29 October 2010
Unless you’ve followed the charges against writers Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant, Kathy Shaidle and others in Canada, you may not realize that speech in the country is not protected as it is here under our First Amendment. Canada has a Human Rights Commission that monitors speech in the country and has been aggressive in charging individuals, bloggers, writers, and publications with the crime of hate speech. Of course, at Common American Journal we believe free speech is our most precious God-given right.
This morning we became aware that one of our most generous allies in the blogsphere, Blazing Cat Fur, has also been charged with hate speech for–brace yourselves–LINKING to an article by Mark Steyn. In our opinion, this is the same sick mentality as those bullies who hounded Sarah Palin, attempting to defame and discredit her, and created massive legal debts for her as she was forced to defend herself in suit after suit.
About the Canadian accusations, Kathy Shaidle wrote this morning:
These suits are designed to shut down conservative bloggers, and prevent public discussion of the censorship, bullying and bureaucratic abuses being carried out in your name, with your tax dollars.
Shaidle also linked to Mark Steyn’s article today, “Warman Watch.”
During my battles with the Canadian “human rights” regime, we relentlessly exposed the corrupt relationship between the Commissars and Canada’s self-appointed Hatefinder-General, Richard Warman. See here and here, among many other places. I also spoke about him when testifying to Parliament. Almost as soon as the truth about his Nazi website postings became known, Warman began suing. He sued Ezra Levant, with whom I’ll be appearing on Saturday, as well as Kate McMillan, Kathy Shaidle, Free Dominion and anyone else who got in his way. At the time, many people asked me why he hadn’t sued me, both for columns that appeared in Maclean’s and for posts such as this one at SteynOnline.
Well, the reason he didn’t sue me is because (a) Maclean’s is a corporate entity with very deep pockets and (b) SteynOnline is based in the United States, where no court would give him the time of the day. So considerably more vulnerable Canadians have had to bear the brunt and serve as proxy targets for Warman’s shakedown racket. He is now suing Blazing Cat Fur merely for linking to “far-right web site” SteynOnline, and demanding half-a-million dollars for damage to his “reputation”. “Lame,” says Instapundit. Warman will not win, but please go over and drop a few bucks in the Cat’s kitty for his legal defense fund. The disgusting Warman has already been rebuked by a CHRT judge for his dress-up Nazi activities, and we owe the exposure of that not to his doting stenographers at The London Free Press but to a few plucky bloggers like Cat Fur. Do help out if you can. (More on this from Mrs Cat Fur. See also Cat On A Hot Trudeaupian Roof – and some cartoon advice for both Warman and the Prophet.)…
We know it’s been a costly election season for all of you, as we’ve all been trying to donate to as many good candidates across America as possible. But we urge you to find a few more dollars, if you can, to donate to the Blazing Cat Fur free speech fund. As our Founders understood, we must support each other against tyranny:
“We must hang together, gentlemen…
else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.”
Thank you, Readers!
“Canadian Human Rights Commissions: why Parliament should not renew their mandate to regulate public expression.”
