Free Republic

Putting tribunals on trial By Pete Vere January 17, 2008 SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario Canada's human rights commissions are a threat to freedom of speech in America, says Ezra Levant, the latest in a long string of conservative writers to be brought before Canada's quasi-judicial panels for speech about Islam. But Mr. Levant is not taking it lying down and is using the Internet and his own legal savvy and flair for publicity to put the tribunals themselves on trial before the public, in Canada and elsewhere. "Although the United States has a very robust First Amendment, Canada and Britain...

Officer McGovern asked if I thought there should be any limits to free speech under our constitution. Of course there should be, and I listed a half-dozen examples. But I drew a distinction between criminal or tortious speech and political speech. I also pointed out that free political speech isn't just protected in a liberal democracy -- it protects a liberal democracy. That's because it acts as a "safety valve" for people who want to change society. They don't have to resort to arms. We also discussed the absurd -- and illegal -- power of the commission to "order" me...

Click on link for youtube videos of Canadian "Human Rights" Commission interrogating publisher for publishing the Danish Mohammed cartoons. A sickening display of how freedom of speech is being eliminated in the West.

CALGARY - Thursday, Jan. 10/08. Outspoken conservative commentator Ezra Levant will be before the Alberta Human Rights Commission Friday defending his former magazine's 2006 publication of a series of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Members of Calgary's Muslim community were outraged when Levant's now-defunct publication, the Western Standard, published the cartoons in February 2006, shortly after their initial appearance in a Danish newspaper led to rioting and protests around the world. Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, later filed a complaint against the Western Standard to the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Ezra Levant was publisher...

Thousands of Palestinian refugees are still trapped inside the camp Several transport planes carrying military aid for the Lebanese army from the US and its Arab allies have arrived at Beirut airport.The move follows an appeal for such aid by the Lebanese government. Its forces are battling Islamist militants who have taken over the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reiterated Washington's support for the Lebanese government. She said gunmen in Nahr al-Bared were trying to destabilise a democratic government. A Red Cross food convoy from the Jordanian capital, Amman,...

DUBAI (Reuters) - A group calling itself al Qaeda's wing in the Levant vowed to carry out bombings in Lebanon and attacks on Christians unless Beirut pulled its army away from Palestinian refugee camps."We warn you for the last time, after which there will be nothing apart from seas of blood," said a speaker identified as the military leader of the group in a video posted on Friday by a media arm used by Islamist groups including Qaeda in Iraq."What we want is that you order the Christian Lebanese army to pull its men from around all Palestinian camps and...

Jordan's King Abdullah is addressing a joint session of Congress.

Plastered Syrian Skulls from the Dawn of Civilisation In the Neolithic period the Levantine Fertile Crescent ushered in one of the most profound cultural revolutions in the history of the Mediterranean basin. This environmentally blessed cradle of civilisation played host to modern humans as they made the crucial transition from hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers to emerge as proto-urban societies. A conspicuous enigma of the world’s first ‘city dwellers’ was the most extraordinary ritual practice of plastering human skulls, which is attested at several major Neolithic sites, such as Jericho in the Palestinian Territories, Çatalhöyük in Turkey, and ‘Ain Ghazal in...

Mark Steyn T-shirtViva Steyn! Wear the T-shirt that shows you're a true intellectual revolutionary – the Mark Steyn Che Guevara-style T-shirt. Created especially for the Western Standard by Rob Kelly (the same artist who drew the famous Libranos poster). Viva Steyn is not only an expression of your good fashion sense, it's a sign of your good political sense, too. Order this true collector's item today! Made of 100% pre-shrunk cotton. Available in Black only. More info or to order:Ezra Levant, Publisher and Conservative Fashionista, The Western Standard

Judaism does not regard violence and war to promote justice as always wrong. It accepts that certain kinds of war will be ethically justified, and that it is sometimes morally acceptable to kill people. Before declaring war or starting a battle there must be a genuine attempt to make peace and avoid the conflict. Jewish law only permits combatants to be deliberately killed in war. Innocent civilians must be given every opportunity to leave the field of combat before a battle starts. Old Testament In much of the Old Testament God gives his clear approval to war. He is identified...

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Israel that it has "pushed the button of its own destruction" because of its actions in Lebanon. He also said Israel should "pack up" and move elsewhere, repeating comments made last year. Israel has accused Iran of involvement in the capture of the two Israeli soldiers, which sparked the current crisis, claims Iran denies. Iran has also been accused of supplying Hezbollah with money and arms. "Israel pushed the button of its own destruction by attacking Lebanon," Mr Ahmadinejad said while addressing an education conference. I advise them to pack up and move...

Dear Western Standard reader, Our magazine has been sued for publishing the Danish cartoons, and I need your help to fight back! As you know, the Western Standard was the only mainstream media organ in Canada to publish the Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed. We did so for a simple reason: the cartoons were the central fact in one of the largest news stories of the year, and we're a news magazine. We publish the facts and we let our readers make up their minds. Advertisers stood with us. Readers loved the fact that we treated them...

Even in Canada, not-so-veiled threats Barbara Kay National Post Wednesday, February 22, 2006 Far from the riots, vandalism, church burnings and murders by Muslim mobs in the wake of the Danish cartoons, Canada has so far played the role of concerned onlooker. Like the proverbial country mouse, we peacefully nibble a secure crust in our rural granary, watching with wide-eyed incredulity as the city mice of Europe, the Middle East and Africa snatch bites of Camembert between anxious dashes to safety behind their barricaded mouse holes. That's to say, while real churches burn and real people die abroad in...

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he regrets the publication of controversial editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad by some media outlets. In his first public statement on the controversy since it broke wide open last week, Harper noted Tuesday that Canadians have a right to free speech. But he added that they "also have the right to voice their opinion on the free speech of others." "I regret the publication of this material in several media outlets," Harper said in a news release. "While we understand this issue is divisive, our government wishes that people be respectful of...

Note: This article may seem pedantic, but it is aimed at those who are not “insiders” on the history of the Middle East.I keep hearing the phrase, “It’s their land,” regarding Palestinian claims to Israel. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad publicly assert that their aims are to reclaim every inch of Israel as part of a proposed Palestinian homeland. Unfortunately, these ownership claims are echoed by “activist” groups like the International Solidarity Movement and the Palestine Solidarity Movement, both with throngs of naïve followers on U.S. and European college campuses. The followers are too eager to take these...

Cyrus the Great Cylinder, The First Charter of Human Rights By 546 BCE, Cyrus had defeated Croesus, the Lydian king of fabled wealth, and had secured control of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, Armenia, and the Greek colonies along the Levant. Moving east, he took Parthia (land of the Arsacids, not to be confused with Parsa, which was to the southwest), Chorasmis, and Bactria. He besieged and captured Babylon in 539 and released the Jews who had been held captive there, thus earning his immortalization in the Book of Isaiah. When he died in 529, Cyrus's kingdom extended as...

Will we stay the course in Iraq? Posted: July 23, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. After the suicide bombing of the Marine barracks, Ronald Reagan made a cold-blooded decision. Concluding America had no vital interest in Lebanon, he cut his losses and withdrew the Marines. It was a rare failure of Reagan foreign policy. Neoconservatives condemn him for not sending an army back into Beirut to deliver street justice and show Islamic radicals that the American Superpower could not be assaulted with impunity. Reagan's decision, say the neocons, convinced radicals that America lacked the courage and...