We’ve mentioned the Canadian Human Rights commissions before on our blog, and the most recent issue of First Things has an article on the topic by Douglass Farrow called ” Kangaroo Canada ” (subscription required). But today I discovered videos of testimony Ezra Levant gave before a member of the commission. Levant, you may recall, was the publisher of the Western Standard and had a complaint filed against him by an imam for reprinting the controversial Danish cartoons of Muhammad. That complaint has since been dismissed, but one filed by the Edmonton Muslim Council still stands.
Much of his testimony is spent in repeated, and understandable, outrage that he has been brought before a Canadian court—part Kafka, part Stalin, he calls it—that would try to restrict his freedom of speech. This is marvelously summed up in his closing statement:
There’s also a thirty-nine second video in which, after some of his remarks, the commissioner says, “You’re entitled to your opinions.” To which Levant immediately responds, “I wish that were the fact.”
It would be funnier if he weren’t right.
