Bollocks on Rye With a Side of Cole Slaw and Pickles

The Ceej is in a major snit over Steyn:

In his April 12, 2010 Maclean’s column, “True, North, Strong, Not Free,” journalist Mark Steyn claimed that Canadian Jewish Congress had taken a variety of positions directly against the interests of Canada’s Jewish community. Mr. Steyn, however, rooted his assertions in quotations that Canadian Jewish Congress never uttered. Maclean’s apologizes for this misattribution in its current issue. Please click here to read Congress’s letter to the editor of Maclean’s as well as Maclean’s apology. Mr. Steyn has neither apologized nor even acknowledged his error and continues to post the fallacious column, without any clarification, on his private website.

Apparently what happened is that Steyn misattrubuted an article written by a Mississauga News scribbler  posted on the Ceej site as being the words of Bernie Farber. An honest mistake, since the scribbler wrote, in essence, that that old saw about sticks and stones breaking bones but names never hurting you was a load of crapola; in a similar vein, Mr. Farber, one of our land's most vocal and vehement proponents of state censorship, had been heard to observe that "hate speech" almost always invariably leads to genocide and that Canadian Jewry's sense of "well-being" hinges on Section 13 remaining on the books. Mr. Farber took enormous--dare one say excessive?--umbrage at having such comments placed in his mouth, despite the fact that the following are some of the things he has been heard to utter:

• "If the destructive language of the last century teaches us anything it is that destructive language, left unchecked, can lead to destructive action."
• "The Internet must be tamed."
• "The blogosphere is sadly replete with bullies, jerks, racists, homophobes and bigots. But here my friends is the kicker, these same racist, bigots and misogynists all “love” Israel and as a result there are those in our community who will tolerate them even accept them. Accepting those who engage in motsi ra can never be OK….ever!"

And let's not forget this golden oldie, from a Ceej publication:

Anti-hate laws under our criminal code and human rights legislation continue to offer much needed protection for minorities in Canada. Yes, by all means let's fix the parts of the law that are broken, but let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Now, I ask you: does that sound like someone who would ever concur with the sentiments expressed in the Mississauga News article posted on the Ceej site, i.e. that sticks and stones can break one's bones but only Section 13 and the CHRC can protect the vulnerable from dangerous "haters" (like the ones that the Ceej's beloved "Nazi" hunter, Richard Warman, has turned up in his tireless Web-probings)?

How awful it must be for Mr. Farber to have had such alien concepts misattributed to him!