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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Western Standard in the news
Jonathan Kay in today’s National Post:
Jonathan Kay on free speech, 'yeggs,' and the fight for the political soul of Canadian
As the recent human-rights cases against MacLean's and the Western Standard show, there will always be complainants and commissars willing to expand the definition of prohibited speech to encompass legitimate discourse. Ironically, the censorship regime that well-meaning Jewish intellectuals helped put in place to fight anti-Semitism a generation ago is now being applied to prosecute the pundits blowing the whistle on the one truly genuine threat that Jews are facing worldwide: militant Islam.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on February 23, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Truer words were never spoken.
Mr Kay should now retract his statement that he was wrong about Iraq. Clearly he was right until he said he was wrong.
This makes him 50% better than 99% of Canadian journalists who were wrong at the outset and who have remained wrong to this day. And who will be stubbornly wrong 5, 10, and even 20 years from now.
Here's looking at you, Jeffrey Simpson.
Posted by: Terry Gain | 23-Feb-08 11:47:03 PM
Dr. Frankenstein's monster comes to mind.
Be very careful when you set out to restrict the rights of others because, like a boomerang, the Draconian measures you put in place for others will fly back to hit YOU behind the knees.
Posted by: batb | 24-Feb-08 8:29:23 AM
These HRCs need to be ABOLISHED. Should those who lobbied governments for the HRCs apologize to the people of Canada for what has happened to FREE SPEECH? SJG.
The Instigators of Human Rights Commissions (HRCs)?
By Stephen J. Gray
“What a strange place Canada is in 2008,…where fundamentalist Muslims use hate-speech laws drafted by secular Jews,…”
(Ezra Levant, Globe and Mail, January 21, 2008.)
Who were the instigators of HRCs that are the cause of the attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of expression in Canada? According to Ezra Levant who has been dragged before the HRCs it was “illiberal elements.” And he went on to say this: ‘…I blame the Jews. A generation ago, illiberal elements in the "official" Jewish community pressed Canadian governments to introduce laws limiting free speech.’ (Globe and Mail, January 21, 2008.)
Mr Levant went on to say in the Globe and Mail article that the people taking him to the HRCs were, “…using the very precedents set by the Canadian Jewish Congress.”
Which makes one wonder, why would a powerful organization like “the Canadian Jewish Congress” not realize that the very “laws” that they “pressed Canadian governments to introduce” could also be used against Jewish people. After all, what’s sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander, as the saying goes.
But, not only Jewish people are being dragged before the HRCs. Before they came for the Jews, the HRCs came for Chris Kempling, Scott Brockie, Knights of Columbus, Stephen Boissoin, Bishop Henry and others. Now Catholic Insight magazine, the Christian Heritage Party and MacLean's magazine are now under the guns of the HRCs. Nobody is safe from these appointed interrogators of totalitarian bent. So what can be done to return freedom of speech and freedom of expression to Canadians?
I believe the HRCs must be abolished. Governments appointed them, therefore, governments can disband them. I would also make the suggestion that perhaps “the Canadian Jewish Congress,” who “pressed Canadian governments to introduce laws limiting free speech” now press Canadian governments to disband the HRCs.
Stephen J. Gray
Feb. 6, 2008.
graysinfo@yahoo.ca website: http://www.geocities.com/graysinfo
Posted by: Stephen J. Gray | 24-Feb-08 11:32:47 AM
Excellent article. He is correct in stating that this is not in accordance with traditional Judaism, but of course those pushing it are ignorant of traditional Judaism and for the most part are anti-religious.
If you reject your religious heritage, its teachings and core values, then it is easy to argue that anti-Semitism is simply a result of ignorance. The solution must be to educate people and to shut down anyone expressing anti-Jewish sentiments (not necessarily real anti-Semitism). This is why the same people carried on to a ridiculous extent about the movie The Passion. According to their thinking people would exit the cinemas and start pogroms and heaven knows what else. Of course this was rubbish. Further proof that the whole argument is rubbish is what took place in Europe during the Holocaust. For example in France the worst offenders (anti-Semites mostly came from the educated elite, while it was usually the uneducated simple folk who tried to help and to hide Jews. They did not need a university degree to understand that the Jews were human beings like themselves and like themselves were entitled to life.
Posted by: Alain | 24-Feb-08 12:24:25 PM
Every time some one tries to dictate or legislate morality the results are usually the opposite of that which is intended. When will people learn to just leave each other the hell alone?
Posted by: JC | 24-Feb-08 5:50:04 PM
Fear JC, keep them afraid and the gov't will get bigger and bigger....
Posted by: Veteran | 25-Feb-08 5:06:59 PM
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