Ezra Levant, the former publisher of the Western Standard, is no stranger to controversy. However, it would appear that in addition to being a victim of the star-chamber-like Human Rights Commission he is also the victim of malicious SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) lawsuits.
You can read all about it on Ezra’s blog.
In the past Ezra was taken before the Human Rights tribunal by Canadian Islamic Congress, now he’s being sued by disgraced Liberal lobbyist Warren Kinsella. It looks like Warren is not only suing Ezra, but also trying to have him disbarred:
Here’s what I think. Every time someone like Kinsella or his friends hit me with a human rights complaint, defamation action or law society complaint, I think: “this proves my point. These are fundamentally illiberal people. They can’t convince me I’m wrong, so they’re trying to bully me into silence.”
On his blog Ezra points out some interesting links between Warren and the CIC that makes me wonder if the latest attempts to silence him are just part of an overall strategy by the CIC and its supporters.
Certainly, I disagree with a lot of things a lot of people say, but I can’t fathom the idea of attempting to silence someone simply because they believe, think, or act differently than I do. Its far to Orwellian to point at someone and yell “thoughtcrime!”
I defer to wiser men than me. Frederick Douglass once wrote:
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.
Hopefully this latest assault won’t be able to silence Ezra. And hopefully Canadians will wake up to the abuses of our legal and human rights apparatus by people who are more interested in stifling debate than they are in righting imaginary wrongs.
- Rafael.
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