Location, Location, Location

George Jonas nails it re today's in-your-face seethe-o-palooza:

“You’re big on free speech — what do you say now?” someone asked me triumphantly. He was so sure he got me, I almost felt sorry to disappoint him. I had to, though, because I’m still big on free speech. I’m just not big on providing soapboxes.

I’ve always had an issue with expropriating public spaces for private or sectarian purposes (other than the annual Santa Claus parade, perhaps). Much as I abhor what Mr. Bangash is saying, I would go to the barricades for his right to say it. What I question is Sergeant-at-arms Clark’s decision to lend the grounds of Ontario’s Parliament to the ayatollahs’ agenda.

Moreover,

Freedom of speech isn’t my guarantee of being heard. I can’t make my freedom your obligation. Freedom of speech entitles me to the first available spot in Hyde Park. It doesn’t entitle me to halt traffic in Piccadilly Circus.

My freedom of speech isn’t a key to your front door. I’m free to speak but not to enter your parlour or your legislative building, or the public roads and parks surrounding them, or any of your spaces not specifically set aside for assemblies and demonstrations.

Those who want to limit free speech claim that it’s not absolute but this is false. Free speech is absolute; it’s just that using words doesn’t amount to a pass to break the law. It’s no licence to defraud, defame, incite a riot, enter a criminal conspiracy, betray an official secret, impersonate an officer, misrepresent a qualification, breach a fiduciary obligation, etc., nor should it be. Free speech should eliminate the censor and the “human rights” commissioner, but it’s not doing it yet. A pity. 

A pity, too, that no one in a position of authority at Queen's Park had the stones to tell the Ayatollah idolaters to take a hike...say all the way to Tehran.

The Khomeinists "promised" they wouldn't be as hateful as last year? They "promised" they'd keep their Hezbo flags furled? Shame on you, Dalton McGuinty, craven buck-passer and shameless suck-up, and on you, Dennis Clark, dignified/dhimmified Sergeant-at-Arms (can we demote you, sir, to Private?), for not having the spinal fortitude to point out that their past hateful behaviour, which insulted the very grounds on which they stood and railed and screamed their "Allahu Akbars," precludes their ever holding one of their Khomeinist spectacles there again.

Update: OCRAP hooks up with the Khomeinists for a hot 'n' heavy make out sesssion.


Suggested name/noun for the annual Queen's Park Khomeinist spectacle: it's a "bangash"