FLASH: “Islamic Congress to make public settlement offer to Maclean’s”, Mark Steyn

Press release just in via email.

Anybody wanna go to this with me tomorrow, wearing “Proud Infidel” buttons and Islamic Rage Boy t-shirts?

CANADIAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

April 29, 2008

ISLAMIC CONGRESS AND LAW STUDENTS TO MAKE PUBLIC SETTLEMENT OFFER TO MACLEAN’S ON HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS

TORONTO – The Canadian Islamic Congress and a group of law students who recently filed human rights complaints against Maclean’s magazine for publishing Islamophobic content, are planning to present a public offer to the magazine’s management to settle the matter.

Details of this offer and more information regarding the background of the above-mentioned complaints will be provided to those in attendance.

When:
10:00 a.m.: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Where:
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, The Quebec Room, 100 Front Street West,
Toronto ON

Present at the media conference will be:

– Faisal Joseph: CIC legal counsel, former Federal and Provincial Crown Attorney, and former Chair of the Criminal Section of the Canadian Bar Association (Nova Scotia).

– Muneeza Sheikh, Naseem Mithoowani and Khurrum Awan: Three of the law
  students/graduates who were original complainants against Maclean’s magazine.

For more information contact:
Faisal Joseph: (519) 672-4510

How do you say “**** off and die” in Arabic?

My co-defendant in that other HRC related case, Jonathan Kay, writes:

Given that Maclean’s editor Ken Whyte responded to that previous overture by stating that he would rather go bankrupt than publish an anti-Steyn manifesto, I would estimate the chances that the magazine accept this offer at about 0%. The issue has become a point of principle with Steyn and Whyte.

As well, it has served to unite the formerly dispersed and somewhat obscure right-wing Canadian blogosphere around a single powerful cause, giving the centrist Maclean’s ideological credibility among a tranche of Canadian thinkers who would otherwise ignore it. On a purely commercial basis, it would be foolish to throw that away by giving in to the CIC.

Come to think of it, it’s fair to say that the Maclean’s imbroglio has been one of the biggest shots in the arm to Canadian conservatives in general. It’s turned red-meat right-winger Ezra Levant into a star blogger and a free-speech hero with brand-name recognition in the United States, turned Steyn’s name into a household word, created a debate within the Jewish community over its traditionally doctrinaire support for blanket hate-speech laws (Ezra for CJC president, anyone?), shone a light on the amateurish shenanigans of Canada’s human rights commissions, driven a powerful movement for reform of said commissions, and generally served to marginalize the pro-censorship lobby to the point that its main defender is now a disgruntled former journalist who fills his blog with unhinged conspiracy theories about how everyone who favours free speech is a racist.

All of which to say: Thank you, CIC. You’ve done a good deed — albeit unintentionally.

Deborah Gyapong writes:

Well, it’s gone too far. Unless the CIC and the Muslim law students are willing to ante up the magazine’s and Steyn’s legal bills for subjecting them to an abusive process; unless they are willing to admit they were wrong to file complaints; and unless they acknowledge the importance of freedom of speech and religion, then on principle there should be no settlement.

(…)

…frankly we don’t want this spectacle to end until the whole illiberal “human rights” apparatus, and its secular fundamentalist multiculturalist and anti-Western civilization edifice crashes and burns (metaphorically speaking).

It’s time to return to the principles upon which Canada was built. And insist that newcomers respect those principles.

Michelle Malkin on “the sharia creeps”:

“Well, well, well…”

One commenter says:

I hope [Steyn] takes the letter, crumbles it up, and dips it in a cup of ketchup and then eats it right there on stage in front of them. Oh God, hear my prayer, please let this happen.

Jay Currie blogs:

I suspect the prospect of another few months of public mockery followed by an unprecedented loss either before the Commissions or in the Courts was more than a little unappetizing. Plus, and I have no way of proving this, the steady erosion of support for the CHRC and the exposure of the CHRC’s wanton disregard for proper investigative methods and procedure, is taking its toll.

A couple of points — Toronto area bloggers, if possible — should try to cover the press conference.

Macleans should be looking for an apology and costs from these sock puppets.

Remember, the law students are not, in fact, the complainants here. The CIC is and it has the money to pay the significant expenses Macleans has incurred to date.

This is yet another piece of evidence we’re winning.