But before we begin….
As my codefendant put it last night:
Finally a little good news. I’d taken to watching Glenn Beck in recent days, just for the calming effect…
Yep, this is an amazing coincidence, but let’s have fun with it anyway: the government is finally closing down three Canadian Human Rights Commission offices!
Congratulations to Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn and everyone who has been working tirelessly and at great expense to destroy these bullies and know-nothings.
In the degradation of Trudeaupia, human rights ceased to be (as they were in Magna Carta) restraints upon the King by the citizenry, and became instead restraints upon the citizenry by the Queen (Jennifer Lynch, QC).
(…)
Ms Cook-Browne wants to prosecute (and jail) Ann Coulter for it, as her British Columbia comrades are currently prosecuting Guy Earle for his jokes. That’s what Canadian human rights boils down to in the 21st century: public-sector union tinpot control freaks putting citizens on trial for jokes.
Self-respecting Newfoundlanders ought to calculate what Ms Cook-Browne received in per capita taxpayer funds between 1991 and 1994 and, pro rata, deduct it from this year’s return.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Well, that was vaguely entertaining…
Parliament Hill reporter Brian Lilley plays Captain Bringdown this morning, with the, you know, facts and stuff:
…documents filed with Parliament show the CHRC is set to grow, not shrink. Despite the looming office closures the CHRC’s budget is expected to grow from $21.5 million in the current fiscal year to just under $23 million in 2011-2012 fiscal year. The number of employees is set to rise as well from 197 full-time equivalencies to 203.
PS: I see here that one “Senator Doug Finley rose in the Senate to give notice that he would ‘call the attention of the Senate to the issue of the erosion of Freedom of Speech in our country’ and that this would be done through an inquiry.”
There’s an old joke about Canadians, that given the choice between “Heaven” and “Public Inquiry about Heaven,” they’d pick the latter.
We do NOT need an expensive, timewasting “inquiry.” There is nothing left to “inquire” about.
We need ordinary Canadians to send a message to even the most well-intentioned agents of the State: whether on our side (this week, as the wind blows) or against us, we don’t take our orders from you.
We should simply render our “hate speech” “laws” obsolete by violating them at every opportunity.
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Now, on to reports about Ann Coulter’s speech in Calgary last night, including this extremely rare and valuable photograph of a Muslim with a sense of humor!
Here’s the Calgary Herald:
Mohammed Omar has never protested in his life. But on Thursday afternoon, he sat down and wrote out his own sign: “I Don’t Have a Camel or a Flying Carpet. Can U Lend Me Your Broomstick?”
He came with his mom, Farhat Irfan, since at age eight he’s still a few years from getting his driver’s licence.
“He wants to be a pilot someday, but he’s a Muslim,” said Irfan. “I’d like to know what she would say to my son.”
But shut her up?
“No, I wouldn’t take away her freedom of speech,” she said…
Seriously: thanks for “getting it.” Now, tell all your friends. Yeah, right…
NOTE: the reporter, who was there, didn’t get the spelling of the sign right, made it sound more juvenile for some reason, AND no editor spotted the error.
Golly, just imagine what journalists get wrong when they’re NOT on the scene!
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Google News is reporting over 1200 stories on Ann Coulter’s speech in Calgary last night.
Several dozen protesters held signs and heckled as spectators entered the venue, but although they banged on doors and broke a window, the scene was much more serene than a rowdy protest in Ottawa earlier this week that caused Coulter’s appearance to be cancelled altogether.
So far in Canada everything I’ve said has been bleeped,” she said to laughter and applause. “There’s a tradition of free speech in Canada going back to this morning.”
But others were frustrated by Coulter’s lack of responsibility for the hurt her comments can cause.
“All it was was a bunch of jokes put together, it wasn’t serious at all,” said Hana Kadri, a first-year University of Calgary student.
She added she was shocked at how many people cheered as Coulter made her points against Canada’s health-care system and humans [sic] rights.
“And honestly I’m a little horrified at the fact that we have people that believe in some of the extremes that she believes in … I felt like I wasn’t even in Canada anymore.”
Believe me, kiddo:
Being surrounded by hundreds of masked women with names like “Hana Kadi” (a.k.a., “a bunch of jokes put together”…) makes me feel EXACTLY the same way!
You’ll want to watch that video if you want to know what Ann Coulter actually said about “Muslims boycotting” (NOT “being banned from”) airlines.
It has been misreported by every Canadian news outlet.
For seven years, one of my daily activities has been rushing to Ann Coulter’s rescue. Not the real one — the $65 Ann Coulter doll from w
ww.talking-presidents.com.(Although, she’s freakishly like the real one in that she will spout a plethora of anti-liberal rhetoric if you push her button). My cat, obviously a raging liberal who must act out, spends his days hunting her down, attacking her and attempting to chew her head off. This scenario pretty much reflects Coulter’s real life. (…)She’s a powerful, over-the-top, intelligent woman. She’s hilarious and witty. She’s controversial and outrageous. The problem (for some) is that her words can also be vicious and caustic — and that’s on a good day.
I may not defend the words or phrases Coulter uses. But, just as I’ll always defend her from my cat, I’ll always defend her right to speak.
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“Coulter needs apology, teacher association says”
“We feel you [Houle] owe an apology to Ms. Coulter and, even more importantly, you owe the University of Ottawa community an assurance that the administration of the university strongly supports freedom of expression, academic freedom and views the role of the university as fostering and defending these values,” officials with the Canadian Association of University Teachers said this week in a letter to Mr. Houle.
At the Red and White Club on the grounds of Calgary’s McMahon Stadium tonight, more than 900 attendees gave Ann Coulter a remarkable, thunderous ovation. But they cheered, I would almost swear, with even greater volume for Ezra Levant, co-organizer of Coulter’s tour. I’m a friend of Ezra’s, but I had never seen him speak on home turf before. The love was palpable and astonishing. I suppose he is part of the city’s image, the legend it tells of itself, at this point.
And—chalk this up to bias if you like—he gives a heck of a speech. (…)
Uncowed, the antis attempted to rush the main doors of the building as Ezra was winding up his intro, spiderwebbing the glass with boot damage, and they battered the exterior windows of the club throughout Coulter’s main talk. Tomorrow morning’s news story may be “Calgary gets right what Ottawa could not”; I wonder, however, how things would have looked if Coulter had visited Calgary first and caught the Cowtown police less well-prepared.
(Incidentally, a pro-tip for the two guys who tried to dress as Klansmen: real KKK outfits have separate hoods. If you go for the one-piece look, you are not a scary symbol of race hatred: you are a scary symbol of the laziness of six-year-olds at Halloween.)
(…)
Coulter, if you’re wondering, and you are, is more attractive in person than on camera. She is thus something of a contrast, in this regard, to Sarah Palin. (Meow!) Dame’s not my type, but you find out the second you write about Ann Coulter that she has many open admirers, and a LOT more haters who are unadmitted admirers―unadmitted perhaps even to themselves.
Yep, even I get that once in a while too… Mine are usually gay guys who want to rape me, but think I’m the “crazy” one.
And I emailed Cosh that, actually, Ezra got a standing ovation in London on Monday night before he’d even started to speak, so what he witnessed last night wasn’t a local phenomenon.
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