At any rate, I was surprised to settle in this morning, and hear Awan and his counsel, Brian Shiller, devote so much of his examination in chief to the original 2006 Maclean’s excerpt of America Alone (…) and Awan’s “shock” at my flagrant “Islamophobia”, etc. But I got used to it pretty quickly. Having flopped out at the Ontario “Human Rights” Commission, the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission and the British Columbia “Human Rights” Tribunal, Awan sees this case, in effect, as his appeal. Despite three strikes, he’s not out.
When Joe Brean says we “packed the little courtroom”, that’s not that difficult. There are just eight seats for members of the press and public combined. So, when Ezra’s many supporters poured in, the court security officer helpfully dragged spare seats from the counsels’ and parties’ tables to the back of the room for the standing-room-only crowd. Madam Justice Matheson, who seems a decent sort and way sharper than the slapdash Judge Combs Greene that I wound up with in DC, nevertheless said something that made me bristle a little. She warned the members of the public that seating was limited and that “we’re not going to continue to provide chairs” for the rest of the week. Justice has not only to be done, but has to be seen to be done. It seems very odd that the Province of Ontario should build courtrooms in which it is all but impossible for anyone to see justice being done.
See Mark Steyn’s entire Manning Centre speech here.
