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A month ago, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission published its Review of Broadcasting in New Media, including some very interesting remarks on free expression from Commissioner Timothy Denton, which we reported here.
I was so impressed by Mr Denton I proposed him for Chief Commissioner of the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission - which is the sort of endorsement that's probably utterly destroyed his prospects in Canadian public life. At any rate, for whatever reason, the CRTC has now "revised" its report:
Broadcasting regulatory policy:
The Commission replaces the concurring opinion appended to Review of broadcasting in new media, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-329.
Hmm. So what exactly has been "replaced"? Oddly enough, all that's gone missing is these remarks by Commissioner Denton:
The history of the regulation of speech in this country does not engender confidence that such powers will be used wisely. Canada has experienced several instances in recent times where regulatory commissions of another type and armed with a different mission have challenged the right to say controversial things. The struggles of Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn and others have served as important warnings that regulatory authorities charged with combating racism, hatred, and other evils have consistently expanded their mandates, have abused their powers and eroded fundamental liberties. Wherever there is official orthodoxy, disagreement is heresy, and where there is heresy, there is usually an inquisition to root it out. After centuries ridding ourselves of thought control agencies, 20th century Canada re-invented them.
The above paragraph was apart of the official report on June 4th. Now it's been disappeared. Strange.
Here at SteynOnline we like the first version of the CRTC review better than the revision. So we'll keep Commissioner Denton's paragraph up here in hopes that one day it will be restored to its rightful place.
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