Why I welcome Khurrum Awan's legal threats

That was a great conference; and it just happened to fall the day after I was served with a nuisance lawsuit by lawfare bully Richard Warman.

So -- apart from the pleasant company -- why was I smiling?

For same reason why I welcome Khurrum Awan's threatened suit: because, like Warman's two nuisance suits, and the three nuisance human rights complaints filed against me, Awan's threatened suit gives me a forum and a process and a "news peg" through which to bring the battle for freedom into the heart of one of the most malicious organizations in Canada: the Canadian Islamic Congress.

Until yesterday, I was just a pundit, criticizing them from time to time. Now I've got standing: I'm a prospective defendant in a legal action. That doesn't just give me political and media authority to criticize them, it gives me tremendous legal tools to go after them, too. I mean, just stop for a moment to consider all of their internal documents I'll have access to in discoveries. Media pundits don't have access to hundreds of internal e-mails or memos. Defendants in defamation lawsuits do. It's going to be a feast -- and it's all going to be done in the bright lights of a court of law, and not a kangaroo court of the type preferred by Awan or Warman.

When I was hit with two nuisance complaints before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, it was indeed a nuisance -- 900 days of prosecution by 15 government bureaucrats and lawyers. But had I not been drawn into such a battle, I would never have learned just how corrupt and abusive Canada's HRCs have become. I would not have read 100 HRC rulings; I would not have read 10,000 pages of HRC transcripts; I would not have learned about their corruption and abuse.

And I would not have fought back.

I would not have written close to 1,000 blog entries on the subject of HRCs, had 500 radio and TV interviews, written dozens of newspaper articles and written a best-selling book on the subject. I would not have had 700,000 people around the world watch my YouTube video of an HRC censor interrogate me, North Korea-style. In other words, the HRCs threw the first punch at me, a sucker punch -- but now they're the ones with the bloody nose.

What's the likelihood, for example, that the half-million readers of the National Post and Montreal Gazette would have learned that the Canadian Human Rights Commission employs seven members of Nazi organizations?

Do not misunderstand me: I'm not claiming that this was in any way a solitary effort. As I describe in detail in Shakedown (in this chapter excerpted by Reason Magazine), it was very much a collaborative effort, involving dozens of people, all amateur volunteers. But I don't think that any of us would have been as engaged by the HRCs had they not forcibly engaged Mark Steyn and me with human rights complaints, and later other bloggers through nuisance suits. I don't think that Richard Warman's streak of neo-Nazi outbursts would have been denounced as "disappointing and disturbing" by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal were it not for the massive publicity that he brought upon himself by suing me, Kate, Kathy, Connie, Mark and the Post.

And now Khurrum Awan is signing up for a little bit of that.

As Kathy writes, it takes a special kind of masochist to go through the drubbing that Mark Steyn inflicted on him, and then sign up for another round: "Thank you, sir -- may I have another...? "

They say there are two ways to really get to know someone: marry them, or go into business with them. I think there's a third: get into a lawsuit against them. I think I know more about the CHRC's malicious conduct than Jennifer Lynch does, simply because I don't think she's ever bothered to read the transcripts and rulings of every one of her censorship cases. I think I know more about Richard Warman than his employer, the Department of Defence's Special Grievances Directorate does, because I don't think they've sat down and read through all of his anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-black diatribes on Nazi websites.

I know a bit about Awan now; but by the time we're through, I think I'm going to know an awful lot more about him -- and about the bigoted Canadian Islamic Congress for which he acted as their youth president.

I'm going to learn about it -- and so will you. So will the country, through hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, radio interviews and, eventually, a trial.

This probably isn't what I'd choose to do with my spare time, if I were left to my own devices. Khurrum Awan just isn't that interesting to me. But it's not really up to me, is it? He's the one doing the suing. But once he formally engages me -- once he locks us into a formal process -- well then, I'm going to find him very, very interesting.

Defamation's a funny kind of lawsuit, because it's all about the reputation of the plaintiff. Every thing they've said and done goes to the value of their reputation. Every lie they've told, every dishonourable thing they've done -- that's all relevant, because it goes to damages. None of us is a saint; none of us would lightly submit to a public inspection of everything we've said and done. For Khurrum Awan -- someone who has spent years with an overtly anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist organization like the CIC, under the leadership of an out-and-out anti-Semite like Mohamed Elmasry? Well, I'd say young Khurrum's libel notice is the longest suicide note I've ever read.

Question: if he proceeds with his suit, two years from now do you think Awan's and the CIC's reputation will be stronger or weaker? After going through document discovery and cross-examination, do you think Awan and the CIC will be more or less reputable in the public eye?

I don't know for sure -- I haven't yet seen their internal documents. But I'm guessing that if they're anything like Jennifer Lynch's dirty laundry, the CIC will become even more denormalized and marginalized than they are now.

If that's the outcome -- and if I can deploy my own stubbornness, noisiness and prolixity to that goal -- why then, dear reader, being sued by Awan is perhaps the most effective way I can fight against the spread of radical Islam in Canada.

And that's something I welcome.

To battle stations!

P.S. Thanks very much to everyone who has chipped in to my legal defence fund. Seriously, that's the only thing I'm worried about here, running out of money for lawyers. I've got plenty of fight in me -- I'm the most stubborn person I know. If you can help shore up my legal defence fund, I promise to fight until I'm done. Not until they're done, but until I'm done. Jennifer Lynch knows what I mean.

Please click on the PayPal button below. If you’d prefer to send in a cheque by snail mail, please make cheques payable to my lawyer:

“Christopher Ashby in Trust”

Attn: Ezra Levant defence fund

Suite 1013, 8 King Street East

Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1B5

Thank you very much. With your help, I promise to fight this battle all the way to the end.