Good point, Mike n.
No matter what your political bent is.
Good word’s to live by.
I have a hard time figuring what to make of this comment. Taken narrowly, there may be some rationale that makes sound like it isn’t too bad, but taken broadly it sounds like the embodiment of the worst cases of the “tyranny of the majority.” Simply gain enough political power and you become the gatekeeper of all speech? I know that happens sometimes but it isn’t supposed to be a good thing.
[quote=“MikeN”][quote=“Chewycorns”]
So Ezra decided to take advantage of the ancient Anglo-Saxon right to free expression and published the cartoons.
What he was reminded of, almost immediately, is that Canada is no longer an Anglo-Saxon nation.[/quote]
Of course, one problem with standing up for free speech is that you invariably end up standing beside a lot of racist maggots, including people who somehow fail to realise that Canada never was an “Anglo-Saxon” nation
(the wogs begin at Calais)
[quote]Ironically, human rights commissions are the best examples of just how many rights we have lost. They follow none of the rules of evidence built up over centuries to assure the accused of a fair hearing. Many commissions will hear plaintiff 's testimony in secret, violating the protection of being able to confront one’s accusers. Most admit hearsay and limit the right of the accused to counsel or to call his own witnesses and experts.
[/quote]
And of course most of these stalwart defenders of human rights are the same people supporting Gitmo, extraordinary rendition, and tossing out habeas corpus i.e. “800 years of Anglo-Saxon tradition,” when it’s a question of “Islamofascism” aka “the brown people are coming to kill us all.”
I’m reminded of the ACLU’s defense of the Nazi’s rights to march through the largely-Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois. Even though these people are cockroaches, they should have their rights preserved, though they would be the first to deny them to others.[/quote]
I never said those thing about Canada being an Anglo-Saxon nation. That was Lorne Gunter in the National Post (hardly an extreme newspaper) as mentioned in my original post. Reading it again, however, I tend to agree with you. Perhaps he shouldn’t have used those exact words. I think he was just trying to contrast the different legal traditions and role of the state in England vs. the continental countries.
Well, it seems the Canadian Human Rights Commission has a history of “commissar”-like tactics, including devious behavior with the infiltration of conservative message boards. That shouldn’t suprise normal Canadian though.
Look what principal “anti-hate” HRC investigator Dean Steacy had to say during the recent tribunal against Marc Lemire. He said, “Freedom of Speech is an American concept, so I don’t give it any value.” To think that this man is running the show at the HRC should send shivers done the spine of every Canadian. By the way, Mr Steacy is dead wrong. It is not “freedom of speech” that is an alien or American concept but his own “human rights” regime, which was set up in the late 1970s in in direct contradiction to Canada’s legal tradition.
CBC’s Rex Murphy has come out against the Human Rights Commissions.
I can only shake my head…
Journalists Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn face numerous Human Rights Commission hearings for “reprinting cartoons implying a link between terrorism and militant Islam, and discussing Islamic ambitions and to quote various Muslim leaders calling for Islam to conquer Europe”, but Canada doesn’t have the balls to deal accordingly or appropriately with a Univ of Toronto student who was exposed in a report last week by the National Post. Salman Hossain “repeatedly has posted on the Internet that Canadian soldiers should be killed in Canada so that they cannot fight in Afghanistan”, among other even more disgusting comments.
[quote]“Any and all Western soldiers getting prepared to enter Muslim nations should be legitimate targets by any and all Islamic militants. If there were any planned attacks against Canadian/American soldiers by Muslim militants in Canadian soil, I’ll support it,” writes Salman Hossain, currently enjoying an education heavily funded by tax dollars.
He went on to write that, “I enjoy watching the blood flow from the Western troops” and “when do I get to shoot a few Jews down. Why f…ing target the Americans when the Jews are better?”
He continues that a “mass casualty” attack in Canada would be, “fantastic and would get the job done”.[/quote]
I’m not always on the same page as Michael Coren, but he’s right on the money in this column IMO.
Two things:
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Michael Coren is a rightwing crank and religious zealot. A television show about Muslims in Saskatchewan doesn’t have to be about fathers strangling their daughters for not wearing the hijab. It doesn’t have to be about jihadist keyboarders in Toronto calling for the blood of Canadians soldiers. You know why? Because not every Muslim in Canada says these things. Actually, very, very few Muslims say those things in Canada. Hardly any, in fact. Pace Coren, should “Corner Gas” have an episode about white supremacists because, you know, they’re white?
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I support the right of the jihadist keyboarder to keyboard. That was what this whole thread was about, wasn’t it? Of course, I also support the right of CSIS to keep close tabs on him because of the things he’s saying. Like, d’uh.
I also agree, of course, that the Human Rights Commission is a crock of shite.
I’m well aware of Coren’s background and leanings. As I said, I’m not always on the same page as him. Often not, in fact. His column this time around though illustrates pretty clearly how much of a crock of shit it is for Levant and Steyn to be called before Human Rights Commission hearings when you’ve got human garbage like this Salman Hossain around, unlikely to be prosecuted for his hate speech. Way to go Canada.
Nothing to do with the Canadian Human Rights case, but it could have had grim repercussions indeed. Glad that the Danish police are on top of things.
Above all else, the right to make fools of themselves in open public.
I really liked the mohammed cartoons AND the demonstrations against them. I even have an oppinion whom it made look like a bunch of murdering lunatics afterwards.
The demonstrations drove that point home better than any of the cartoons did.
Says who? To me it said “terrorism has the power to descredit Islam enough to make it implode”.
Widely seen my ass. Widely popular and convenient cult of victimization maybe in the Muslim world, that’s maybe closer to it.
I’ll start taking it serious once they have cleaned before their own doorstep.
fitting punishment: tattoo them with several of the cartoons at issue?
just a thought.
and another thought, who is that guy in the TV photo in Chewycorn’s post? is it perhaps some time tunnel version of Tom Hanks in ten years?
Well, it looks like Syed Soharwardy is withdrawing his Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint against former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant. Glad to see Levant is going to go after him in a civil trial to get back some of the money he had to use to defend himself.
Conservative PM Harper has been pretty quiet on this whole matter. Suprisingly, the Liberal Party of Alberta hasn’t. Considering most urbanite small-c conservative Calgarians are not overly fond of the current premier, I see the Liberals gaining a lot of ground in the next election. If the leader of the party keeps making impressive stands, the Liberals might be taking over Alberta and they’d have my support (if Stelmach remains as leader of the PCs). I think it’s time for some other party to try things out in Alberta. The UFA, SC, and the PCs have been in power since the early 20th Century.
Speaking of Cartoons…
dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a … ge_id=1811
The Bomber Bunny was said to have sneaked into Gaza from Egypt when Hamas smashed down then border fence two weeks ago.
They then urged their young audience to liberate Tel Aviv through “resistance”.
The program ended with the catchy song: “We will never recognize Israel.”
With Saraa joining in on the refrain, the characters sang: “Until we liberate our homeland from the Zionist filth.”
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, said Hamas was “using charming children’s characters to teach hate and violence.”
“Even in programs intended for young children they are expressing joy over death,” said Marcus.
“This program is telling us that they see children as tools in their propaganda and their war. They have no problem stealing their children’s youth and the pleasures of childhood for their own political purposes and thrusting them right into the midst of hatred and violence, preaching war, resistance and death,” he said.
I wonder what the repercussions of this cartoon will be.
Good to see the public and the National Post criticize these HRC’s. I look forward to seeing Steyn in action when his case is brought up. Steyn vs. Steacy. Although the HRC has a 100 percent conviction rate, it is clearly losing in the court of public opinion. I am especially pleased that a Liberal private member’s bill is looking to repeal Section 13 of the Charter. Thumbs up to Liberal MP Keith Martin. :bravo:
But the farce continues at the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The people pushing this case come from the East. In some cases, they don’t even know their history (e.g. great library in Alexandria)