|
Just under a year ago, the Canadian Islamic Congress held a press conference to announce its "human rights" complaints against the excerpt from my book America Alone. And, with that, the hitherto private dispute between the CIC and Maclean's went public.
How stands the fight on this first anniversary?
Not bad. A few days ago, at the Conservative Party convention, a policy plenary session voted overwhelmingly to abolish Section 13 - the "hate speech" provision - from the Canadian Human Rights Code. How overwhelming? Nine to one in favour - and they had trouble finding anyone to speak against the motion. On Saturday, the vote went to the convention floor, and over 99 per cent of delegates declared their support for abolishing Section 13. Among them was the Justice Minister of Canada, a man who until his vote had remained silent on this issue, even as his department intervened ever more forcefully on behalf of the government censors.
This is an amazing advance for a cause that wasn't on the public radar a year ago and is hardly the kind of pocketbook issue likely to excite widespread interest. There have been other developments, too - the various investigations into the corrupt and disgusting Canadian "Human Rights" Commission that led to the CHRC's unprecedented tactical retreat in the Maclean's case; the widespread publicity at the British Columbia "Human Rights" Tribunal that persuaded the three pseudo-judges in Vancouver to do the same. Those of us who believe hack bureaucrats deciding which opinions they're prepared to issue official licenses for is an abomination to a free society owe a special debt of gratitude to Ezra Levant, who has done more than anyone to "denormalize" (as he puts it) the government thought police, even as their few allies have attempted to bury him in an avalanche of nuisance law suits. That said, I wouldn't want to give the impression that the restoration of Canadians' rights to free speech is some kind of right-wing crusade (whoops). Among the other opposers of Canadian state censorship are such unlikely Steyn allies as PEN Canada, Liberal MP Keith Martin, The Globe & Mail, Salman Rushdie, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins and Professor Steven Pinker.
In fact, the real story of the last year is how few friends the "human rights" racket has. No one will defend either the principle or practice of current thought-police legislation other than the system's principal beneficiary (Richard Warman) and a few other hangers on, such as Pearl Eliadis, Canadian Jewish Congress honcho Bernie Farber and The Toronto Star's Haroon Siddiqui. As Kathy Shaidle says, it's an establishment of cardboard heroes chasing phantom enemies in order to protect its sinecures and social status. Mr Siddiqui's most recent intervention is his most desperate yet:
A Somali Canadian mosque in Toronto is being condemned, rightly so, for carrying anti-Semitic and anti-Western messages on its website. This, though, does invite a question: Where are the free-speech advocates defending the right of this group to say whatever the heck it wants?
Er, sorry. Have I missed something? Is the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission investigating this mosque? Has Richard Warman filed one of his highly lucrative complaints against them? Are Mr Farber, the CJC and their colleagues dragging the imams into court and insisting that this mosque demonstrates why Section 13 is needed more than ever?
Why, no! And to try even to imagine the CHRC or its provincial siblings hauling a Somali mosque before their kangaroo courts is to understand how absurd Mr Siddiqui's comparison is. As he well knows, freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from criticism but freedom from government regulation, government prosecution, government fines and government silencing. "Free speech" doesn't mean some mosque should be beyond criticism; it means more criticism. It means Mr Siddiqui can call me an "Islamophobe" and I can call him a clapped out hack seeking to mire Canadian Muslims in a wholly unearned and invented victim complex, and the government sits back and says, "May the best man win. We don't have a dog in this fight."
Section 13 is incompatible with a free society. Twelve months ago, George Jonas, David Warren, Rex Murphy and a handful of others understood that. Today, the Justice Minister of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists and 99 per cent of delegates at the governing party's policy convention get it. It's a long battle, but this first year was won by the cause of liberty.
|
