The full story of Ezra
Levant’s ongoing tangle with human rights commissions is a tricky one
to tell without hyperlinks, but an effort was made in the news feature in the current print edition of EYE WEEKLY.
For those a bit more engrossed in the tale through the six months since
Levant appeared before the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship
commission — which came almost two years after the Western Standard printed the contentious Danish cartoons — the story continues to be a bottomless rabbit hole, excavated via Levant’s own blog.
Much
like how what started out as a complaint against former magazine
publisher Levant on grounds of religious sensitivity has been turned
into an epic farce about free speech, the debate continues to spiral in
different directions — even helping to assert editorial differences
between EYE WEEKLY and NOW.
The same day the EYE WEEKLY feature was published — whose slant elaborated on an editorial that ran on January 16, “Rights commissions? Wrong” — Levant was pitted against NOW’s senior entertainment editor on CHCH-TV’s 5:30pm daily yellfest.
At issue was the BC Human Rights Tribunal hearing now faced by Toronto comedian Guy Earle,
heckled by two women at Vancouver restaurant, leading to a caustic
onstage tirade that was specifically focused on their appearances.
Did
the unrecorded comments by Earle — focusing on the fact that these
heckling women kinda looked like lesbians — violate the Human Rights
Code? NOW’s Susan G. Cole thinks so, and appeared on camera alongside television industry pundit Bill Brioux
and Levant via telephone. The resulting argument had all the grace of a
transcontinental long-distance call circa 1915, with each side
convinced they wouldn’t be properly heard without shouting as much as
possible.
Former standup comic Brioux hardly got a word in, save for his initial remark: “I’m just glad that George Carlin
isn’t around to hear this conversation.” Which prompted Cole to assert
that Carlin never uttered anything that could be construed as hateful,
which the evidence quickly revealed to be far short of true.
“Could Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock give a concert in Vancouver now?” asked Levant on the air. “They use the ‘N’ word like we use the word ‘The,’ or ‘And.’” Michael Richards, on the other hand, didn’t need a tribunal to be pilloried for it.
Then, last Friday, a spot of victory for those questioning the validity of these channels,
as the Canadian Human Rights Commission — a distinct body from the
provincial HRCs, which leads to frequent confusion, including here —
ruled that the views expressed by Mark Steyn in the Maclean’s excerpt from America Alone were not “of an extreme nature.” British Columbia’s ruling is still pending, though.
Now, what kind of hearing can we get to prevent blog posts like the one on the Western Standard’s resurgent website with the headline “Lefties (heart) Levant”?
Steve Stinson, of the blog Nice Comfy Fur,
stepped in with a comment disabusing the notion that EYE WEEKLY is a
default “leftist” publication, even if he thought that the article's
facetious subtitle — “Ezra Levant spent his whole life becoming the
kind of person you don’t like as preparation for fighting for your
rights” — only helps to distract from the “indisputable libertarian
underpinnings.”
Or, maybe those a generational notch down from the braintrust behind NOW
simply don’t see the world this way? But at least, when it comes to the
validity of human rights commissions, the other alt-weekly is on the
same page as the Canadian Jewish Congress — whose executive director Bernie Farber has earned the nickname “Burny” from Levant, in regard to their pro-censorship stance.
The
enemy of your enemy of your enemy of your enemy of your enemy of your
enemy is your friend, indeed. But what counts as constructive
retaliation to hate?
Levant would rather see more attention paid to the efforts of Ken McVay, first featured in EYE WEEKLY on Nov. 10, 1994 for his Nizkor Project, combating Holocaust deniers online from his Vancouver base. Back then, columnist K.K. Campbell
noted former US marine and retired gas station manager McVay determined
Canada’s anti-hate speech laws were ineffectual. For his efforts, he
was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1995, and is still at it
today.
Reached for comment on the Levant story — which could
only go so far down that rabbit hole due to space limitations of print
— 67-year-old McVay’s attitude does counter the suggestion that using
government channels to stamp out potentially offensive websites is a
viewpoint mostly held by those who didn’t grow up online.
“For
years I have told my audiences that legislating things we find
offensive is counterproductive,” emails McVay, “even when temporary
benefits may be perceived. I promise any parent that will listen that
their children will — sooner or later — come across deeply offensive
pornographic images on the web.
“The only answer I see as viable
is that you are going to have to educate your children about
pornography. You are going to have to discuss unpleasant topics and
prepare your children for that inevitable day when they are exposed to
it.
“How well you do that will determine how your children are
affected, and how they educate their children. It doesn’t matter
whether the subject is pornography, or offensive cartoons. The
principle is the same.”
scroll@eyeweekly.com