Mark Steyn
The Corner
National Review Online
5/2/2013
As some readers will know, I’ve fought a long battle in Canada to restore freedom of speech to a country that should never have allowed itself to lose it. So I find this example of naked intimidation by state power especially repugnant:
Pamela Geller, tireless campaigner against Islamic imperialism (and a lady I had the honor of being introduced by at CPAC a few years back), was scheduled to give a speech at a Toronto synagogue on May 13th. Miss Geller is not a convicted terrorist or terrorism-supporter or someone who argues for the execution of all homosexuals. If she were, she could speak at any Canadian venue with impunity. Instead, here’s what happened next:
TORONTO – York Regional Police threatened to remove a rabbi as one of the force’s chaplains if he hosted a controversial anti-Islamist speaker at his Thornhill synagogue.
Insp. Ricky Veerappan, of the force’s diversity, equity and inclusion bureau, confirmed he and officers from the service’s hate crimes unit met with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of the Chabad Flamingo Synagogue on Tuesday.
They expressed concern about an upcoming talk to be given by Pamela Geller, a vocal critic of radical Islam. She protested past plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, and has posted anti-Jihad messages in that city’s subway system.
When the York Regional Police Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bureau show up thwacking their truncheons against their palms and saying, “Nice little multifaith advisory committee gig you got going, Rabbi. Shame if anything were to happen to it”, a prudent man gets the message:
Subsequent to his meeting with police, Kaplan cancelled Geller’s May 13 talk.
So that worked…
The article continues at National Review Online.
More by Mark Steyn:
The Bureau of Diversity Compliance
…As I wrote on Thursday, it is not the job of a police force to enforce its “values”, but to uphold the law – without favor. If you want an ideological police force that enforces “values”, try Riyadh or Waziristan…
…Twenty-first century Canada — a land where cops take five months and interview 25 people over something a rabbi says in a synagogue…
Blazing Cat Fur has been posting tirelessly about this story:
The YRP’s Ricky Veerappan is on record stating it is the YRP’s duty to represent “community values”, translated into real world action that means strong-arming YRP Chaplain Rabbi Kaplan into rescinding his offer to host a talk by Pamela Geller at his synagogue.
The YRP motto is “Deeds Speak”… Let’s see what other “community values” the YRP upholds.
Imam Abdul Hai Patel, is a chaplain with the York Regional Police. In 2012 Patel, along with other members of the Canadian Council of Imams, attended a conference in Saudi Arabia sponsored by the Muslim World League.
The Muslim World League, as detailed below, has a long and sordid association with terrorists…
Ooops! Friend of Officer Ricky Unintenionally Spills the Beans Re His “Hate Speech” Double Standards
That’s Canadian “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Our police will bully a Jewish rabbi into cancelling a speech from a Jewish New Yorker..
Protest Planned At York Regional Police Richmond Hill Division HQ Over Pamela Geller Sharia Thuggery Thursday May 9 [click on the image at the link]
Update: A Simple Fact about Pam Geller & Robert Spencer
