Words
I've written that I think Ezra Levant, who I like a lot, is full of crap on this "free speech" crusade he sort-of leads. Mark Steyn is full of crap, too, for similar reasons.
In respect of the latter polemicist, and after 9/11, I wrote a column in the Ottawa Citizen that read:
"...The terrorism of September 11 was, and I very loosely quote Mr. Steyn, “a rude awakening from the indulgences of the last decade - disabled employees in wheelchairs, whom the Americans with Disabilities Act and the various lobby groups insist can do anything able-bodied people can, found themselves trapped on the 80th floor, unable to get downstairs…"
From his perch in rural New Hampshire, Steyn popped a head valve when I objected to the fact that he was seemingly implying that people in wheelchairs shouldn't have been in the Twin Towers and, well, they sort of deserved what they got. He then withheld his column from the National Post for weeks, until two (not one, two) bizarre apologies were extracted from the Citizen's top truckler. Not very free-speechy of him, was it? What happened to the free exchange of ideas and all that, Marko?
(They wanted me to apologize to Steyn, too, for disapproving of the fact that Steyn called Chinese people "chinks" and Japanese people "japs." Shortly after I told the Citizen's editor-in-chief I wouldn't apologize for telling the truth, my column was canned. Free speechers, unite! Defend Warren, now!)
Anyway, I digress. Back to Ezra, because Steyn isn't, um, Better Than Ezra. The free speech crusader - who I stress I like, because he's a character and we need more of those - is at it again. While simulataneously railing against Richard Warman and human rights commissions and blah blah blah, here is what Ezra has been up to, quietly, on the side.
Like I said to a correspondent yesterday: it's not that Messrs. Levant and Steyn are for free speech. It's just that they are against human rights. That's what is really going on here.
In respect of the latter polemicist, and after 9/11, I wrote a column in the Ottawa Citizen that read:
"...The terrorism of September 11 was, and I very loosely quote Mr. Steyn, “a rude awakening from the indulgences of the last decade - disabled employees in wheelchairs, whom the Americans with Disabilities Act and the various lobby groups insist can do anything able-bodied people can, found themselves trapped on the 80th floor, unable to get downstairs…"
From his perch in rural New Hampshire, Steyn popped a head valve when I objected to the fact that he was seemingly implying that people in wheelchairs shouldn't have been in the Twin Towers and, well, they sort of deserved what they got. He then withheld his column from the National Post for weeks, until two (not one, two) bizarre apologies were extracted from the Citizen's top truckler. Not very free-speechy of him, was it? What happened to the free exchange of ideas and all that, Marko?
(They wanted me to apologize to Steyn, too, for disapproving of the fact that Steyn called Chinese people "chinks" and Japanese people "japs." Shortly after I told the Citizen's editor-in-chief I wouldn't apologize for telling the truth, my column was canned. Free speechers, unite! Defend Warren, now!)
Anyway, I digress. Back to Ezra, because Steyn isn't, um, Better Than Ezra. The free speech crusader - who I stress I like, because he's a character and we need more of those - is at it again. While simulataneously railing against Richard Warman and human rights commissions and blah blah blah, here is what Ezra has been up to, quietly, on the side.
Like I said to a correspondent yesterday: it's not that Messrs. Levant and Steyn are for free speech. It's just that they are against human rights. That's what is really going on here.