Does Christie Blatchford Really "Get" Free Speech?

That's the question that must be posed after reading this:

I’m happy that Maclean’s magazine and the great writer Mark Steyn were not found guilty at that long-ago B.C. Human Rights tribunal where Mr. Levant live-blogged. 

I’m glad Mr. Levant, then at the now-defunct Western Standard, had the stones to republish the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. 

I’m glad the hate-speech provisions — under which Maclean’s, Mr. Steyn and Mr. Levant himself in Alberta were so egregiously prosecuted — were repealed. 

I believe in free speech. I believe in that great old definition, most often attributed to Voltaire, of it: I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. I don’t want anyone censored. I just wish it could all be done with a little more kindness.

Oh, you mean like not calling young girls "bossy" (a word which some silly chicks--sorry, is that unkind?--want to vilify and expunge)?

Maybe we could go through the dictionary and red pencil all the "unkind" words in it ("bully," "pushy," "ugly" and a bazillion others). That way, no one would ever say "mean" things like Ezra Levant, that ultimate mean boy.

Oh, we'd still have "free speech," of course. You'd be "free" to say lots and lots of "kind," bland, boring things so that no one's precious feelings would ever get hurt.

You know, the kind of "freedom" that the diversity/victimhood/"human rights"/grievance industry busybodies would foist upon us. The kind that Ezra Levant, that abrasive loudmouth who obviously rubs Christie the wrong way, has been trying to beat back with "meanness" and plenty of 'tude. 

Seriously, Christie, do you think "kindness" and politesse would have been able to slay Section 13, the censorship provision in our federal "human rights" code?

Well, do you?

Free speech--real free speech--can be nasty and lowdown and dirty. It can make you angry. It can hurt you. It can even make you sick. But here's a little secret: you can be for "free speech" or you can be for "a little more kindness." Because when you push for the latter you will inevitably end up kneecapping the former.

And that, sad to say, makes one question Blatchford's commitment to the whole ball o' wax.