Did Free Speech Lead to the Holocaust?

An ex-Big Deal Jew still insists that it did:

Bernie Farber, former CEO of Canadian Jewish Congress, said the organization “led the way in trying to have people understand the importance of having on the books a civil procedure dealing with hate groups. 

“The loss of Section 13 is not something to celebrate. Canada is not living up to its international obligations in relation to hate laws. Democratic countries have been asked to come up with procedures to delineate between the traditions of free speech and protecting minorities.” 

“It is a fine balance,” he said. “Section 13 for the most part found that balance.” Human Rights legislation does so without “the heavy hand of the criminal law.” 

Farber said the “flaws in Section 13” should have been addressed, particularly its “onerous penalties. 

“But one doesn’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Actually, one does--when both baby and bath water are toxic; when they give Jews haunted by the Holocaust a false sense of security at the expense of personal liberty; and when they end up serving the interests of those (Marxists, Islamists, "social justice" Utopians, etc.) who abjure Western freedom. But do continue, sir:

Words can escalate into something more lethal, just as they did in Nazi Germany, he said.

I'm not sure which history books Mr. Baby Bathwater has consulted, but that analysis is simplistic verging on the asinine veering into the imbecilic.Was there free speech in Hitler's Germany?  Nuh-uh, because in a totalitarian polity "words" are under tight control of those in power. Could another Holocaust happen today? For sure, but not because state censorship has been canned in Canada, thereby reinvigorating the Nazi cause. It could happen if and when fanatical Shia theocrats get their hands on a nuke and decide to jump start their end-of-days eschatology by incinerating Israel.

It's hard to see how having a Section 13 on the books could do much of anything to prevent that. Heck, it couldn't even stop Zafar Bangash from spewing his Khomeinist Zionhass at Queen's Park.


Update: Mark Steyn weighed in on Mr. Baby Bathwater here:

 Europe is awash in explicit Jew-hatred on a scale unseen since the Second World War: synagogues are burned, schools are attacked, children are murdered, and, even on quieter days, Jews are enjoined to walk around Toulouse and Amsterdam and Malmo without any identifying marks of their faith. In Calgary, demonstrators of a certain, ahem, religio-cultural background march under placards proclaiming “Death to the Jews!” In Toronto, their comrades stand on sidewalks and express enthusiasm for a new Holocaust. But, as long as there’s one last penniless loser neo-Nazi getting his swastika tramp-stamp touched up at the tattoo parlor in Redneck Junction, Bernie knows his priorities.

Exactly.