Shakedown book tour, day two

I had a blast on John Oakley's morning radio show today. It makes such a difference to be in the studio, where one can make eye contact with the interviewer, rather than joining by phone from afar as I usually do. I did a number of other shows today, including Tom Young out in New Brunswick, who has a deep philosophical commitment to free speech. I love his show; I get the feeling that he has read many of the "Great Books". And it felt good to cap off the day with Rob Breakenridge from Calgary's CHQR. I haven't kept a precise count, but I think that Rob has probably done more shows about human rights commissions and their violation of free speech than any other radio host in Canada.

In print media, Paul Schneidereit wrote a review of Shakedown in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the biggest newspaper east of Montreal. Readers will recall that Paul isn't just an advocate of free speech, he's also served as an executive on the Canadian Association of Journalists, which last year came out with a blistering criticism of human rights commissions and their censorship provisions. Here are a few excerpts:

Let me put in a plug for Levant’s new book, Shakedown, which lays out, in example after example, how government-appointed human rights bodies warped the noble mission for which they were created. Inspired by the government-backed attack on his basic rights, Ezra dug into the work files of human rights commissions across the country. What he found should disturb every Canadian. In case after case, many of which go beyond attacks on free speech, Ezra shows how human rights bodies have put purported grievances of single individuals ahead of the facts, the public interest and even common sense.

Some examples. In B.C., a transsexual (formerly a man) won the right to counsel rape victims, despite objections from even the victimized women themselves. In Ontario, a case is going ahead against the owner of a restaurant who asked a medical marijuana user – after complaints from patrons – not to puff his weed at the entrance to his establishment. In Alberta, a pastor was ordered never, for the rest of his life, to utter words "disparaging" to homosexuals, by order of the state. And on and on.

...Let’s be clear. Section 13 and its provincial counterparts are an abomination. They avoid the rigorous tests found under Criminal Code restrictions on hate speech and libel and give government-backed thought police shocking powers to tell us what we can and can’t say.

Human rights commissions may have been "denormalized," to use Ezra’s term, but still not one Canadian government has acted to cut out the cancerous threat to free speech found in the legislation of too many human rights bodies across this country.

That's pretty strong stuff. As Paul notes, the public is ahead of the politicians -- nothing new there -- in terms of being ready for reform.

Mark Steyn noted Paul's column, too, and revealed yet one more example of HRC corruption and bias:

Meanwhile, the idiot decisions go on: This latest Ontario ruling, rejecting a complaint against the anti-Semitic Sid Ryan because the complainant is not Jewish, is entirely at odds with the well established racket of non-Jews like Richard Warman shaking down neo-Nazis for anti-Semitism or non-gays like [Darren] Lund shaking down the Reverend Stephen Boissoin for homophobia.

That's laughable. If only "victim groups" could file HRC complaints, Richard Warman would have been out of business. It's a made-up excuse, pure and simple, revealing the bias and whimsy of these HRCs. They're not true courts, but they're not even credible quasi-judicial tribunals. Jurisprudence means nothing to them -- except as political cover for their own extremist agendas. If they want to absolve a fellow Marxist, like Sid Ryan, they'll just change the rules until he's off the hook, and then go back to going after their enemies lists. What a disgrace.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Ottawa. I'll be on CFRA radio with Rob Snow and Lowell Green, who have been fighting this fight for longer than I have! I'll be doing a lot of other interviews, including with some student media at Carleton University, the Hill Times, and CBC Newsworld's Politics with Don Newman. I'm looking forward to seeing him again.

I do have one public event for which tickets might still be available: a reception and dinner with Nigel Hannaford, hosted by the Fraser Institute. You can get details here.

I'll be in Ottawa on Thursday, too, and I'll keep you posted with details. When I have a moment, I'll give the exact dates for events in other cities, some of which will have book-signings.