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The Sock Puppet Three's oft-heard cry is that this isn't about "freedom of speech" or "censorship"; they don't want to silence me personally, but are merely seeking the "right" to a reasonable response. Davin Burlingham addresses this point directly:
When I heard them repeat this position on television, I have to say I was shocked. Genuinely shocked. I will tell you why. These three are law students, correct? They are currently articling, which means they must have passed all their final exams, and are about to be called to the bar. Presumably they have demonstrated all the skills and their brains have imbibed all the knowledge needed to get through law school and find jobs. How, then, could they have failed to actually read the Code under which they are bringing a complaint?! Take a look at s. 37(2) of the BC Human Rights Code, where it says:
(2)If the member or panel determines that the complaint is justified, the member or panel
(a) must order the person that contravened this Code to cease the contravention and to refrain from committing the same or a similar contravention,
That is a mandatory injunction. An obligatory 'cease and desist' order. If the complainants win, the Tribunal has to order Maclean's to stop running 'Islamophobic' articles. Not just articles by Mark Steyn, mind you; they have to stop running those articles period. Goodbye Barbara Amiel. Now, you might respond that Steyn wouldn't be silenced, he would just have to pick his words more carefully. But think about it; the CIC is not just complaining about the excerpt from America Alone, but about a whole sheaf of Steyn's articles. It's pretty safe to assume that whatever Steyn has written about Islam in the last seven or so years would be considered offensive by the CIC. In the face of an injunction, then, he would either have to stop writing about Islam or stop obeying the dictates of his conscience as a writer.
The students may say they don't want to silence Mark Steyn or anyone else. Their complaint, if successful, will do just that. It can do no other.
Just so. I've tried to make that point in interviews. The BC tribunal's ruling will mean that I can no longer write for Maclean's, and that Maclean's itself will be highly circumscribed in what it can publish about the relationship between Islam and the west. In other words, on one of the central questions facing the world today, the editorial decisions of Canada's largest news weekly will be determined by a British Columbia "court".
My career in Canada will be formally ended next month. But don't break out the champagne and conga lines. If Maclean's decides to comply with the ruling, it will not be a "news weekly" in the sense the term would be understood by any genuinely free society. And one day there will be plenty of Jews and gays and all kinds of other fellows who'll come to understand the damage this case has wrought.
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