Russell Seitz

April 11, 2008

Masochistically pounding yet another spike into the forehead of the Canadian psyche, Alberta?s Human Rights, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism Act, prohibits publishing anything ?likely to expose a person or class of persons to hatred or contempt.?

While reserving the right to lambaste Mark Steyn or anybody else showing symptoms of reflexive NeoCandiasis, we ought to stand up for his right to retaliate against us, which by extension means decrying the existence of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission which in January, Reason reports :

“interrogated the Canadian journalist Ezra Levant about his decision to reprint the notorious Muhammad cartoons that originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Levant, the former publisher of the Western Standard, did not try to ingratiate himself. He called the commission ?a sick joke? and dared the ?thug? across the table to recommend that he face a hearing for offending Muslims.

Levant wanted to be convicted, since that would give him a chance to challenge the censorship that Canadian human rights commissions practice in the guise of fighting discrimination. ?I do not want to be excused from this complaint because I was reasonable,? he told the officer. ?It is not the government?s authority to tell me whether or not I?m reasonable.? That position has attracted broad support in Canada, where editorialists, columnists, activists, and legislators from across the political spectrum have criticized the commissions for threatening freedom of speech.

The national and regional commissions were established in the 1970s to vet complaints about illegal discrimination in employment, housing, and the provision of goods and services. But many of them have broad, ambiguous legal mandates that can be used to target controversial speech.”

You don’t have to subscribe to Mark’s views ,or the Canadian journals that publish them to strike a blow against these Mounty Python affronts to freedom of the press- Just buy your maple syrup on his side of the border- he is a New Hampshire refugee from censorship in the Big North .