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Canada: Not a free country

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A few days old but, lest we forget: Ezra Levant was fined $80,000 by a Canadian court:

Levant’s posts centred on Awan’s testimony at a British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal case…Awan was a law student when the article was published and was among a group of students who alleged the article was Islamophobic…Some of blog posts are titled “Awan the liar,” “Awan the liar part two” and so forth…Levant’s lawyer had said his defence was primarily one of fair comment. He had said the blog posts were based upon what Levant observed over two days of Awan’s testimony at the human rights tribunal and were comments on a matter of public interest.

Via HotAir, where Jazz Shaw explains that Levant was fined for expression of *opinion*:

When you get to subjects such as social evolution, religion and prognostication about the future (which was the subject of the original article) it’s fairly obvious that you are talking about matters of opinion. Even here in the United States, you can’t go around writing, for example, that Bob is a drug dealer unless you can come up with some proof to support the allegation. That veers off from the arena of opinion and into the land of slander and libel. But Ezra Levant was disagreeing with Awan – albeit somewhat strenuously – on more subjective matters. For this exchange of ideas a Canadian judge has fined him $80K.

I’m sure this is just what the Left would love to see in America. Levant plans to appeal; feel free to help him pay for it.

UPDATE: Not that I’m sure the U.S. is that much better. Of his order on deportations, President Obama has now boasted, “I just took an action to change the law” – thus ignoring the U.S. constitution, which assigns that power to Congress.

Comments

  1. When I’ve commented, elsewhere, about Canadians & Europeans having extreme restrictions on their speech & expression, I’ve come across disbelief from Dems & Libs. They want anything & everything European, but don’t understand the reality.

  2. “Where the welfare state is on the march, the police state is not far behind.” – Melchior Palyi

    The reason is: the one implies the other. The Welfare State is based on the use of government force to control and exploit people. And that can’t be done, long-term, under a regime of free speech and individual rights. Sooner or later, the oppressive State can keep itself together only by limiting political debate – in other words, speech becomes yet another thing that the oppressive State will need to control.

  4. When world-class alchemist Michael Mann can say, “I’m suing Mark Steyn because he questioned mah authoriteh,” you know freedom of speech isn’t exactly sitting pretty.

    Seriously, do these people not realize that they have become as intolerant of dissent, and as ruthless in their crushing of said dissent, as the Puritans they probably despise?

  5. From my interaction with Canadians, one of the things that they love to brag about, other than their healthcare system and their gay rights laws, is their policy of multiculturalism. While it isn’t full-blown British or German multikulti, they’re still big on the whole “diversity” thing. So, this news piece does NOT come as a surprise to me.

  6. Freedom of speech is something Fergudishu protesters are accorded in abundance, but it is strictly rationed when it comes to the Tea Party. Imagine what would happen if the Tea Party blocked freeways at rush hour in major cities.

  7. Sean, no, they probably don’t realize it.

    This is the problem of hatred. Ever heard the phrase, “We become what we think about”? It is often used as an affirmation to keep your mind on your goals and eventually you see that goal become a reality.

    It has a dark side: we become what we hate. Because the same dynamics that bring us closer to our goals are in play. We tend to think about, dwell on, obsess over the things we hate, even if we are responding to hatred on the other side.

    It begins with justifying our own hatred because of their hatred, real or imagined (how often have we heard truly hateful speech from those who claim the other side are hateful racists/sexists/homophobes?)

    When it gets to the point where we start lying to ourselves about our own hatred, that’s when it becomes narcissism. Our viewpoint is the only legitimate one, and any attempt to challenge that viewpoint must be eradicated, lest we have to look at the truth.

    All tyrants believe themselves to be doing what is good for the people–the people are just too stupid to realize it.

  8. @ Craig Smith: I’ve gotten called a f@g by progressives who got frustrated with me because I was not toeing the progressive line. I always take it to mean that I’ve won the debate.