Words
[THIS POSTING WAS ON THE NATIONAL POST'S 'FULL COMMENT' SITE. EZRA SENT ME A GOOD-HUMOURED RESPONSE TO IT - HE DIDN'T LIKE IT, BUT HE DIDN'T SEEM TO OBJECT TO IT. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT WAS TAKEN OFF THE POST SITE BY AN EDITOR FOR BEING TOO PERSONAL. IRONIC, GIVEN THE TITLE OF THE POST!]
Quiz time: way, way back in the Spring of 2001, a young, bold, fresh-faced Albertan I know and (actually like) stood in front of the National Post building in Toronto and fulminated. See if you can guess his identity:
"When one becomes a private citizen," our youthful, exuberant private citizen explained, "one can look someone in the eye like Chuck Strahl and say, 'Hey, Chuck, you're betraying the grassroots; you're betraying the constitution, and by the way defamation -- not a good idea. Why don't you apologize?' I have a freedom now to call things by their proper name. I call Chuck Strahl a defamer. And if he wants to dig in and buy himself another Goddard matter, I pity him. I'm no longer with the leader's office. I can speak freely."
Still unsure?
If you haven’t figured out who the youngish fulminator is, which is rather unlikely, here’s another hint: our 28-year-old speaker was defending a libel action – yes, that’s right, a nasty, brutish, statist’s attempt to limit free speech! – he and others had brought against Mr. Strahl, a much-liked BC Member of Parliament. The young fulminator had leaked to the National Post (his former employer) the letter threatening Mr. Strahl – without first getting the approval of his bosses. That led to his rapid departure from Parliament Hill, after only three months on the job as the top communications advisor to the then-Leader of the Opposition.
Later on, he got into a much-publicized fight with the next elected Leader of the Opposition – one Stephen Harper – claiming Mr. Harper was out to “punish” him. Around the same time, he warned darkly that he could not discuss a Calgary Conservative riding association because his battle with them “will be resolved in the defamation courts.” And so on, and so on.
The fulminator, of course, is the one and only Ezra Levant. I can’t tell you if his libel action against Mr. Strahl ever went anywhere, or the one involving the riding association. Or the many, many libel actions Ezra has threatened against Frank magazine. But I observe that Mr. Strahl is now a popular federal cabinet minister; the Conservative riding association is flourishing; Frank magazine is still publishing; and…Ezra is out of work.
Anyway, none of these things are the point of this cautionary tale. They’re not the point. The point is that my friend Ezra’s memory is not what it used to be. He’s not being consistent, at all.
Ezra has a big screed in this morning’s National Post, you see, rallying to the defence of free speech. It’s awful. In it, Ezra rips into those who would seek to “censor” in the name of “human rights.” Chief among his targets are Richard Warman, an Ottawa man who, among other things, is an award-winning human rights lawyer. Mr. Warman has successfully won human rights cases against a score of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, on his own. The Canadian Jewish Congress gave him an award for “distinguished service to the cause of human rights.”
Richard Warman has been the target of innumerable death threats, and is generally regarded as a self-effacing, thoughtful, centrist who objects to online Naziism. For that, Ezra sneers, and calls him an “anti-racist leftist.” (Around “anti-racist,” Ezra places quotation marks, to suggest to the reader – if the reader doesn’t get it already – that Ezra thinks Richard Warman is a fraud.)
The fraud, in this case, is my friend Ezra Levant. He is full of crap, actually.
When it has suited him in the past – and when the verbal attacks have focused on him, say, and not a non-white family, or a Muslim kid, or a gay man – Ezra has launched a fullisade of legal actions. He has papered the courts with legal actions, and legal threats, which presumably leave the intended targets feeling that their freedom of speech is being limited. When it is his feelings being hurt, watch out; anyone else’s – too bad.
And then, today, he turns around and attacks a guy like Richard Warman, who has the temerity to object to Nazi filth. And that’s when Ezra goes too far, in my view.
Some might say Ezra Levant is not fit to carry Richard Warman’s water bottle. I won’t. I know both of these men, and I like them both. It’s just that, in this case, Ezra isn’t as young as he used to be. Like all old men, he’s forgotten that he now preaches against stuff he used to do – over and over and over.
Some might say that’s hypocrisy. I don’t. I just think my friend Ezra is getting old.
Quiz time: way, way back in the Spring of 2001, a young, bold, fresh-faced Albertan I know and (actually like) stood in front of the National Post building in Toronto and fulminated. See if you can guess his identity:
"When one becomes a private citizen," our youthful, exuberant private citizen explained, "one can look someone in the eye like Chuck Strahl and say, 'Hey, Chuck, you're betraying the grassroots; you're betraying the constitution, and by the way defamation -- not a good idea. Why don't you apologize?' I have a freedom now to call things by their proper name. I call Chuck Strahl a defamer. And if he wants to dig in and buy himself another Goddard matter, I pity him. I'm no longer with the leader's office. I can speak freely."
Still unsure?
If you haven’t figured out who the youngish fulminator is, which is rather unlikely, here’s another hint: our 28-year-old speaker was defending a libel action – yes, that’s right, a nasty, brutish, statist’s attempt to limit free speech! – he and others had brought against Mr. Strahl, a much-liked BC Member of Parliament. The young fulminator had leaked to the National Post (his former employer) the letter threatening Mr. Strahl – without first getting the approval of his bosses. That led to his rapid departure from Parliament Hill, after only three months on the job as the top communications advisor to the then-Leader of the Opposition.
Later on, he got into a much-publicized fight with the next elected Leader of the Opposition – one Stephen Harper – claiming Mr. Harper was out to “punish” him. Around the same time, he warned darkly that he could not discuss a Calgary Conservative riding association because his battle with them “will be resolved in the defamation courts.” And so on, and so on.
The fulminator, of course, is the one and only Ezra Levant. I can’t tell you if his libel action against Mr. Strahl ever went anywhere, or the one involving the riding association. Or the many, many libel actions Ezra has threatened against Frank magazine. But I observe that Mr. Strahl is now a popular federal cabinet minister; the Conservative riding association is flourishing; Frank magazine is still publishing; and…Ezra is out of work.
Anyway, none of these things are the point of this cautionary tale. They’re not the point. The point is that my friend Ezra’s memory is not what it used to be. He’s not being consistent, at all.
Ezra has a big screed in this morning’s National Post, you see, rallying to the defence of free speech. It’s awful. In it, Ezra rips into those who would seek to “censor” in the name of “human rights.” Chief among his targets are Richard Warman, an Ottawa man who, among other things, is an award-winning human rights lawyer. Mr. Warman has successfully won human rights cases against a score of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, on his own. The Canadian Jewish Congress gave him an award for “distinguished service to the cause of human rights.”
Richard Warman has been the target of innumerable death threats, and is generally regarded as a self-effacing, thoughtful, centrist who objects to online Naziism. For that, Ezra sneers, and calls him an “anti-racist leftist.” (Around “anti-racist,” Ezra places quotation marks, to suggest to the reader – if the reader doesn’t get it already – that Ezra thinks Richard Warman is a fraud.)
The fraud, in this case, is my friend Ezra Levant. He is full of crap, actually.
When it has suited him in the past – and when the verbal attacks have focused on him, say, and not a non-white family, or a Muslim kid, or a gay man – Ezra has launched a fullisade of legal actions. He has papered the courts with legal actions, and legal threats, which presumably leave the intended targets feeling that their freedom of speech is being limited. When it is his feelings being hurt, watch out; anyone else’s – too bad.
And then, today, he turns around and attacks a guy like Richard Warman, who has the temerity to object to Nazi filth. And that’s when Ezra goes too far, in my view.
Some might say Ezra Levant is not fit to carry Richard Warman’s water bottle. I won’t. I know both of these men, and I like them both. It’s just that, in this case, Ezra isn’t as young as he used to be. Like all old men, he’s forgotten that he now preaches against stuff he used to do – over and over and over.
Some might say that’s hypocrisy. I don’t. I just think my friend Ezra is getting old.