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Further to my Debatewatch Update of a week or so back, here's the current state of play:
I'm scheduled to debate Mohamed Elmasry's vicar on earth, Faisal Joseph, this coming Wednesday on the John Oakley show at AM640 in Toronto.
Alas, Mr Joseph was a no-show at AM640. I'm still happy to debate him, although I'd appreciate it if next time round he went to the trouble of turning up. Next:
We're trying to figure out when I can get back to Toronto to re-debate Elmo's Sock Puppet Three live on TVO's "The Agenda". It should around May 20th or thereabouts.
The TVO wallahs offered this Thursday May 22nd for the re-match. Unfortunately, I have a prior engagement in New York that night, guest-hosting Hannity & Colmes on Fox. We're still hoping to work out a date, but "The Agenda" goes on its summer break on May 29th. Next:
Elmo himself has yet to respond the Maclean's offer to host an Elmasry/Steyn one-on-one.
The great Elmasry continues to hide behind his sock puppets. It's unclear whether, despite being the official "complainant", he'll even be in Vancouver for the show trial. And finally:
Meanwhile, a gibbering derelict with some form of blogospheric Tourette's keeps yelling "Pompous windbag!" and "Chickenshit!" in my general direction. As I said to Joseph Brean of The National Post:
"I don't know why Warren Kinsella is inserting himself into my hate crime. Why doesn't he get a hate crime of his own?"
As far as I know, Mr Kinsella remains hate-crime-less.
PS Readers occasionally ask what the timeline will be. Here's how I see it.
1) At some point in the next month, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will find Maclean's guilty. Even if they regard the 1938 Supreme Court decision as preventing them from imposing the Canadian Islamic Congress' stated "remedy", they will still be statutorily obligated to issue a cease-and-desist order. That would prevent Maclean's from publishing anything further by me on Islam, the west, demography, etc, and also prevent them from publishing anything by anybody else that took a broadly similar line.
2) Maclean's will appeal the decision to a real court and ask that the judgment be stayed pending the appeal. The court could stay the Tribunal's remedy in whole or in part, but, given that the cease-and-desist order automatically has the standing of a Supreme Court decision, it's doubtful whether the Steyn ban would be part of the stay. I've had conflicting legal advice on this. At that point, I will either be exiled from Maclean's, or permitted a temporary reprieve at the discretion of a British Columbia judge.
3) The Globe And Mail and The National Post and others would still, in theory, be able to hire me. Both papers have made overtures to me in recent years. But, given that, on the subject for which I'm best known and thus of most commercial value, my writings have been found guilty by a Canadian "court", they would be assuming a potentially very costly liability in agreeing to publish me. That may be why, in the months since this began, once eager-to-sign editors have fallen silent, and the phone hasn't stopped not ringing.
4) I have been nominated for the National Magazine Awards, which in the normal course of events would be regarded as a big career boost. In my case, by the time the winners are announced, I'm likely to have been declared unpublishable in the daffy Dominion. So any award will make a nice accessory for the tomb of my Canadian career.
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