La Presse: Shakedown should be read "in secret"

Mario Roy of Montreal's La Presse newspaper has written a review of Shakedown on that newspaper's blog. You can see it here in the original French, or here in an English Google translation of that page. Some excerpts (with a gentle clean-up of Google's automatic translation):

...However, if a man has tasted the medicine of the new censors, it is Ezra Levant, a lawyer, activist, journalist, polemicist and former editor of a newspaper... (which has since closed its doors), the Western Standard. This newspaper is, I believe, the only one that has published the infamous cartoons of Mohammed in 2006. This earned him endless trouble with these quasi-judicial bodies, primarily the Alberta.

Levant is a conservative (in the philosophical sense and not in favor of the term), and a kind of bulldog! He began collecting information on the various rights commissions acting in Canada and made a book, Shake Down, which tells something absolutely astounding...

The least is certainly the case that former investigator of one of these organizations and "serial plaintiff" (as they say in English: serial killer ...) who wrote his own posts on hateful neo-Nazi blogs!

Or read the book, of course ... before it is banned, as fears Levant (you can read it in secret, by disguising it within the pages of Diplomatic World, if you do not want to surprise your friends now reading the prose of a conservative from the west).

I love it -- the idea that the book ought to be tucked within the pages of a more politically acceptable book! It's also interesting to me that Roy thinks one of the most interesting parts was my detailed exposition of Richard Warman's own hateful comments on neo-Nazi websites. I am now somewhat numbed to that shocking fact, but to readers who are new to this story, it remains outrageous, as it should.

I think it's marvelous that a book about freedom of speech, written by a conservative from Alberta, has received such a thoughtful review (and, I'd say, endorsement), from one of Quebec's literati. Boy have things changed for human rights commissions over the past year!

UPDATE: My friend Brigitte Pellerin provides this better translation (thanks!):

In my editorials, I have often talked about the problems of freedom of expression posed by the various Human Rights Commissions, particularly the federal and Ontario commissions (the Quebec commission is of no concern).

If there is one man who has felt the wrath of these new censors, it is Ezra Levant (pictured), a lawyer, activist, journalist, polemicist and former publisher of a Western magazine (that has since ceased publication), Western Standard. Unless I am mistaken, this magazine is the only one in the country to have published those famous Danish cartoons of Mohammed in 2006. It earned him no end of trouble with these quasi-judicial organizations, starting with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

Levant is a conservative (in the philosophical, not political sense of the word) and a kind of... pitbull! He began collecting information on the various human rights commissions in Canada and wrote a book, Shake Down, which reveals absolutely astounding things about those commissions. The least of which being the case of this ex-investigator and “serial plaintiff” (as they say in English: serial killer...) who himself wrote hate-filled posts on neo-nazi blogs! And that’s not even the worst...

You can read more about Levant here. Or read the book, of course... before it is banned, as Levant fears (you can read it in secret, by hiding it for instance inside a copy of le Monde diplomatique, if you don’t want to be caught by your intellectual friends reading a Western conservative).

If freedom of expression interests you, of course.