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An interview with Ezra Levant

May 12, 2009 by Andrea Mrozek 6 Comments

shakedown-cover-medium

When I got a copy of Ezra’s book, Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights, and began reading it, I started thinking about the implications for the life debate. Not too long ago, no one knew what Human Rights Tribunals were, and where people had heard of them, they just didn’t care. Not unlike the abortion debate–people just don’t really care.

So I thought an interview with Ezra was in order to find out if and where some comparisons lie. Just by the by, yes, I worked for Ezra at the Western Standard, for two years. And au contraire to what gossipy lefties in the blogosphere write, I don’t ever try to conceal this because I’m proud of it. [Read more…]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Ezra Levant

A horrible book

April 2, 2009 by Brigitte Pellerin 2 Comments

There have already been really good reviews of Ezra Levant’s Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (see here, here, and here). So I will keep mine short if not sweet: I’m sorry Ezra, but your book is horrible.

Oh, it’s well written, sure. It’s also very well researched, yes. It tells the story from point A to points B and beyond in a clear, orderly manner. But you see, that’s my problem: Your story is a horrible one.

How we got to the point where the state routinely prosecutes people for their opinions is something I have a lot of trouble understanding. Part of me desperately wants to avoid noticing it. But Ezra’s book forces me to.

The serious problems he outlines don’t just concern a few religious guys who express themselves clumsily and professional talking heads like Ezra and Mark Steyn (who seems happy to describe himself in the foreword as “a blowhard, a loudmouth, a self-promoter, a ‘controversy entrepreneur’, etc”). No. It concerns you as well.

If you (yes, you, Mr. and Mrs. NormalPerson, you personally) accept that the state has any business prosecuting anyone for his or her non-PC opinions, you will have no protection and no defence when the state decides your opinions, no matter how “normal” you believe them to be, have become non grata. And unfortunately, given the way these things normally work, if you don’t speak up, you are deemed to have accepted this kind of systematic state censorship done in your name, using your money.

So please. Start by reading Ezra’s book (you can order it from Amazon, here), and speak up. Every chance you get. Ezra’s horrible story concerns us all.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Ezra Levant, human rights tribunals, Shakedown

Now we know

December 17, 2008 by Brigitte Pellerin Leave a Comment

All those who said that complaints about Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant and company were not about Islam but rather about showing respect and practicing “responsible” journalism? They were wrong.

It is so about Islam. If you’re a Muslim, and you want to write, for instance, that:

  • Homosexuals and lesbians should be “exterminated in this life”
  • “men are superior to women and better than them”. In general, “men have a more complete intellect and memory than women”

…well, then you’re cool. That’s just normal. No reason for complaint, here. But dare reprint cartoons showing The Prophet in an unflattering way (or any way at all), and you’ll be dragged through no end of costly legal battles.

Clearer than clear, thanks.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, Point de Bascule

When winning means losing

August 7, 2008 by Brigitte Pellerin 1 Comment

We are really awfully close to Newspeak around here, where government agencies claim you won even when you have, in fact, lost something. Talk about doubleplusungood.

Ezra Levant:

Some 900 days after I became the only person in the Western world charged with the “offence” of republishing the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, the government has finally acquitted me of illegal “discrimination.” Taxpayers are out more than $500,000 for an investigation that involved fifteen bureaucrats at the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The legal cost to me and the now-defunct Western Standard magazine is $100,000.

[…]

And if I had been a defendant in a civil court, the judge would now order the losing parties to pay my legal bills. Instead, the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities won’t have to pay me a dime. Neither will Syed Soharwardy, the Calgary imam who abandoned his identical complaint against me this spring.

Both managed to hijack a secular government agency to prosecute their radical Islamic fatwa against me — the first blasphemy case in Canada in over 80 years. Their complaints were dismissed, but it is inaccurate to say that they lost: They got the government to rough me up for nearly three years, at no cost to them. The process I was put through was a punishment in itself — and a warning to any other journalists who would defy radical Islam.

[…]

Of course I’m glad to be done with this malicious prosecution — though my antagonists can still appeal my acquittal.
But two years ago, the HRC told me if I paid a few thousand dollars to my accusers and gave them a page in our magazine, I’d be set free. Most victims of the HRCs accept deals like that, and it’s certainly cheaper than a 900-day fight. But getting the approval of the HRC’s censor is morally no better than their shake-down attempt. Whether I have to pay off a radical imam or appease a meddling bureaucrat, it’s still an infringement on our Canadian liberties.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Ezra Levant, HRC

About Ezra

July 23, 2008 by Brigitte Pellerin Leave a Comment

Ezra Levant needs help – read the details here. Ezra is a free speech absolutist, and so am I. Regulated speech ain’t free, and as long as we have nitpicking bureaucrats telling us what cartoons we’re allowed to print and what kinds of jokes comedians are allowed to make, we won’t have free speech. The difference is that he’s the one fighting the legal battle, not me. The least I can do is send him some money and ask my readers to do the same. We all benefit from what he’s doing, but it’s not just that. What he’s doing is right.

So. Please consider making a donation. It doesn’t have to be very much – if enough people give $10 or $20, it will make a big difference. If you can afford a bit more, please do (I put in $200 so far). Not only will you help Ezra fight the good fight, but you’ll annoy all the right people, too.

You can either hit the PayPal button on his website (www.ezralevant.com) or send a cheque marked to “May Jensen Shawa & Solomon in Trust”, care of Robert Hawkes, at:

May Jensen Shawa Solomon LLP
The Lancaster Building
800, 304 – 8 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 1C2

Thanks!

___________________________

Andrea adds: If I were to drop the fight against abortion (which I have no plans to do) it would be to fight against the limitations currently placed on freedom of thought in Canada. But then again, maybe I don’t have to drop one to fight the other. The two are linked. Everytime a pro-lifer shows a sign-a factual sign-of what an abortion is there are cries of “That’s offensive!” and said sign is, in many cases, forcibly taken down. There are no official bodies telling me I must refer to killing unborn children as “a woman’s right to choose”–so many do that as a function of self-censorship. In any case, we ought to fight censorship in whatever form it takes. I am glad that Ezra is fighting this so vociferously, and believe we ought to support him.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Ezra Levant, Freedom of speech, HRC

Whatever offends you most

January 12, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

I think we all need to thank my former employer Ezra Levant for this. That Alberta Human Rights Tribunal employee worked for her (taxpayer-funded) pay that day. 

My favourite exchange comes around the three minute mark:  

Ezra Levant: I published those cartoons to use the maximum freedom allowed. I published it without reservation. I published it in the most unreasonable manner.

Bureaucrat: What do you mean by unreasonable?

Ezra Levant: Whatever offends you most.

Right on.  

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Ezra Levant, Freedom of speech, Human Rights Tribunal, Western Standard

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