Ezra Levant is giving a standing room only talk in Toronto today, and I’ll be there — he’s one of my co-defendants, after all, and I’m writing “his” chapter in a forthcoming book on the evils of the “Human Rights” Commissions.
Here’s a taste of what the rest of you will be missing:
Just tonight, a friend gave me a report about a major Simon Wiesenthal fundraiser, held in Toronto a few weeks ago — their “Spirit of Hope” event, featuring former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former U.S. House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, and CNN’s Glenn Beck. Those are pretty big names, and other than Beck (on whose show I’ve appeared a couple of times) I wouldn’t think they’d be following Canada’s human rights commissions and their censorship laws.
My correspondent writes:
Glenn Beck said sarcastically “maybe I’ll move up here to Canada” and Gingrich retorted “watch out, Glenn, if you do that the human rights commission up here will probably shut down your program and throw you in jail.” (Paraphrase).
About half the audience exploded in spontaneous cheering, laughing and applause. No one looked angry or booed – I got the impression that the other half of the audience didn’t understand the reference.
What does it mean? It means that many Jews, even fancy society Jews, understand that freedom of speech is an essential Jewish value, and that censorship is an essentially violent and barbaric substitute. Censorship says: “I can’t convince you, or I’m too lazy or worried to try, so I’ll silence you by force.” How un-Jewish.
PLUS:
Michael Coren tells me he has Levant on for the full hour tomorrow (Tuesday, June 17), so set yer tivos.
