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Ezra Levant, author of the ever more imminent Shakedown, writes today of the ongoing media denormalization of Canada's most energetic online neo-Nazi Richard Warman, as reflected in hitherto unprecedented headlines like "Lawyer Crossed The Line By Posting On Neo-Nazi Website, Tribunal Rules".

It's easy to get disheartened by federal inaction on Section 13 and provincial inertia on its equivalents, but these things take time. What's clear is that "denormalization" - Ezra's term and Ezra's strategy - is working:

~ DENORMALIZED: STORMFRONT MEMBER RICHARD WARMAN
Two years ago, the Ouwendyk case would just have been another routine shakedown: half a decade of hell for the defendant, and a five-figure tax-free bonus for Warmfront without breaking a sweat and with cooing press coverage like "One Man's War On Internet Hate". Now his racket is in the spotlight, and both the CHRC and CHRT have decided they need to put clear blue water between him and them. They wouldn't take the Ouwendyk case today, and I doubt they''ll be in a hurry to accept any Section 13 complaints from him in the future. The creepy, self-glorifying, all but sole beneficiary of Section 13 is at least as weird as those he chastises, and his former pals have begun to figure that out. He can certainly continue posting "hate messages" at neo-Nazi websites, but he'll no longer be able to get paid by a Canadian court for his curious hobby. He's denormalized.

~ DENORMALIZED: THE EVER BROADER INTERPRETATION OF "HATE"
Two years ago, Maclean's would have been convicted of "hate", as sources in the Prime Minister's Office fully expected to happen. In the decade and a half since the Taylor decision, both the CHRC and the CHRT had abandoned any pretense of paying even lip service to the parameters outlined by the Supreme Court. Yet their dismissal of the Maclean's complaint wound up relying heavily on Taylor and a very narrow interpretation thereof: Politically, he was their only way of getting off the hook. The Warman-era Section 13 metastasization has stopped. For the moment, it's as denormalized as he is.

~ DENORMALIZED: SECTION 13
Two years ago, there was no question mark whatsoever over the law. It was a broadly approved piece of legislation designed to "strike a balance" - one of those self-flattering concepts to which Canadians are distressingly prone. Now even Professor Moon, a statist shill who despises me and Levant, nevertheless feels unable to defend Section 13 in his report and calls for its repeal. And even the Tribunal has concluded that, pending the outcome of Marc Lemire's constitutional challenge, the law is unenforceable. As denormalized as Warman.

~ DENORMALIZED: THE IDENTITY-GROUP GRIEVANCE-MONGERS
Two years ago, the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canadian Arab Foundation were accepted almost as quasi-government entities. The CIC ran "sensitivity training" sessions for airport security staff, and the CAF helped select and "assimilate" Canadian immigrants - and both of these absurd propositions were regarded as entirely routine. Not anymore. Now Canadians understand that letting Mohamed Elmasry or Khaled Mouammar anywhere near security or immigration procedures is preposterous.

~ DENORMALIZED: THE "HUMAN RIGHTS" COMMISSIONS
Two years ago, they were just a bit of Trudeaupian touchyfeelyness that few Canadians gave any thought to. Now they're controversial - merely one side of a legitimate debate. The Chief Commissar, Jennifer Lynch, was one of those classic Canadian figures, wafted upwards on fluffy clouds of Queen's Jubilee Medals and other state baubles, albeit for no very good reason. Now, whether or not Ezra's "Fire them all" mantra is ever enforced, Commissar Lynch is enjoying her last government sinecure.

Not everyone gets it, of course. Commissar Barbara Hall is still urging more and more policing of the citizenry's opinions and Ontario's Commission and Tribunal are still destroying the lives of any unfortunate fellow who happens to catch their eye. But today, when they do so, they attract critical columns and editorials in The Globe & Mail and elsewhere. That's a change from two years ago. The days of slapdash "reforms" sliding through without debate are gone.

Not a bad start. After the worst year and a half's publicity in their history, I'll bet Queen Jennifer and the rest of the Lynch Mob would dearly love to turn the clock back. It won't happen.

Randy Richmond (bicycling correspondent of The London Free Press) doesn't like the cut of my jib:

Hey Mark
Randy Richmond of The London Free Press here.
Have emailed your mailbox twice to suggest you email me directly or give me a call to discuss coverage of Canadian Human Rights Commission.
You seem to be afraid to confront someone directly after questioning their journalistic abilities.
Is this what your career has become?
I expect more from you.
Waiting for your reply.
Randy Richmond
London Free Press 

1) We have no record of any emails prior to this one. So please re-send.

2) I'm not "afraid to confront someone directly" if you're proposing hand-to-hand combat on an abandoned bit of scrub after dark. However, if you're proposing to interview me for an hour, use a 25-word quote, and then fill up the rest of the piece with reactions from Catsmeat, Bernie, your bicycle boy Warmfront, Head Sock Khurrum Awan, ovine fornication specialist Professor John Miller, etc, perhaps you could explain what's in it for me.

3) I don't think there's really any question about your "journalistic ability", is there?

4) "Is this what your career has become?" Ah, well. I didn't get the professional advice you did.

[UPDATE: Editor-in-Chief seizes opportunity for self-congratulation] 

Unlike Randy Richmond of The London Free Press, who's too busy valet-parking Richard Warman's bicycle, Ezra Levant has spotted the most interesting aspect of the Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal's latest decision:

Look at paragraph 10, which cites an earlier Chair's interim ruling on Warman v. Ouwendyk (my emphasis):

The hearing on the question of the constitutional validity of the impugned sections of the Act will be deferred pending the outcome in Lemire. If the complaint is substantiated, the Tribunal will not issue any order until the final determination by the Courts of the constitutional question.

In other words, no matter what the Tribunal found in Warman v. Ouwendyk, they're not going to issue any orders until Marc Lemire's constitutional challenge has a "final" determination. That could mean a trip to the Supreme Court -- in about 2012.

In this case, the Tribunal was so disgusted with Warman -- and so stupefied that a complaint would be made against a website that doesn't exist -- that he really didn't plan to issue any order at all. But had he wanted to throw the book at Ouwendyk, he couldn't -- another Tribunal chair had ruled that everything is on ice until Lemire is done.

The enforcement of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act has been suspended indefinitely by the CHRT.

That's fascinating.

Indeed. As we've all observed, neo-Nazi website poster Richard Warman is now a busted flush. Justice has not only to be done, but to be seen to be done, and even "human rights" justice can no longer be seen to hang out with such a creepily narcissistic obsessive as Warmfront. But the larger point is, as Ezra says, fascinating. The endgame for Maclean's and me has always been to get this thing to the Supreme Court and have Section 13 and its provincial equivalents struck down. That takes a long time and it's expensive (which is why we encourage you to buy a copy of Shakedown, or take out a subscription to Maclean's).

However, it is a remarkable tribute to the speed with which the law has been "denormalized" (in Ezra's word) that the Tribunal has, in effect, concluded that Section 13 cannot be enforced. Like many laws, it remains on the books, but even the kangaroo courts understand that it can no longer be enforced. It reflects worse on them than on the accused. That's great news - except, as Ezra adds:   

But look what hasn't been suspended: the investigations and prosecutions of section 13. And, as I've said a dozen times before, it's the process that's the real punishment. In this case, it was three years from complaint to ruling -- three years of bullying someone because they had "wrong" political ideas.

The CHRC and the CHRT will continue with that informal punishment, the punishment of abusive process.

The law is coming apart at the seams; the law's chief user has been officially exposed as malign; the law's enforcement has been suspended; but the sick, sick HRC system continues to grind on, using our money and abusing our heritage of natural justice.

He's right. The "thought police" will recommend fewer Section 13 cases to the Tribunal but will take longer and longer, and more and more of the defendant's time and money, to conduct the preliminary investigation. We have denormalized the creepy Warman, and denormalized the law itself. It is important now to denormalize the abusive half-decade-long investigation procedures. After being dragged through the process over nothing for five years, even B'nai Brith, one of the CHRC's favored sons, should figure that out.

Amidst all the coverage of the Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal's latest decision re Stormfront member Richard Warman, only his personal stenographer at The London Free Press seems to have missed the news angle. Oh, well. It's up to Randy Richmond if he wants to go down with Mr Warmfront's sinking bike. I hope he's not riding pillion.

On a related matter, I bumped into Jason Kenney in the lobby of the King Edward Hotel in Toronto a couple of weeks back, and thought, as I often do on such occasions, how great it is just to run into cabinet ministers strolling around unaccompanied. A month on, it's not so easy. As The National Post reports, Mr Kenney now has a full-time RCMP security detail, having had the temerity to question whether it's in the interest of taxpayers to fund the ugly thugs who run the Canadian Arab Federation. I don't quite get Khaled Mouammar's line of thinking here: He's the guy living off Mr Kenney's departmental checks, but Kenney's the whore?