Jews for free speech

I didn't know it until I read paragraph 4 this legal brief, but apparently I, Ezra Levant, have been relying on section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act -- the thought crimes provision -- for my "psychological security".

That's what the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and, to Frank Dimant's shame, the B'nai Brith say. In paragraph 4 of their joint brief, they claim they're "representatives of the Canadian Jewish community" and that Canadian Jews "rely heavily on anti hate-speech legislation, such as section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, for their physical and psychological security."

I admit I've been caught flat-footed by this. I didn't know that I was supposed to be a caricature of a thin-skinned Jew, a neurotic Woody Allen stereotype, a perpetual victim. But that's not being fair to Allen -- he works through his "psychological insecurities" using self-deprecating comedy, as so many Jewish comedians do. Come to think of it, I imagine he'd be a foe of section 13, if he knew about it. If he were Canadian, he'd probably even be charged under it. If you don't realize that Allen has his tongue in his cheek, his movies' outlandish characters and stories could come across as anti-Semitic. (Zelig is my favourite.) Allen himself could be convicted of "likely" spreading "hatred" against Jews.

I'm not the only Jew who didn't get the groupthink memo from our so-called "representatives". It seems that Jonathan Kay, George Jonas, David Frum, Kevin Libin, Michael Ross and Karen Selick of the National Post (not to mention the Asper family), Edward Greenspon of the Globe and Mail, Charles Adler of Corus radio, Ellen Seligman of PEN Canada and Alan Borovoy of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association aren't fulfilling the official stereotype either. Neither are Noam Chomsky or cartoonist Art Spiegelman or blogger Pamela Geller, but they're not Canadian. I'm not sure if Paul Schneidereit of the Halifax Chronicle Herald is Jewish, and Mark Steyn, Michael Coren and Christopher Hitchens may have some Jewish ancestry but they say they're not members of the tribe, so maybe their anti-section 13 heresy is permitted.

Each of the aforementioned individuals has come out against section 13. But that's the problem: they're individuals. The Official Jews, the Professional Jews, the Jews Who Are Jews for a Living, say that we're all just one big blob of "Jews" who think as we're told to think by them.

And what about Heather Reisman, patron of one of Canada's biggest and most active synagogues, Toronto's Holy Blossom? This Wednesday she is hosting a book launch -- not a book burning -- for Steyn's paperback edition of America Alone. Apparently Reisman isn't aware that Steyn's book is a section 13 crime, denounced (without a trial) by the Ontario HRC's czarina, Barbara Hall, and is about to be subject to a trial in B.C. next month. The CJC's Bernie Farber has less than 72 hours to tell Reisman to start feeling psychologically insecure!

If Canada's Official Jews want to claim that they're "psychologically insecure", they can knock themselves out. It seemed to work for Giacomo "Serenity now!" Vigna. But perhaps they'd be so kind as to speak for themselves, not for the rest of us. Now I know how Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell must feel when they hear Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson speaking "for Blacks".

There is one useful element to their psychobabble dressed up as a legal brief. It is proof, in their own writing, that section 13 is being abused in ways that were never contemplated -- let alone permitted -- by our Supreme Court when they last assessed section 13 in 1990. To protect Jewish "psychological security"? So that's all it takes to trump our fundamental freedom of speech, as enshrined in the Charter of Rights, Bill of Rights, and 800 years of common law?

If you're a Jew (or know of a Jew) who has spoken up against the thought crimes provisions of Canada's human rights laws and I've inadvertently left you off of this list, e-mail me, and I'll add you. And why not e-mail your "representatives" at the CJC, B'nai Brith and (weirdly, as if they're some sort of political body) the Simon Wiesenthal Center at the same time.

Tell them that we all know they need some sort of "crisis" to write about in their endless fundraising letters. But perhaps they might find some other, real, threats to Jewish security -- oh, say, a synagogue or school torching -- and leave the "psychological security" schtick to Woody Allen or Jerry Seinfeld.

ADDENDUM: It's not just that Jews are opposed to section 13. It's that anti-Semites are in favour of it -- and are using it as a weapon against us. Look at the character of the men who have recently been filing complaints under section 13 and its provincial analogs. Mohamed Elmasry, the terrorist-supporting president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, filed three complaints against Judeophile Mark Steyn; Syed Soharwardy, the infidel-hating president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada filed a complaint against me (and, though he later dropped it, the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities picked it up); and even Richard Warman, Canada's most prolific section 13 complainant, has admitted under oath that he went online, under a secret codename, and posted comments on white supremacist websites, signing off with Nazi shorthand for "heil Hitler".

Warman is now suing not only me, but the Zionist National Post and its editor Jonathan Kay, as well as four of Canada's most pro-Israel Gentile bloggers, Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan and Connie and Mark Fournier. Section 13 doesn't give "the Jews" security. Section 13 is being used to silence "the Jews" and our righteous Gentile allies. If anything, it makes me "psychologically insecure" to know that section 13 is being supporting in my name even as Alberta's own version of section 13 is being used against me.

I know that the CJC is beyond redemption. And the Wiesenthal Center is really just a museum and a gift store. But I still hold out hope from the B'nai Brith. Does Frank Dimant even know what his organization is doing?