The Canadian conservative blogosphere is under attack
You need to know about this. The same tool who went after Canadian publisher Ezra Levant over the Mohammed cartoons is also targeting other Canadian conservative bloggers with “defamation” legal threats. He is trying to shut up and shut down the right-leaning blogosphere up north one blog at a time–and then is suing people who call him a censor.
Connie Fournier at No Apologies reports on the crisis:
The Canadian Human Rights Commission has already been used on many occasions to shut down websites and to place lifetime speech bans on webmasters who have been hauled before its tribunals.
The human rights commission attacks on Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn have made a lot of people aware of the danger of allowing these government bodies to regulate the speech of Canadians, and the internet has been abuzz with stories of bureaucratic abuse. The fight for free speech has begun.
As you might expect, these commissions and those who support them are not prepared to go down without a fight. In recent days, defamation notices have begun to arrive at the doors of the bloggers and website owners who have dared to comment on former human rights investigator and EGALE member, Richard Warman, or his staunchest defender, former Liberal war room strategist, Warren Kinsella. (Yes, he’s the same Warren Kinsella who ridiculed Stockwell Day’s Creationist views with a Barney doll on national television.)
The defamation suits that are being filed by this pair threaten to put a chill on the conservative blogosphere.
First, they came for Levant and Mark Steyn. And next? Fournier is co-founder with her husband of Canada’s largest political discussion forum, FreeDominion.com.pa. She warns:
Free Dominion was served with a human rights complaint last summer which was later dropped. Currently, we are in the midst of one defamation suit initiated by Richard Warman, and we have been served notice of another suit by Warman, as well as notice of a joint suit by Warman and Warren Kinsella. Ezra Levant is fighting a human rights complaint before the Alberta Human Rights Commission, and he has been served with notice of a defamation suit from Richard Warman. Mark Steyn is fighting several human rights complaints, and he is suffering almost daily abuse on Warren Kinsella’s blog. The most vocal writers who have been fighting the human rights commissions have been threatened with lawsuits and worse. Blogger Mike Brock even received an email that read, “I hope that type of sentiment comforts you the day you find yourself staring down the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun, Mike.”
We believe that there will be more lawsuits coming, and it is absolutely critical that we go the distance. We will lose our chance to reclaim our right to free speech in every other medium if we lose the stronghold we have built on the internet. We cannot allow even one more website to go dark, or for another blogger to shut down their comments out of fear of the radical left.
I’ll keep you updated on developments. Their fight is our fight.
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- Girl On The Right » Blog Archive » Roll Call
- Marginalized Action Dinosaur » Canada shutting down “the right” for not having socialist ideals and my threat from Kinsella.
- monoblogue » Blog Archive » And then they came for us…
- Bullying and blogging
- Michelle Malkin » Free speech fund-raiser: The Canadian conservative blogosphere under attack
- daemon-ink.net » Blog Archive » warman vs. the world
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Best wishes and God bless, eh!
While Obama (and Hillary) may not necessarily want to revisit NAFTA, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a Canadian import like their Human Rights Commission.
It sounds like the radical left’s strategy is to wear down anyone who “offends” them by constantly dragging them to court, resulting in time and money wasted by the bloggers having to defend themselves.
And while the big fish would be able to stave off attacks for awhile, smaller bloggers such as I would have a tough time fighting these sorts of battles since I refuse to be anonymous in what I say. It’s good that you’re keeping us on top of this stuff, Michelle.
Michael Swartz
http://www.monoblogue.us
hmm maybe we should sue them for defamation like they are to our fellow Conservatives. I wish them luck and stand behind them 100%
Some of us may be kicking and scream while its happening but Washington is moving us closer and closer to being like Canada. It may be baby steps that a lot of folks don’t notice right now but we are slowly inching that way.
How can we help? Does Canada have a counterpart to the Rutherford Institute?
Remember Radio Free Europe?
Blog Free Canada!
The left has already tried shutting down consertives here, with little luck so far. But they will not stop, they will continue to work on it bit by bit and piece by piece. If they can get a liberal legal system to write the law, the consertive voice is history.
We cannot allow the socialists to kill freedom of speech so their propaganda machine can run freely.
We must watch Canada closly and help them if we can. This is danger for the entire free world.
It amazes me how the left (stalinists) fear to hear other views and sides. Stalin and others would never permit ohter viewpoints. Now the Leninists cousins in North America wants to shut down all opposing opinion. It seems like we are heading into the Dark Ages again and it doesn’t look pretty.
One day Dicky Warman will ruin the wrong persons life and his own in the same process.
Perhaps we need contact information on The Canadian Human Rights Commission so they can hear from free people on the matter!
On March 5th, 2008 at 9:40 pm, almeehan said:
Perhaps we need contact information on The Canadian Human Rights Commission so they can hear from free people on the matter!
Right freaking ON!… but lets CC the Chamber Of Commerce too cause money talks & anything Canada makes Denmark makes better!
Hmmm. When Hillary said (in response to a question about Rush getting Republicans to vote for her): “be careful what you wish for, Rush,” maybe she was thinking along those lines.
I fear we have not heard the last of the so called “fairness” doctrine in this country……..
I’m wondering if the Canadian Court System passes the smell test. It appears they/it are the facilitators of personal bias as the law. Much as the so many judges in America pursue their social engineering as Constitutional Law. Does Canada have a Constitution and if so is free speech not protected. I know they are free to hate America, first, last, and always.
Yes, Canada has a Constitution and in 1982 The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted (some of what follows).
Everyone has these fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
As a general rule in life Anything with the intalls HRC should be voted against.
HRC = Human rights commssion
HRC = Hillary Rodham Clinton
I see I am not the only one that picked up on the “HRC” similarity …
Actually, however, the US correlation that is more accurate would be to call them a north of the border version of the ACLU …
DesertLover
You are right there HRC is more like our ACLU, then our HRC. But all I can think of when I hear HRC is HRC evil laugh she does.
Do as I say, not as I do, right CHRC? How do these people sleep at night.
Are not these leftists, who claim liberty, free thinking, free expression, free this, free that. Are they not the biggest hypocrits ever. If you have an opposeing view point then you are of one phobia or another. They go out of their way to claim no censorship ever yet are the first to start the proccess of censorship at every turn.
I fail to see any larger oppressor and do as I say not as I do people then those on the left.
#14 — More like Hillary Rotten Clinton
No wonder they (Democrat left wing nutbags) want to make the US more like Canada — Free speech for me, but not for thee.
It was stated above, but needs to be said over and over. These jerks need to have the tables turned on them and sued to the point where they and their leftist backers are broke, destitute, penniless, no bread and no hope of being able to scape up enough money to buy a cup of coffee.
Canada, I am so disappointed in you.
This really is a shameful abuse of your citizens’ constitutional rights.
Doesn’t this guy Warman get PAID per claim or per complaint that he files now that he left his ‘human rights’ job?
Richard “Dick” Warman, and Warren Kinsella…hosers in every sensse of the word!
Canada has forfeited law to local commissars.
Hey Michelle… you have Captain Ed working for you now over at Hot Air. The guy’s got a pretty good record on free speech issues up in Canadia, put HIM on it!
Seriously, if there is anything we can do to help them in our fight against Lawyer-based harassment, let us know, we’re in.
Live by letting Bush get away with illegal wiretapping and such, die by the loss of rights.
First they came to illegally wiretap the people, and I did not speak out because I had nothing to hide.
Then they came for habeas corpus, and I did not speak out because I didn’t think I’d get imprisoned and rendered to Uzbekistan.
Then they came for free speech…
Let’s give thanks to the Founding Fathers and the State Governments of the day who demanded the Bill of Rights with its First Amendment before they would ratify the US Constitution.
The United States of America is not the only Democratic Republic nation in the world today, but she continues to be self-evident of what it truly means to be a free people.
The Blame America crowd continue to berate what an evil fascist country the USA is today, ignoring the irony that the mere fact they are not arrested, sued, or otherwise inconvenienced by the very same government they despise proves how moronically wrong they are.
I have been following Ezra Levants blog ever since you mentioned him here, Michelle- and the stuff going on up there in Canada is getting really scarey. Check out his latest blog at http://www.ezralevant.com/ and you will see that Warman is trying to shut down USA bloggers- and if he can’t do that then to force ISP’s to block any website he doesn’t like. This guy needs to be brought down in a big way, and fast…
Interesting these idiots want to stifle the very medium they use to espouse their own “tolerant” speech. Be careful what you wish for. Besides, if you visit Kinsella’s site, you’ll see from the “bio” that he’s at best, nothing more than an adolescent in an adult’s body who can’t seem to escape the distress of getting older and becoming irrelevant.
(Steyn will be vinidcated without question. Maclean’s is too well-respected there. It would be like punishing the WSJ for an opinion piece. Even in Canada, not going to happen. I think Levant has been cleared by the AHRC b/c the complaint was dropped.)
We’ve had our own challenges to free speech in our history. First was the Sedition act of 1797. The Civil War remembers military courts and Rep. Vanlandingham. We had a sedition act in 1917 also. And, we had the “House on Un-American Activities” committee in the 50s. Many famous Hollywood stars remember that one! Fortunately, common sense prevailed. Let’s hope and encourage Canada to see common sense too. With socialism also comes restrictions on liberty…for the “common good”, of course.
Yes…how long will it be before those defamation suits cross the border?
Not very.
Gotta love those who claim to be “tolerant” of “diversity.”
Freakin’ hypocrites.
I feel for our neighbors to the north and wish them the best in avoiding the silencing of free speech. The Democrats are trying to do that here with hate crimes legislation, fairness doctrine, etc. In this war of ideals with the fascist on the left (ALCU, MSM, and their buddies) we have to remain every vigilant of their continuous attempts to chip away at our Constitutional rights. Thank God we have people like Michelle sounding the alarm, because we sure won’t hear or see any of this from the liberal MSM.
Tell all those Canadian bloggers to come on down to the US of A. When you get to the border tell them you are half Mexican. They should have someone on staff that can roll out a red carpet for you. Then tell them the other half is Iranian. That will stop them from doing a background check. But leave your fingernail clippers in Canada. Those type of things seem to scare the hell out of immigration folks.
This is what happens when there is no 2nd amendment.
The USA has a Constitution. The first amendment of which says we have freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the right to petition the government for redress of greivances. Now, we conservatives need fight for our rights every step of the way while liberals have their rights handed to them on a silver platter, but we do still have the rights.
I believe Canada has no such Constitution recognizing any such rights. Thus, if the Government doesn’t like what an individual is doing, they can just shut them down.
Here is the contact information for the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission.
Here is contact info for the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
While we’re at it, here’s the info for the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Let Canada hear their southern neighbor’s voice be heard loud and clear.
Hey Alphonse,
Did you miss the part where the courts said the wiretapping was legal?
allrsn said:
tre said:
Not to worry! President McCain will absolutely defend our fundamental right to express our political opinion.
Oh, wait…
It’s interesting how liberals up in Canada will allow any kind of speech (or is that blog speech) as long as it’s liberal speech. Heaven forbid somebody say something they didn’t like….
Our poor cousins to the north have been under this gun for some time now. “Hate speech” has been broadened to cover anything anyone does not like. Oh, what a surprise! I think this started with the ‘French’ issue up there a couple of decades ago and just morphed into this fascist monstrocity. I repeat – Oh, what a surprise!
I have a deal for them. We’ll send them all our anti-everything anarchists and bomb throwers, and we take in all their conservatives and middle-of-the-roaders.
As Americans, we should work as much as possible to help Canadian conservatives reverse the recognition of gay unions, abortion and to increase morality in Canadian society.
I encourage all American conservatives to do this as they are able.