Catching up: Two Shakedown reviews

A couple of weeks ago, conservative commentator Michael Taube reviewed Shakedown for the Washington, D.C.-based Weekly Standard magazine. (I should note that the Weekly Standard was one of the few U.S. magazines to reprint the Danish cartoons.) Here's the link; here are some excerpts:

...In February 2006, Levant was the publisher of a conservative magazine, the Western Standard. After some consideration, he decided to reprint the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed "to show our readers what all the fuss was about." It was a gutsy move. Whereas most Canadian publications decided against publishing them, Levant thought people should be free to look at these cartoons in print and judge for themselves.

...Today, HRCs are the equivalent of kangaroo courts used predominantly by the Canadian left to sue political rivals and soothe the hurt feelings of residents of glass houses. Shakedown details some of the more ridiculous human rights cases that have succeeded in Canada--and sadly, the vast majority of cases have succeeded:

...Muslim police cadet was awarded $500,000 (Canadian) for, among other things, being shouted at by a drill sergeant whose job it was to--well, shout at him.

...It soon became clear these human rights commissions had nothing to do with human rights but were the first-line defense of the left-wing agenda against the rights and freedoms of opposing doctrines.

...Shakedown might well shock your senses; it certainly will make you shudder about Canada's lackadaisical support for free speech. Mark Steyn, who has written Shakedown's introduction, calls Levant "a true Canadian hero." I'll take it one step further: He's a true hero for all people, and societies, who love freedom.

That's pretty friendly! And here's a review in Lifesite News, by John Jalsevac:

...the worst thing that ever happened to the CHRCs was when a Muslim imam by the name of Syed Sohawardy decided to file a human rights complaint against a magazine published by Levant. Sohawardy claimed that he was "offended" that the now-defunct Western Standard had dared republish the so-called "Danish cartoons" that depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad and that had been the ostensible catalyst for violent rioting by Muslims across the globe.

As Levant relates in Shakedown - his recently published book on the human rights commissions - he honestly didn't think he'd have to spend more than five minutes dealing with what he really thought - as a reasonable, law-abiding Westerner living in what he considered a "free country" - was a mere "bureaucratic formality." After all, the cartoons were the hot news at the time, and Canada didn't operate according to Sharia law.

...As soon as Levant realized that he was being forced to walk the gauntlet of a broken human rights system that was, ironically, perhaps the greatest threat to human rights in the country (yes, even beyond the various pathetic white supremecist sites that HRC employees apparently spend their lazy afternoon hours baiting with racist comments) and that he was far from being the only victim, he never looked back. His recent book is the percolated and highly volatile result of several years spent fighting that system and learning the finer points of how it operates. The book is an informative, disturbing, and beautifully galvanizing read.

To me it really is a wonder that anyone from Canada's HRCs has shown their face in public since the release of Levant's book. Shakedown is a damning and deeply embarassing indictment of a government entity that has become so bloated with its own power that it seems utterly incapable of conceiving that dragging ordinary Canadian citizens through the mud of absurdly lengthy, costly, and demeaning "investigations" into whether or not someone may or may not be "offended" by something they said, just might not be in anyone's best interests - except, of course, their own.

Shakedown has been favorably reviewed in most of the major news publications from coast to coast. And the most remarkable thing is that Levant's sympathizers cross all ideological and political boundaries - and this even though most of the commission's "hate speech" victims have been political and social conservatives and Christians. Indeed, perhaps Levant's greatest accomplishment has been to transcend ideological boundaries, largely by showing that just because the commission is persecuting social conservatives now, doesn't mean that its persecutory mechanisms and lack of due process can't be turned on anyone, no matter where they fall on the political or ideological spectrum.

That's great!

Later this week I hope to blog about a fascinating review of my book written by Mark Freiman, the new figurehead president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. That will take more time than merely pasting some excerpts -- it's styled as a review of my book (and, actually, as a review of me), but it tells much more about Freiman and the CJC, I think. I'll try to get to that soon.