Oooo. Scary.
The usual suspects make an appearance--Official Jews, Stephen Boisson, Ezra Levant, Richard Warman, etc--although, oddly enough, there's nary a mention of hatred being spewed in, say, local Muslim rags or from mosque pulpits; funny, that. My favorite bit, though, has to be this, about Liberal M.P. Irwin Cotler:
Nothing to see here, everything's refinedYou do that, Irwin. And please let us know when you're finally up to speed on the subject, because we're all dying to hear your "informed" thoughts.
Irwin Cotler, who can challenge even Michael Ignatieff as the federal Liberal party's top authority on human rights, said in a brief interview that he learned the value of free speech from his father, but his mother taught him the dangers of "assaultive speech," the notion that "life and death is on the tip of the tongue."
He called the controversy over Section 13 "a priority as a justice issue," but said he is not informed enough to offer an opinion.
He has not read the Moon report on the issue, published in November 2008, but said he conflicts with fellow Liberal Keith Martin, a prominent parliamentary critic of Section 13. Mr. Cotler said he is in favour of "maintenance of the remedy" and "refinement" over Dr. Martin's proposal of elimination, but said he is "going to have to look into it."
Update: Am I an "Islamophobe"? Nope. Any fears I have about jihad and sharia are rational, educated and completely well-founded. However, there is one minority group within our glorious Trudeaupia toward whom I do harbour a great deal of hateful thoughts and feelings, ones which, on occasion, I have even vented. It's the censors.
Is the day coming when free speech advocates will be called to account in front of a "human rights" outfit for "likely exposing" that beleagured "victim" group to hatred?
5 comments:
The sad thing is that Stephen Harper will listen to these idiots and give Omar Khadr 10 million.
Meanwhile our Hatefinders have found Public Enemy No. 1 and it's me:)
And me too. And every person who hates censorship and won't shut up about it. That's how it works in a police state.
Anyone who has any doubts about Irwin Cotler's disdain for freedom of expression should read his "The Right to Protection against Group-Vilifying Speech: Towards a Model Factum in Support of Anti-Hate Legislation," in Law, Policy, and International Justice: Essays in Honour of Maxwell Cohen, edited by William Kaplan and Donald McRae. We should all study this essay carefully, if we are to know the enemy well.
Mr. Colter appears to be and idealog. A true believer. No amount of evidence will convince him governments cannot manage speech.
So they have misused and abused the wide open authority given them in Section 13.1, royally. But still, the idea of 'free' speech is....well just too offensive.
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