A day in Ottawa

I spent Saturday in Ottawa promoting Shakedown. First I taped Nick at Night's radio show that aired later on Ottawa's CFRA. My friend James videotaped it. Here's a segment: 

Then I did two events at the Ottawa Writers Festival. The first was a panel on Alberta's place in Confederation -- which focused on the oil sands. Debbie Gyapong was there, and here's her summary:

...there was an exhibit of photographs of the oil sands showing huge tailings ponds and giant pits. Ezra joked that you could see his apartment from the photographs.

But he also launched into a most interesting defence of the project, noting that yes, oil is dirty, but this is the cleanest oil when you consider it is done by companies which have a concern for the environment, that pay their workers good union wages, and so on. Then he compared the oil coming from the regimes of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Sudan and Nigeria. Needless to say, Ezra was on a roll detailing the terrorist funding, thuggish behavior, genocide and kleptocracy of these countries. The photographer happened to be present and I can't even remember what the poor mild-mannered green-inspired chap said because Ezra was on a roll and made mincemeat out of him by pointing out that he had taken the photographs from a plane. Then he asked the guy what social programs he would like to see cut if the oil sands were put out of business. He also accused him of picking an easy, accessible target, noting that he would not be allowed to fly over Saudi Arabia or Iran to show how these countries treat the environment.

This is so true, the whole principle of the easy target in the west: you know, poke a finger in George W. Bush's eye or accuse Dick Cheney of "torture" or America of not being perfect, majoring on the light gray while ignoring the horrors of other countries. Worse than that, not only ignoring the horrors but accusing those who do have the courage to name them of some phobia or other or racism or hatred.

Ezra would have none of it.

It was fun to talk about a subject other than human rights commissions. Defending the oil sands was a good break -- and no less controversial! But it's true: it's easy to pick on the oil sands. But would the oil sands many enemies dare (or, frankly, even bother) to criticize the morality of the oil being pumped from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, or even Mexico? Because that's the reality: the world will continue drinking oil whether or not the oil sands exist. They'll just buy it from less ethical countries. It's like the foolish campaign that drove Calgary's Talisman Energy out of the Sudan oil consortium. So the one, Western, liberal company is gone, but the oil continues to be pumped -- by Chinese, Indian and Sudanese companies. I'm not sure what the "ethical" protesters achieved, other than feeling good about themselves. Darfur is worse than ever; there is no Western company no the ground trying to moderate the regime's bad behaviour. The anti-Talisman activists are too cowardly or too lazy to take on the Chinese oil company, and if they tried they'd find out what it's like to oppose the Chinese government -- a little more difficult than opposing a Canadian company.

That's my point about the oil sands. It's not the oil sands or nothing. It's the oil sands or Saudi Arabia. I'll choose the oil sands every time.

Debbie also came to my afternoon talk about Shakedown, and so did other friends like Stephen Taylor and Fred Litwin. Here's Debbie's summary of that:

Like many of my readers, I have read a lot of Ezra Levant on human rights commissions and seen a lot of interviews, so I don't always expect to hear new stuff when I go seem him talk about this important issue. But he sure delivered some great stuff yesterday in Ottawa.

...Ezra said he was pleased to suddenly be allowed into polite company, especially in a writers' festival featuring literary writers. He spoke of how he was in some ways a true liberal in the sense that liberal and liberty share similar roots. He said that he was certain that most Liberals also still cared about liberty and that's why the ideas in his book Shakedown are popular across the political spectrum.

...He also said he was a gay activist and a womens' rights advocate in addition to being a liberal.
That's because the left, many gay rights organizations and feminists were silent on the dangers posed to gays and women by radical Islam.

I guess that makes me a gay activist too. ...I abhor any form of bullying or marginalization of people simply because they are gay or women or Muslim or Jewish or black or whatever. And alarm bells are going off for me when I hear about the rise of gay bashing incidents in places like Amsterdam that get little or no attention in the mainstream media. Lots of people probably still think Amsterdam is a haven for relaxed social mores and tolerance.

In gay activist mode, Ezra pointed out that Islamists are "so conservative on sexual issues it makes Stephen Harper look like Liberace."

That got lots of laughs. Fred and I agreed it was worth the price of admission.

Another thing that had people laughing was his riffing on Ernst Zundl's hard hat. He noted that Zundl wore the hard hat everywhere. He asked what people would think of him if he were standing before them wearing a bicycle helmet and wore that bicycle helmet all the time. You'd think he was a nut, he said.

He said the day the Western Standard printed the Danish cartoons was like a Bar Mitzvah.
"It was the day the magazine finally became a man."

....He also called his human rights case a "one man stimulus program" for lawyers and government bureaucrats. Heh heh heh.

When asked about limits he would pose on free speech he mentioned forgery, copyright laws, defamation, and official secrets. "The act of expression is not the central element," he said.
Instead it is the fraud, theft, destruction and treason that are illegal.

He described himself as a "slightly huskier Erin Brockovich."

Interestingly, he said most of the cases now brought before the Alberta HRC are from white guys who have been injured on the job and want to top up their severance pay with a $5-6K pay out. For big companies its less expensive to pay the "shakedown" than it is to fight the complaints.

I had a ball at the Writers Festival. It was great to be at such a prestigious event, in such good company.