Press coverage in the U.S. and Australia

Here's a friendly interview with Bernard Chapin from Pajamas Media, the large U.S. website alliance that include the great Instapundit. Some excerpts (from a 2,000-word item):

BC: Are the HRCs an example of a good idea gone mad or were they never a good idea in the first place?

Ezra Levant: I think it’s a good idea for us to get along, regardless of race or sex, etc. But most of life’s little grievances and setbacks are too trivial to be arbitrated by the government. We shouldn’t criminalize mere rudeness or offensiveness. And we shouldn’t dress up a political action committee as a neutral arbiter of justice.

...BC: Ezra, here in this country, we think of Canadians as being hardy, rustic, and good. What the heck happened to our neighbors over the last 40 years? Why is political correctness worse there than it is here?

Ezra Levant: Your First Amendment is the main answer. Were it not for that, I’m sure you’d have HRCs by now. And, the ACLU — despite its many flaws — is quick, forceful, and noisy in defense of “offensive” speech. We don’t have the same level of public interest law firms defending free speech up here. Finally: don’t get too smug. Many of your university campuses have strict “speech codes.” Some of your cities actually have hodgepodge HRCs. (Philadelphia’s HRC put Geno’s Steaks on trial for a sign telling customers to order their cheesesteaks in English.) And then there’s the biggest HRC of them all: the United Nations, which just passed a resolution calling on member states to criminalize “defamation of Islam.”

And here's a fun piece in Australia's Daily Telegraph, by Tim Blair, called "Frightened of Ezra". You can probably guess what he's talking about!