Here’s an excerpt from my piece (Ezra posted the PDFs at his site):
Ezra Levant has been called everything from “Ayn Rand’s ideal man of action” (blogger Pamela Geller) to a guy who’s “spent his whole life becoming the kind of person you don’t like” (eye weekly’s Marc Weisblott).
A Jewish friend of mine compares Levant to an Old Testament prophet, while I think of him as the Evel Knievel of the Canadian Right.
And now he’s The Interim’s Man of the Year.
(…)
The Western Standard reflected its new publisher’s reputation as a brash, energetic partisan provocateur with a keen instinct for publicity. When one issue’s controversial cover depicting Liberal Party leaders as “the Libranos” (in sinister, shadowy, and decidedly unflattering Sopranos crime family style) proved particularly popular, Levant turned that cover art into an oversized poster: an exclusive premium for his magazine’s subscribers. (“Definitely a collector’s item,” Ezra enthused at the magazine’s blog. “It’s huge. And check out Paul Martin’s face…”)
(…)
Ezra Levant’s generosity of spirit is an aspect of his personality that’s often obscured by his high voltage polemics. He doesn’t boast about his pro bono work or his unsolicited gestures of support for fellow “free speechers.” When he and I and a group of other bloggers were sued this year for criticising the tactics of a former HRC investigator, the first person to call me was Ezra Levant, who’d naturally seen my name on his copy of the Statement of Claim. As I wept into the telephone receiver, Ezra tried to cheer me up:
“I still remember the first time I got served,” he reminisced. “I was in my first year of law school…”
