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Ezra Levant
Canadian magazine publisher Ezra Levant became famous as the first and only person prosecuted for printing the controversial "Danish Mohamed" cartoons.
While undergoing his expensive, three year legal ordeal, Ezra Levant discovered that others were being prosecuted under "hate speech" legislation, often for saying or writing politically incorrect things that challenged the liberal Establishment status quo.
His new book, Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights
He spoke to me recently about his case, his new book, his childhood heroes and his future plans.
EXAMINER:
Has anything happened since the book was printed that you'd like to tell people about, to keep them up to date on certain cases you covered in the book?
EZRA LEVANT:
"To my surprise and delight, the cabinet minister in charge of Alberta's human rights commission -- the one that had fifteen bureaucrats and lawyers investigate me for 900 days -- has denounced his own agency as a 'kangaroo court', has appointed a real judge to oversee it and has given him a mandate to reform it. That cabinet minister -- a black man himself -- has said there is no right not to be offended. It's a hopeful sign that the campaign of reform is moving from the court of public opinion into the legislatures of the land."
"At the federal level, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has gone into damage control mode. It has quietly dropped some of its more political cases, such as against the Christian Heritage Party. It is clearly hoping that by just getting out of the headlines, it can weather its PR storm without being reformed. I hope they're wrong, and I think they're wrong.
"My book contains some explosive facts about the CHRC that will likely shock 'severely normal' Canadians, including evidence that the CHRC is Canada's largest disseminator of anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-gay bigotry. I just don't see how any government other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's could accept the fact that staff from their 'human rights' agency has actually joined various neo-Nazi organizations, and made literally hundreds of bigoted comments (e.g. gays are 'deviants' and a 'cancer on society'; an apartheid city called 'Whiteville' should be formed; Canadian neo-Nazis need to get 'dangerous', etc.). This is a scandal of the first order, and political heads should roll."
EXAMINER:
People ask me where you get your energy from and how you keep your sense of humor. What is your secret?
EZRA LEVANT:
"Right around the time of my interrogation by the HRC, I spoke with Mark Steyn and we talked about how the chief weapon used by HRCs is psychological. Usually, their formal punishments aren't enormous -- typically in the tens of thousands of dollars (though they are occasionally more extreme, including lifetime bans on publicly or privately saying certain words, and even orders to people to publicly issue false apologies: see the Lund v. Boissoin case).
"The real punishment is the process -- biased, slow, uncertain, capricious, lawless, costly, unfair. The process is designed to so demoralize political dissidents as to make them abandon hope, leave the jurisdiction, or spiral down in a rage. Many people who are caught in HRCs actually become, over time, the caricature that they are accused of being -- they're turned into obsessive cranks, which is a wholly predictable outcome when a Canadian expecting Canadian justice is subjected to Soviet-style 'justice.'
"So I simply decided I wasn't going to become like that. If I were to 'obsess' over the unfair charges against me, it would take the form of a relentless campaign for reform, using my time and whatever talents I have to spread the word about the corruption and abuse of the system. I knew I was luckier than pretty much any other HRC target in the past: I had friends in politics and journalism, and it would be pretty tough to tag me, a Zionist Jew who had actually started a multi-racial club in law school called Minorities Against Discrimination, as a 'neo-Nazi' or 'white supremacist.' So, unlike the HRCs' previous targets, I would actually have a chance to be heard when I pointed out the rot in the system.
"I decided I would try to live up to the title of Mark Steyn's column in the National Review: the 'happy warrior', and to use mockery and ridicule where appropriate.
"I spent time researching HRCs, and found that they were actually everything they claimed to be against -- everything they accused me of being.
"CHRC staff joined neo-Nazi organizations -- and are still members to this day. A CHRC 'hate speech' investigator was a former cop kicked off her police force for corruption. An Alberta HRC lawyer was a Muslim supremacist. A CHRC manager actually said that free speech was an 'American' idea, so he didn't care about trampling on it. And HRCs everywhere are the political dumping grounds for extremist politicians who couldn't cut it in real elections (Giacomo Vigna of the CHRC is a three-time election loser, Richard Warman of the CHRC is a four-time election loser, Barbara Hall of the OHRC was fired as mayor of Toronto, etc.).
"In sum, I wasn't the extremist radical; they were. I wasn't the one abridging 'human rights', they were. I wasn't the fringe element who needed political 're-education' about our country's values; they were. I wasn't a humourless crank; they were -- as they proved en masse when they hit me with more than 20 vengeance lawsuits, human rights complaints and complaints to the law society to have me disbarred. (The first six of those complaints and suits have been heard and dismissed, and I expect the rest will be too. What a perfect snapshot of the nuisance, vengeance and censorship genes in the HRC industry.)
"They richly deserved to be mocked. I tried to do that, and of course Steyn is the master at that.
"I should note that, from time to time, I did indeed worry, but only about the money needed to fend off the lawfare. But through the Internet, people from across Canada and the U.S. (and even around the world) each chipped in a little to help me cover the cost of fighting all these nuisance suits. That financial help -- and the moral support it implied -- greatly boosted my spirits, and still does. I knew I wasn't alone even if I felt alone."
EXAMINER:
Who were your heroes growing up and how did they influence you?
EZRA LEVANT:
"In high school I participated every year in the Sir Winston Churchill Society debates, and they were always about some element of Churchill's life. So I must have read twenty books about him. I'd say he's a hero. In college I read Ayn Rand's books. I wouldn't call myself an objectivist, but I believe her analysis about society's 'moochers and looters' was bang on. And I've tried to read some of the Austrian economic thinkers, though they're probably above my head."
EXAMINER:
Do you think you'll ever run for office again?
"I might run for office again, but not imminently. Although I am a Conservative Party partisan, I have tried my best to make the fight for free speech and against HRCs a bi-partisan fight. And, to my delight, a number of Liberal and even Bloc Quebecois MPs have agreed with the need for reform. That's encouraging, because freedom of speech is important for everyone on the political spectrum. The fact that several traditionally liberal or even left-wing NGOs and publications have come out forcefully for my freedom of speech is a welcome sign that many Canadians really do 'get it' when it comes to protecting ideas, even and especially dissident ideas."
Comments
Thanks Kathy I enjoyed reading your interview, Ezra has moxie and grit what's not to like?
Canada is blessed to have a guy with this much courage & conviction. Between Him with Mark Steyn, yourself plus others have shown this ogre to be the cannibal it is, on the Canadian polity.
No one can call themselves free when government agencies have the power to tell you otherwise. Or what you can speak or not say. Its like corking a volcano. Sooner rather than later she's goin to blow up good if the nations people have no say.
That’s just the beginning. We all know it ends up with the bulldozers & bodies in liberal Utopia. Loved the interview. You should have your own show like Coren.
JMO
Refeshing to see a transcript of an interview instead of bits and pieces strung together. Ezra, keep up the good fight. It must seem demoralizing at times. We're fortunate that your courage fights for us as well.
The Canadian path is seen as Nirvana by Obama and others on the left. Canada is the canary in our coal mine.
You two are fighting the good fight. I can't wait to you come to London Ontario so I can shake your hands.
Courageous, motivating and inspirational describe you two wonderful Canadians.
I have read the Tyranny of Nice, and am looking forward to reading Ezra's book. I imagine Ezra must be one of the easiest people to interview, as he's got all the facts ready, and expresses them clearly. No dodging of questions either.
I have read Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" and I don't think you would find it over your head. The key to it is that it is logical, and isn't trying to force facts to fit a crackpot economic theory, or even ignore facts, as Marxism does.
Brave, courageous, and competent people in society are rare. You may find one or two of these qualities in several people, but Ezra Levant has all three. And the people of Canada, on the brink of losing entirely their basic human right to speak their minds, were very lucky one of Canada's Human Left Commissions decided they were right and powerful enough to take on a highly competent Lawyer and Journalist like Mr. Levant. They were so wrong.
Any one who has not seen Mr. Levant's video taping of his several hearings before the ironically named Human Rights Commission, must take the time to view them on UTube. It is a lesson in just how far your government can go toward restricting your right, if you are not vigilant.
When that nice, calm, polite lady integrator, who had ordered Ezra before her government commission, and with a placid and beautiful picture of Canada on the wall in the background, asked Ezra "What was you intent" for publishing pictures of the Mohammad Cartoons, in raised the hair on the back of my neck.
I couldn't help but associate this setting and scenario with the reported methods used by the Nazis, as Jews were unloaded from rail cars at extermination camps, treated decently including placid and beautiful orchestra music in order to calm their fears, brought on by previous brutal treatment and rumors of gas chambers, before their execution.
And I know the Nazis also thought they were doing the righteous thing, not only for Germany, but to save the world from itself.
Ezra, and Kathy Shaidle too who has written her on book The Tyranny of Nice about the Human Rights Commission scourge in Canada, are not only Canadian treasures, but democracy treasures, because these speech killing 'Rights' Commission are creeping into democracies throughout the world.
Be afraid.
Correction on my comment below, "integrator" should be 'interrogator'...of course.
Long back, when those Mohamed cartoons hit the presses, when the Islamic rioted, burned, looted and killed all around our world, for a few minutes I thought to publish those cartoons on our family website to make a statement in favor of Freedom of Speech.
However, I am pragmatic. I knew if I practiced Freedom of Speech, my family and I would be slaughtered; our heads would be sawn off.
Fear of death tends to silence a voice.
Fear of prison also tends to silence a voice.
This bending of the knee before censorship serves to enable and facilitate extremism and serves to squash intelligence. Censorship empowers those who would imprison us or kill us for thinking "wrongful" thoughts.
Reminds me of late last year when an Islamic fatwa was issued against Mickey Mouse. Of course, this fatwa calls for the death of Mickey Mouse.
Rather curious, how do you kill a cartoon character?
Today, the Pope issued a fatwa against condoms. He says condoms are sinful and condoms contribute to the AIDS pandemic. This is a form of censorship, yes? This censorship imposed by the Pope could lead to the deaths of millions of people.
Can a woman be the Pope? I suppose women are not equal in the eyes of God. Seems to me God practices censorship; He silences the voices of women.
Are Catholics more righteous than the Islamic or just as hypocritical? Do both religions choose death for peoples to promote dictates?
Women of the Web is owned and operated by famous women of Hollywood. Lots of liberals, lots of activists, lots of freedom preaching women you all know, very well know. I am banished from Women of the Web because I refuse to bend my knee before political correctness, and refuse to bend my knee before Obama. Women of the Web issued a fatwa against me. My voice is silenced at their website because I dared to question their personal agenda.
No, I am not a foul mouthed extremist suffering verbal diarrhea. I am firm but fair. I am a retired public school teacher and an English professor. I have won a lot of awards for my dedication to education. I am a professional and I adamantly oppose censorship, but am reasonable.
I knew, ahead of time, I would be banned from Women of the Web after one of those women, a very famous woman, slung out a racial slur at me. I am a red skinned woman. She does not like American Indians. She made this clear.
So what to do? A famous woman of Hollywood slings a racial slur. Most easy option is to get rid of the victim.
I am reasonable about Freedom of Speech. We should not shout, "Let's get naked!" during a Catholic high mass. We can, but we should not. Contrasting, we are to never allow child pornography and similar crimes of print.
I support Ezra Levant. I support Kathy Shaidle. I support Rush Limbaugh although I consider Limbaugh to be a fat blowhard dopehead who could not find his own butt using both of his hands. I support Limbaugh's right to Freedom of Speech although he is a liar.
I support Obama. I hope he enjoys a successful presidency. I think Obama is an ignorant megalomaniac. I think Obama is destroying America. Nonetheless, I will fiercely fight to defend his Freedom of Speech. I do not think Obama will do this for me. I am quite sure of this.
Oh, there I go again not being politically correct.
What Ezra Levant suffered up in Canada, is now taking hold here in America. This really concerns me. This causes me to think of Fahrenheit 452.
I am thinking I should start hiding my thousands of books. I love books. Life would not be all this good without books to read.
Do many Americans still read books these days?
Maybe I will not hide my books written in my native tongue, Choctaw. Only very few of us in America can read those. Doubtful English speaking censors will be concerned about my Choctaw language books. I do know none of my Choctaw peoples will ever engage in censorship. Doing so would be to dishonor our ancestors and to dishonor our peoples. We American Indians are very well known for being truth speakers, even when truth hurts.
I think Women of the Web are not too concerned about their dignity and their honor. This seems to be the new way of Western Nations.
Do any of you smell smoke? Maybe this is just me.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
Excellent interview! Thank you!
Thank God for guys like this that are fighting the good fight against the "Oprahfication" of our culture. The sociology majors that I went to school with in the 80's and 90's are the ones that are setting our cultural agenda. Pretty scary.
Robert Moon is spamming The Activity Pit again: twi.cc/lAlq
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