One of the better points Khurrum made off-air was that this is the first (federal) “human rights” complaint by a Muslim group, and that when it was just the Jews and gays milking this racket we didn’t have any of this talk about scrapping Section 13 and abolishing the commissions. And he’s right. Which is why the Canadian Jewish Congress position is untenable.
Yeah, but here’s the problem:
Jews and gays have built up sympathy capital. In the case of gays, obviously they’ve suffered nothing so egregious as a Holocaust (and please don’t email me about “pink triangles” — those were used for political prisoners, not just gays. And everyone knows that gays were just as likely to be Nazi-hags than victims ). But post-Israel liberals adopted gays as one of their favourite pet breeds, touched by tales of gay bashings. Every gay character in the movies from Dirk Bogarde through the late 1990s is a charming, gentle soul who dies a martyr. (Thanks to Cruising and then Silence of the Lambs for finally breaking that spell.)
However, Muslims have no such built up sympathy capital, because, well, they haven’t really suffered anything. They are the perps, not the victims, and people sense this even if they can’t articulate it. “We incinerated 3000 people one Tuesday morning and now we want to take over your magazine” just doesn’t scan.
They sense that, as I’ve said before, siding with the Muslim complainants in these cases is like hiding Nazis in your attic during World War II.
That’s one huge reason why people are reacting so negatively to their complaints against Steyn and Levant.
And it isn’t true that no one ever complained about the HRCs until this year. George Jonas, David Warren, the Byfields — all have been thanklessly fighting this fight for over twenty years.
And yes, what follows is disturbing — and not at all surprising. Mark is Canadian but he doesn’t live here anymore, certainly doesn’t visit Toronto very often, and doesn’t encounter this woman’s attitude day and night, in offices and subways and bars and parties. It is why, for my safety and that of the public at large, I try not to leave the house unless I have to:
I was struck by something Naseem said to me on the sidewalk. I’d mentioned that I’d heard her on NPR saying that it was improper for me to attack “multiculturalism” because multiculturalism was officially embedded in Canada’s constitution. And I said: So what? A free society shouldn’t have an official ideology, but, if it has, I certainly reserve the right to object to it. If I’d lived in Italy 70 years ago, I would have objected to their official ideology (Fascism), and I object to Canada’s, notwithstanding its touchy-feelier name. And she looked at me as if I was bonkers.
I feel rather bewildered at meeting graduates of an elite institution in one of the oldest settled democracies on the planet who seem to think just because Pierre Trudeau cooked it up it’s chiseled in granite. You can only marvel at what an amazing job he did of wiping a society’s collective memory. What was the most depressing part of the post-game show for me was realizing that for my accusers the assumption is that every defect in society can be corrected by government intervention.
Remember folks: these ARE the “educated, assimilated” Muslims you’ve been praying for.
Thrilled yet?
Oh and another thing: young Canadian “conservatives”, especially the men, have also been brainwashed and buy into much of the same enviro/equality/politeness/multi-culti crap. They’re basically careerist closet liberals who want tax cuts and don’t much mind guns.
