I had better tread carefully today, for I am going to write disparagingly about an entire class of sentient beings — and we should all know what has happened to Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan, Jonathan Kay, Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Mark and Connie Fournier, Marc Lemire, and a bewildering, quickly growing list of other Canadian writers hauled before the so-called “human rights” commissions, and shaken down with frivolous but financially ruinous sue-and-stall court litigation, on the suspicion that they may have entertained “hateful,” politically incorrect thoughts.
The group I intend to slur today are the Extraterrestrials. I’m not sure how the courts will interpret “hate-speech” and “hate-thought” towards this group, which is not yet specifically protected under any of Canada’s awkwardly-worded “rights” codes. Arguably, any attack on Extraterrestrials could be taken as personal attacks on members, former members, outriders and hangers-on of the “human rights” commissions themselves, and therefore provoke the next round of vexatious lawsuits.
Still, if Canada is to recover free speech and freedom of the press, journalists will have to be brave and bold, and I’m prepared, like a Boy Scout, to do my bit. I don’t care what the personal consequences to me — they can sue me, they can throw me in prison (I’ve already been hauled before the Ontario Press Council) — but I’m going to speak out. I’m going to tell you exactly what I think about Extraterrestrials.
I don’t think they exist.
I guarantee that David Warren will get more hate mail about this column than just about any he’s written this year. I’d pay good money to read it, too.
