Today's Calgary Herald

Alberta is generally regarded as the freest province in Canada, but we have had our share of embarrassing episodes of censorship. In fact, about 70 years ago, the Edmonton Journal won a special Pulitzer Prize for fighting against the provincial government's Press Act. That unconstitutional bundle of laws required provincial newspapers to publish the government's "other side of the story" on demand. (Come to think of it, that's precisely what Mohamed Elmasry and the Canadian Islamic Congress are demanding from Maclean's magazine.) 

Today's Calgary Herald looks like it's on its way to another Pulitzer, for keeping the free speech fight alive -- proving true Thomas Jefferson's statement about refreshing the tree of liberty in each generation.

Columnist and radio host Rob Breakenridge points out the absurdity of these commissions, and how they have become their own worst enemy through their repeated abusive conduct. I'm glad he thinks so -- that's what I mean by "denormalizing" the commissions.

And the paper's unsigned editorial writes "clearly, something is wrong with Alberta law, if a body set up to decide if a person was denied a job because of race or sex, has been given a censor's powers." I think the paper is too generous to both the provincial Tory and Liberal leaders for their tepid promises to "review" the commission, but the Herald is right to flag this as a start. It often takes a while before a big boulder of change gets rolling, and the Herald will rightly be able to take much credit for any amendments that will come in the months or years ahead.