Gawd-I really hate to be a downer-but I'm not cracking open a bottle of sparkling Manechewitz just yet.
Here's the news: Section 13, the idiotic "hate speech" law in Canada has gone into the dustbin of history.
But, as Jon Kay of the National Post points out:
"The battle against human-rights speech codes is far from won: The worst cases of censorship, such as the muzzling of Christians who proselytize texts that contain anti-gay themes, occur at the provincial level. Yet the tide clearly has turned: The Canadian Human Rights Commission received only three hate speech complaints since 2009, two of which were dismissed. And at the provincial level, bureaucrats know that any censorious verdict they deliver instantly will be pounced upon by Mr. Levant and his blogging allies (including some at this newspaper), and thereby become a lightning rod for legislative reform."
I'd like to think I'm a part of the "blogging allies".
I think it means Kathy Shaidle, Arnie at Blazing Cat Fur, and scaramouche, Kate at Small Dead Animals, SassyWire, Eye on A Crazy Planet and a bunch of others, including me.
Kathy posted on this story earlier today-apparently some of Canada's socialist elite are still not very happy about their censorship powers being curtailed.
And Mark Steyn, who was so vigorously and ridiculously persecuted by the humorless Canadian Human Rights Commissars for years, also weighs in:
"It’s been a long, slow process, but the victories have been real. Section 13 of the Canadian “Human Rights” Code has as a practical matter been rendered unenforceable. It’s now about to be removed from the law formally."
To the socialist mourning the loss of censorship powers, he helpfully suggests:
"Clear off, you twerp." (So polite!)
I think the real victory will be when all of the various taxpayer-funded provincial and federal human rights
They are an insult to liberty, a festering sore on the body democratic and a drain on the purse of regular working Canadians who deserve not to have their taxes wasted on malicious persecution of their fellow citizens on the grounds of hurt feelings and perceived, exquisitely sensitive feelings of offense.
The de facto victories were won in the court of public opinion, led by Ezra Levant (supported generously by the public) and Mark Steyn (supported by Rogers/Maclean's magazine).
Other "allied bloggers" have taken hits in the pocket book, have been sued and have suffered professionally, socially and emotionally for lending their words and support to the cause.
We are seeing the de jure change, but it's really moot.
It is highly unlikely, actually pretty much impossible-that any individual or organization will ever, ever be able to pull off a publicly-funded lawfare/SLAPP type of human rights complaint /stunt again like the one that was pulled on Mark Steyn, or Ezra Levant.
But this is not the time to rest on our free speech laurels because there is still much work to be done.
The entire "human rights" apparatus in Canada must be destroyed-never to be rebuilt again.
Without free speech, we are not free.
If we can't say what we want, and think and write what we want-we are not a free people.
Tyranny takes many forms.
Its modern incarnation is an attempted moratorium on freedom of expression, speech and thought and the companion public shaming, vilification and intellectual dissembling of those with opinions that may differ from the mainstream consensus-led by the political extreme left.
This must be fought at every level, with the tools that each of us has at our disposal by doing what we can, every day.
So, K.P.O, my free speech companions!
K.P.O!
(Winston Churchill-"Keep plodding on...")
