Update: While I’m on the road, be sure to check out my latest at Examiner, regarding the upcoming Tea Parties across the USA. Remember, you click, I get paid. Thanks!

Sounds like a party, doesn’t it? Shakedown in the USA! Wear your clogs!

Thing is, the little book by this outspoken Canadian seems to be a bit of a Yankee Doodle Hit. Leastwise according to my Amazon statistics.

So if you haven’t ordered it yet, here’s your chance to a) get an awesome book about the damage done by good intentions, and b) help this site by purchasing it via my affiliate links.

What are you waiting for?

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.

I have here in my hot little hands an advance copy of Ezra Levant’s forthcoming book on the Canadian “human rights” racket: Shakedown.

It arrived this morning, but since I don’t really do mornings, I have just gotten to it now, and only as far as the foreword, by (naturally) Mark Steyn. In it he describes Ezra as “one of those shower units where the merest nudge of the dial sends it straight up to scalding.” I’ve met Ezra several times over the years, but putting Ezra+hot shower together will be a new thought for me. Hmmm. At any rate, when I die, I’m having Mark write the eulogy and the epitaph.

Ezra Levant will be joining us on Brass Balls Radio closer to the end of the month, and Mike and I are really looking forward to talking with him again about the abuses of our over-bloated human rights racket here in Canada. The book is due for release on March 24, but you can pre-order your copy from Amazon now.

We are of course at the end of the year and thoughts and wishes turn to 2009 and what that year will be like for each of us. Most thoughts of course are naturally personal. Happiness love and prosperity. For many of us, its political. What will the environment be like in the western world. I’m going to guess most readers of this blog already recognize there are problems with western liberal democracy. Massive ones. Earth shaking ones as the experiment in equality and freedom fails. I’m going to guess that few know what to do about it as our politicians over all seem more worried about the illusion of stability rather than the true maintenance of liberalism as Thomas Jefferson saw it.

I believe right to my heart and bones that the only thing that can be done is in fact individual acts of defiance. But defiance of what? Of ill^liberalism. Of imposed tyranny by the intolerant left, Islam, all who would tell us what we are allowed to say think wear and do.

History has a few consistent messages for us. When we submit to tyranny more will follow. Even when its something benign and seemingly for the public good such as no smoking sections in bars and restaurants by legislation which violates larger principles of freedom of property and individual rights it leads to absurd laws such as we have for patio’s now where any outdoor patio which has any degree of fixed cover or even too many umbrellas may not allow patrons to have a cigarette and a beer in the same place.

I ask you especially who despise cigarettes and ask yourselves if this loss of freedom is worth it to you.

When Ezra Levant and the Western standard were taken to the Human rights courts for 900 days of investigations and what would amount to about 5 years salary for me in costs to defend himself from accusations of racism for publishing the Danish cartoons, the center of a storm which was the largest news story on planet earth for months, one has to ask what the cost to all of us was for the submission by everyone else to not publish.

Once we agree to not say or do anything that might offend Muslims we are in fact living as second class citizens or ‘Dhimmis’ under a form of proxy sharia law. In this spirit I ask you for your defiance. The T shirts available here are a great statement. but not the only one possible. The distinction between deliberate offense of a religion for its own sake such as the ‘art’ piece which was proudly displayed at the National Gallery of Canada, ‘The Piss Christ’ which was merely a Catholic crucifix in a jar of urine was celebrated by the art world. The art world needs to know that under Islam art is forbidden altogether short of a few decorative lines on clay pots.

Additionally, most modern thinkers would have us believe that daring to confront the religious authority, any religious authority would be the work of the artist, the consummate renegade, the social malcontent or the plainly retarded. But defiance at it’s best is the domain of all thinking men and women; those whose refusal to submit to the workings of irrational codes of conduct ensures the natural progression of the creative, human mind. It was no coincidence that Hitler’s regime sought out first and foremost to capture and destroy artists; Pol Pot was no different in his culling and extermination of the most dangerous minds to him and the Iranian regime first murdered over one hundred thousand people in the arts, the very people the Ayatollah used to overthrow the Shaw and install the Islamic regime in Iran. But the artists now here as then are merely the useful idiots for the new tyrants of political correctness and ironically Islam.

So wear a T shirt which shows non submission. With an image of Mohamed or whatever. Maybe showing the stone Buddhas that the Taliban destroyed as a signal to the world. Collectors offered to buy the statues at the time and move them but the Taliban wanted to be clear that Islam would not tolerate images of other faiths nor even any image of something god made as they see it to merely exist . No images of people or animals as we see in Bangladesh where Muslims are busy destroying works of art depicting flocks of birds and frankly of anything at all.

We KNOW what submission brings. More demands for more submission. I ask for defiance. Eat a ham sandwich during Ramadan for lunch. Why is that defiant? In England governments are being asked not to serve food at all during daylight hours in meetings of city council so as not to ‘offend’ the muslims there.

What we in Canada especially consider an opportunity to be polite and show kindness by adjusting to the sensitivities of others no matter how irrational has become in fact the first step to actually mandating these acts of submission. They are simply no longer acts of kindness when they are forced.

This may be a good time to remind people how Galileo drew a cartoon of the pope in his courageous book on celestial mechanics for which he was jailed. One could argue that had he not ridiculed the church it may have slowed down the growth of reason in Europe a great deal. It was his willingness to personally sacrifice by ridiculing irrational religious authority that bought us all freedom beyond the understanding of most of humanity for most of our history. To be clear on this, its not merely a right to criticize irrational religious authority, its a duty and even a historical responsibility to do so.

We have become not only good at destroying every taboo in western classical society by questioning it out of existence we have become cynical about them. This as a stand alone thing, not so bad. But add to it a kind of fascination with primitive and barbaric even superstitious cultures and the notion that because we represent our own history as barbaric usually with little or no understanding of it, we somehow think that those culture’s current barbarism is somehow to be expected and accepted. Be warned, we are indeed truly on a precipice to the end of a golden age of liberty and individualism.

Ultimately I would like to extend to all liberals those who agree and those who hate me but choose to answer me by arguing and hopefully changing my mind, my favorite moments are when I am shown to be wrong and accept a new view by reason, a merry Christmas and all the best fruition of your hopes and dreams for the new year. To the irrational and authoritarian left, to those Muslims who believe I have a right to think and live exactly as you do, who would force me to submission of your values like the Human Rights Commission did to Rev. Boission, I offer you scorn. Scorn contempt and defiance.

James Cohen Dec 2008

Not nobody, not nohow!

I have stood in rooms with the loved and the loathed of Canada, gone for drinks with everyone from lowly lawyers (sorry, Ez) to diplomats and congressman. Went through the security required to sit five feet away from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 15 feet away from Dick Cheney, and 20 feet away from George Bush. I’ve walked the hallowed (though not halal) halls of the Ike Building in Washington DC.

But if I wanted to see the Wizards of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, I would be shit-outta-luck.

Fire. Them. All.

Our special guest this week is Ezra Levant.

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Tomorrow’s show is a great one, where we talk to Ezra Levant. He does the top 20 countdown of all his complaints and lawsuits, and then the conversation turns very philosophical. Even if you think you already know the story, do yourself a favor and tune in.

Also on the show: Is Barack Obama planning to dismantle the American military? We talk about it.

Ezra Levant gets some emails of support from people affiliated directly with Warren “I’ll sue anybody!” Kinsella:

But if you think getting a donation for my legal defence fund from the CJC is weird, how about this: I received a letter of support from someone who works at Daisy Consulting Group — Kinsella’s own lobby firm! It was a brief note, but it was a note of support, sent from the company e-mail, with the corporate signature block on it.

I couldn’t believe it. My first reaction was that it might be some sort of trick, but that was just me thinking like, well, Kinsella. It was sincere — and I appreciated it.

I won’t catalogue everyone who wrote to me today. Suffice it to say that, from the Liberal Party of Canada, to McMillan Binch, to the Canadian Jewish Congress to Kinsella’s own staff, I have a lot of suprising new allies now that Kinsella is threatening me.

The Girl in Blue writes of Ezra on Coren:

One of my favourite parts was when Micheal pointed out that many leftists see this issue as a battle of the political sides of the spectrum. Both men asserted that this is not the case at all. Neither care whether you’re wrong–er, left, or right. This isn’t about that. This isn’t a bunch of bible-thumping Republican types ranting on about the HRCs, dabbling in little lies along the way in an attempt to ice to their white and blue free speech plea cake. (See, Canadian Cynic? I can list off dumb stereotypes and pass it off as a blog, too!)

For a young chick, she has a sharp tongue! And she’s also pretty perceptive.

Without the right to a forum for discussion, there could be no discussion. Without the right to protest, there could be no political progression. These dummies complaining to the HRC have every right to complain (without free speech, they wouldn’t), just as every defendent had every right to say–or publish–what they did. That’s the beauty of the free West. Levant said “we love justice.” But the HRC isn’t a real court. There’s no real evidence needed, no real trials, no real justice. And the truth is, if these wacko complainants win their cases, it may be a feather in their cap (as my Buby would say), but it isn’t simply a loss for the defendent. It’s a loss for Canada, and the freedom we have boasted so proudly about. It’s a loss for you and your liberty. It’s the first chip in the decay of your fundamental rights, your society, and your freedom.

Ezra will be on the Michael Coren show tonight!