Posted on 06/15/2008 4:21:24 PM PDT by dvan
Usually, when a journalist is censored in a Western nation, American news organizations respond with collective outrage. But as a major attack on press freedom unfolds in Canada, America's mainstream media are silent. Neither the TV networks nor the major newspapers have reported on hearings last week at what amounts to a Stalinesque show trial in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Mark Steyn, a Canadian journalist who now lives in New Hampshire and whose column appears in National Review magazine as well as several U.S. and Canadian newspapers, is facing charges before British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal.
His crime? Spreading "hatred."
The evidence? A 5,000-word excerpt of Steyn's book America Alone that was carried as an article, "The Future Belongs to Islam," in October 2006 by the Canadian magazine Maclean's, which is also a defendant. The hearings, which were held June 2-6, amount to a star chamber with the rules of evidence constantly changing according to the whims of the three commissioners. A verdict is expected in September.
Steyn and the magazine are also expected to be charged with a hate crime by the national kangaroo court, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and another such tribunal in Ontario. Not a single defendant has ever prevailed before the national board in its 31 years of existence. To be accused is to be guilty, Soviet style.
The Canadian press has been all over this story, but it has not registered a blip in the United States, except for an AP brief, an article in The Washington Times and on conservative Internet sites and talk radio.
A highlighted piece of the case was a comment from an imam, Mullah Krekar, that Steyn drew from an interview in a Norwegian newspaper:
"'We're the ones who will change you,' the cleric said. 'Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes. Every Western woman in the EU [European Union] is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries is producing 3.5 children .... Our way of thinking will prove more powerful than yours.'"
British Columbia's hate crimes law requires only a "reasonable determination that the excerpt did express hatred and contempt toward Muslims, and likely caused it to spread," according to the National Post. As evidence, complainants cited postings from two California-based Websites, FreeRepublic and Catholic Answers.
The hate crime charges were brought on behalf of a recent law school grad, Khurrum Awan, and the Canadian Islamic Congress's national president, Mohamed Elmasry, and its B.C. director, Naiyer Habib.
The three want to force Maclean's to run an identically long piece from their point of view. That or contribute $10,000 to a race relations foundation, as Awan admitted under cross-examination, according to the Globe and Mail. Later, speaking before the Canadian Arab Federation, Awan threatened to use civil courts to extract "a few million dollars" from any media company that refuses their demands.
For the record, Steyn and Maclean's are accused of violating B.C.'s Human Rights Code, whose Section 7(1)(b) reads:
"A person must not publish, issue or display ... any statement, publication ... or other notice that is likely to expose a person ... to hatred or contempt."
"There has never been a case in this country that has had such clear, concise evidence, ever," said Faisal Joseph, an attorney bringing the charge before the tribunal. Joseph noted that the magazine had introduced Steyn's piece this way:
"The Muslim world has youth, numbers and global ambitions. The West is growing old and enfeebled, and more and more lacks the will to rebuff those who would supplant it. It's the end of the world as we've known it."
Considerable evidence is mounting, particularly in Europe, that this scenario is a common-sense observation. Muslim populations are growing while other religious groups are declining, thus Muslim influence is increasing. Great Britain's Labour government has even gone to the absurd lengths of describing any Muslim-caused domestic terror as "anti-Muslim" activity because the bombings make other Britons less likely to feel good about Muslims. There is open talk of infusing British law with Islamic Shariah law, an accommodation that the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested would be "inevitable" before an outcry forced him to recant.
But getting back to Mr. Steyn and Maclean's, they are the poster victims of the trend in Canada to suppress the freedoms of speech and press at the whims of special-interest groups.
Most Americans are not only unaware of the Steyn show trial but also the many incidents in which Canadians have been hauled before human rights tribunals and charged with hate crimes for merely expressing traditionalist morality in public.
An evangelical pastor, Stephen Boisson, was fined $5,000 by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal on May 30, 2008, for writing a letter to the editor of a local paper in 2002 critical of homosexual activism in the schools.
A Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, newspaper publisher and a private citizen were each fined $4,500 in 2001 for the crime of publishing an ad that listed five Bible verses about homosexuality and had a circle with two stick figures of men holding hands with a line across it. Three homosexual men had complained that they did not like the ad.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has for a decade prohibited the broadcast of any material critical of homosexuality. Stations that carry Focus on the Family and other American radio programs have been warned that they could lose their licenses unless segments dealing with homosexuality are edited out.
Many Americans have a warm, fuzzy view of Canada, and have no idea that a totalitarian nation is taking shape, instigated by gay activists and Muslim pressure groups in the name of "tolerance."
They do not know because America's mainstream media are refusing to cover it.
Perhaps it will take someone like Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan being charged with a hate crime in Canada to get the media's attention. But that's unlikely, since celebrities have long understood that the only group that it is still okay to ridicule is Christians, especially Catholics and evangelicals. And that's not news.
As for Canadian mullahs attempting to use the law to gag Mr. Steyn and anyone else who gets in their way, well, that's just not news either in the United States.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental freedom. Without it, you’ve got nothing but totalitarianism.
Wow. Mr. Steyn? If you need a place to live, I can give you my spare room, rent-free for as long as you need it.
I mean, how hard could it possibly BE to sneak into America across our porous borders? ;)
Which is so much total B.S. from the third-world morons who pretend to be Canadian officialdom.
I think they are confusing our total disgust with them and their totalitarian attitudes with some very limited idea of hate.
It's almost like Canadians think a raised voice is hateful, or that a cry for help is embarrassing.
I really want to scream at them "Death to the Islamofascist Imperialists and their Running Dog Lackeys" but they might not understand what I'm saying, nosane?
Anyone know where we can get a Canadian interpreter?
Our press will join with the Democrats in attacking “hate speech” and will gleefully conspire to put an end to conservative talk radio, Fox News, and the conservative press. Hate speech, of course, can only be practiced by the Right. The left is incapable of such crimes. If you want proof, just go to Democratic Underground or Daily Kos.
....they’re surprised it’s not being mentioned in the United States? Why? The American media is packed with libs - the libs are suing a conservative.
Not only is this not going to be mentioned, they’re going to try to do it here when they get a sympathic Congress and President. Our courts and agencies are already in the process of doing this.
You people in Canada are screwed. You gave your freedom Libs. Now eat the weeds you’ve sown.
I’ll try to act surprised when they find him guilty of “hate” crimes....
Well, I was planning a trip to BC next month.
Not any more.
Does that mean I can not hate:
Hitler
Mao
Stalin
Pol-Pot
Robert Mugabe
Zakawori (the nice man that sawed off Nick Bergs head)
Tojo (the kind soldier that gave us Pearl Harbor
The plane hijackers of 9-11 that killed 3000 of my countrymen
Karl Marx (his philosophy caused the deaths of over 100 million people.
Who can I hate? Ray Rebstock kicked my butt over 40 years ago. He is an angry white male. I suppose it is okay to hate Ray, but I do not. I deserved that butt kicking>
I have never had any such delusions about Canada. After WWII the country ceased to be a ‘Friend’ to the United States and became an ‘Antagonist’ nation. The next status to achieve is ‘Enemy’ and I fear it is closer than anyone can imagine. Oh Canada!
Scary. The same thing basically happened with the movie Fitna. All that was in Fitna was film footage of acts commited by muslims, with words spoken by muslims, with verses written by muslims. There was no commentary, just the images and words of muslims. It was touted as the ultimate in hate speach.
This is definitely not allowed, except maybe for Hitler who killed the Jews when it was not fashionable to kill the Jews. Now, of course, this is perfectly acceptable, but Hitler's timing was not good. As for the rest, if you speak out against them, you are committing a hate crime and must be sent to a reeducation camp. There you will learn to hate:
Liberty
Freedom
Self Reliance
Achievement
Responsibility
Christianity
Anyone who advocates the above.
I take it the news media doesn’t say anything about this because they believe in sucking up to Muslims. Or they don’t care about a conservative being put on trial.
What utter nonsense! We despised muslims long before Steyn's column was published.
Obviously well reasoned civilized disagreement is now ‘hate.’
He already "sneaked" across. He's a resident alien living in New Hampshire.
We’re just a short time behind.
Well, by crackies, there can be no doubt we did, but we didn’t get near the credit for it. Now we have Canadian journalists blaming us for it, and that didn’t used to happen.
Not since Normandy. Since then they might as well be French.
If you really want to see hate in Canada, just mention something good about America and they will be off to the races on a rant...
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