Ironwolf

Ezra Levant is a conservative Canadian commentator and former publisher of the magazine the Western Standard. Two years ago his magazine published the Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammad. Predictably, this exercise of Free Speech was met by complaints from radical Muslims. However, unlike the United States (so far) in Canada they have taxpayer-funded thought police in the form of the Alberta Human Rights Commission and other provincial HRCs. Two days ago Ezra Levant was brought before the AHRC and compelled to provide testimony as to, among other things, his “intentions” for originally publishing the cartoons. From Ezra Levant’s blog:

Our magazine had published eight of the Danish cartoons to illustrate a story … about the cartoon riots and the Western media’s fear of printing them.

The magazine spoke for itself — it’s an artifact; anyone could see the words and pictures we used. Why would the commission ask me about my “intentions”?

Why would my intentions as publisher be relevant in determining whether or not the publication was illegal? The answer is that these “human rights” commissions are interested in what George Orwell called “thought crimes“. If my thoughts were pure, the publication might receive their blessing. If my thoughts were impure, the very same publication would be banned. It’s worse than a limit on freedom of expression — which is when you say or print what’s on your mind. It’s a test of what’s on your mind itself — a limit on freedom of thought.

Again, I refer to Hannah Arendt’s phrase, “the banality of evil”. No six-foot brownshirt, no police cell at midnight. Just Shirlene McGovern, an amiable enough bureaucrat, casually asking me about my political thoughts, on behalf of the government of Alberta. And she’ll write up a report about it, and recommend that the government do this or that to me. Just going through checklists, you see.

If you don’t pay attention, you might not even realize that freedoms are being eroded. I had half-expected a combative, missionary-style interrogator. I found, instead, a limp clerk who was just punching the clock. She had done it dozens of times before, and will do it dozens of times again. In a way, that’s more terrifying.

Fortunately, Levant is no pushover— he’s a lawyer and knows how to fight for his rights: when the HRC first contacted him he informed them that he reserved the right to make all communications with them public, and he also insisted on videotaping his interrogation. And, despite being asked to keep it confidential, he’s merrily posting the best bits on YouTube where his courage should serve as an example of the defense of Freedom of Speech in every country that claims to value human rights.

Another good summary of the fiasco appears here.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under Philosophy, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.