Free Speech under attack in Canada

Ezra Levant, founder of The Western Standard, is under trial for printing the Mohamed cartoons in his newspaper in 2005. He is not in a regular court of law, but is being put before a human rights commission, because he offended Syed Soharwardy, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada. Knowing he wouldn't be able to beat Levant in a regular court of law, Levant is now forced in front of a one person commission which will decide if he will need to apologize. Besides taking away his freedom of speech, he is also being forced to pay for his defense, while his accuses pays nothing. The publishing of these cartoons could be considered offensive to members of the Muslim community, but they do not promote violence or hatred against them. It is simply an expression of freedom of speech and freedom of the press which has been part of our heritage since the Magna Carta. To take away this right through a government bureaucracy is wrong. These courts were initially set up to solve housing disputes, in which minorities lets say wouldn't receive an apartment due to a racist owner. The creator of these commissions has even said that they never intended matters of speech or thought to be taken before these courts. If Levant loses he will be forced to apologize, which he claims is Orwellian in nature, as they will be controlling what he does. In his opening comments he said that criminals aren't forced to apologize, but he should? This commissions in the past once forced a right wing Christian to pay reparations to a gay man who was offended by a newspaper comment in which he gave bible verses that said homosexuality was wrong. Levant properly speaks when he says that he is defending every true supporter of free speech and not just himself.

Mark Steyn, a N.Y Times best selling author is also going to be hauled in front of these courts in Ontario, due to Macleans publishing excerpts of his book, which offended some Muslim students at Osgoode Hall. Many of the claims they lay against him are completely unjustified and they are demanding that Macleans let them publish a rebuttal in the magazine which will over around 5 pages. Needless to say they disagreed. Stuff can offend you all of the time, it doesn't mean you can force people to go in front of these kangaroo courts. I wonder what these commissions response would be if I claimed that a book I read by a Muslim author offended me, or if I said some homosexual acts offended me because of my religious beliefs. I somehow think my complaint wouldn't receive the same attention. We must speak up now if we want to keep our basic freedoms.

You can go to ezralevant.com to see some clips of him before the commission and
marksteyn.com to read about his case

In response to Ezra Levant defending himself this "nice" facebook group has been made about him
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/007823.html