In this article, Christie Blatchford clarifies her positions on free speech.
She says it's too bad Ezra isn't a bit kinder and that the battle for free speech could not be kinder.
Unfortunately, there are no perfect leaders in battle.
To wish that someone was a little more of this, or a little less of that is just wishful thinking, projecting our own "ideal" onto someone else who has stepped up to leadership. This line of thought is not productive.
The other thing is that it doesn't help a damn to be nicer to people who want to destroy you.
Theo Van Gough asked if we could just talk about it like civilized people while his throat was being removed from his head.
It's very hard to have a civilized, kinder, gentler conversation when your mouth is taped shut-or worse, slit from your head.
One has to have teflon skin to be in the game and relegate wishful thinking to children. Part of growing up is realizing that there are bad guys, that some stories have no happy, kinder ending-no silver lining and that to be kind to our enemies is a very foolish thing indeed.
