Update: In the snippet below, Steyn lambastes Liberal MP Irwin Cotler for trying to revive Section 13, the state censorship provision that Steyn ran afoul of and did his damnedest to kill:
And the minute you hear the "but" [following the "I believe in free speech], none of the build-up to it matters. A couple of days before Garland, Canadian Liberal MP (and former Justice Minister) Irwin Cotler announced his plan to restore Section 13 - the "hate speech" law under which Maclean's and I were dragged before the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission and which, as a result of my case, was repealed by the Parliament of Canada. At the time Mr Cotler was fairly torn on the issue. We talked about it briefly at a free-speech event in Ottawa at which he chanced to be present, and he made vaguely supportive murmurings - as he did when we ran into each other a couple of years later in Boston. Mr Cotler is Jewish and, even as European "hate" laws prove utterly useless against the metastasizing open Jew-hate on the Continent, he thinks we should give 'em one more try. He's more sophisticated than your average But boy, so he uses a three-syllable word:
"Freedom of expression is the lifeblood of democracy," said Cotler, who was minister of justice under Paul Martin.
Some decades ago, however, Cotler's devotion to free speech was emphatic and unequivocal. You can read all about in a column Barbara Kay wrote in the days before Section 13 got the parliamentary axe."However..."
Oh, Irwin, you had such potential. Why, oh why, did you have to go and squander it with this final act of betrayal?
Answer: Mr. Cotler wants to be a rhinoceros, like all the other rhinoceros in his intellectual, political, and social circles.
ReplyDelete