Michelle Malkin » Free speech fund-raiser: The Canadian conservative blogosphere under attack

Free speech fund-raiser: The Canadian conservative blogosphere under attack

By Michelle Malkin • April 9, 2008 10:28 AM

Last month, I told you about the coming attack on Canadian conservative bloggers by speech-squelching Richard Warman–the same sharia-promoting tool who went after publisher Ezra Levant.

Well, the bloggers have now formally been hit with lawsuits. Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury is one of the defendants. She reports:

Richard “The Boy Named Sue” Warman has finally filed his statement of claim.

Canada’s busiest litigant, serial “human rights” complainant and — the guy Mark Steyn has called “Canada’s most sensitive man” — Richard Warman is now suing his most vocal critics — including me.

The suit names:

• Ezra Levant (famous for his stirring YouTube video of his confrontation with the Canadian Human Rights tribunal after he published the “Mohammed Cartoons”)
• FreeDominion.ca (Canada’s answer to FreeRepublic.com)
• Kate McMillan of SmallDeadAnimals.com
• Jonathan Kay of the National Post daily newspaper and its in-house blog
• and me, Kathy Shaidle of FiveFeetOfFury.com

Richard Warman used to work for the notorious Human Rights Commission, which runs the “kangaroo courts” who’ve charged Mark Steyn with “flagrant Islamophobia.”

Richard Warman has brought almost half these cases single-handledly, getting websites he doesn’t like shut down, and making tens of thousands of tax free dollars in “compensation” out of web site owners who can’t afford to fight back or don’t even realize they can.

The province of British Columbia had to pass a special law to stop Richard Warman from suing libraries because they carried books he didn’t approve of.

Richard Warman also wants to ban international websites he doesn’t like from being seen by Canadians.

The folks named in his new law suit are the very bloggers who have been most outspoken in their criticism of Warman’s methods…

…We can only fight this man’s attempt to silence conservative opinion if we have international support: both moral and financial.

This lawsuit will cost me at least $30,000 to fight.

And fight it I will.

Ezra Levant’s post on the lawsuit spree is here. The PDF of the complaint is here. Levant writes:

Warman’s not just suing me. He’s suing some of the biggest names in the Canadian blogosphere – from Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals to Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury (or, Five Feet of Furry, as the lawsuit says on page 2), to Free Dominion, the largest conservative chat site in Canada. Warman’s goal is breathtaking in its chutzpah: he wants to muzzle the Canadian conservative Internet. It’s not just his goal – it’s the goal of the CHRC itself, and its friends at the Canadian Jewish Congress, who have stated their goal is to “tame” the Internet – or at least those voices they disagree with. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the CJC was bankrolling Warman’s lawsuit – they’ve done joint legal work together before, and Warman’s number one defender is on the CJC’s legal committee. The CJC hates conservatives, and this would be a way for them to do damage to the conservative blogosphere without taking the political flak for it.

Take a look at the language Warman’s lawsuit uses to smear Free Dominion. At paragraph 17, Warman calls them an “extreme right-wing discussion forum”. Look at that language – hardly distinguishable from the CHRC’s and CJC’s boilerplate insults reserved for neo-Nazis. That’s what this lawsuit is about: an attempt by the CHRC’s biggest star to try to marginalize Canadian conservatism. And why not? The CHRC has moved from targeting white supremacists to targeting mainstream conservatives like Mark Steyn; the Alberta HRC has already gagged Christian pastors and taken a run at Calgary’s bishop, and two years ago they charged me with publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. Surely attempting to criminalize conservatism is just the next, natural step for these congenital censors.

At Ezra’s, Kathy’s, Connie and Mark’s, and Kate’s blogs, you can find “Donate” buttons.

I’ve pitched in $100 to each blog. Can I find at least 10 readers out there who can match? If you can pitch in anything at all, please take time today to do so.

As I said when I wrote about the coming attack last month, their fight is our fight. Time to put our money where are mouths/hearts/blogs are.

***

The Nose on Your Face is selling t-shirts with all profits going to the bloggers being sued by Richard Warman. Go here.

Posted in: Danish Cartoons, Jyllands-Posten, Sharia

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#282559

On April 9th, 2008 at 10:29 am, meatpieandtatters said:

I call this the counter-counter-insurgency against the conservative jihad.
#282561

On April 9th, 2008 at 10:34 am, NeoConNews said:

Sounds like it’s getting awfully chilly up north.
#282565

On April 9th, 2008 at 10:38 am, pedro4 said:

I have a few questions. Who put Warman in this job? Can pressure be brought to bear on a higher authority? In the Canadian legal system are there penalties for malicious or trivial lawsuits? Thanks in advance. I may have to take Canadian beer off my list along with Absolut.
#282570

On April 9th, 2008 at 10:43 am, englishqueen01 said:

I hope each of them countersue Warman out of everything he has.

Scumbag.

I have to wait until I get paid, then I’ll be sending something to each of them.

“Five Feet of Furry” – what a joke.
#282589

On April 9th, 2008 at 11:05 am, zorro said:

If Michelle feels it’s a worthy cause, that’s good enough for me. I’ll kick in when I get home tonight.

Thanks Michelle, and good luck to our Canadian brethren.
#282595

On April 9th, 2008 at 11:13 am, Lurker said:

Money is tight, but I sent a small amount to Kathy.
Richard Warman, what a wanker!
#282605

On April 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am, Drained Brain said:

Speaking as one with Canadian friends and relatives, I can attest it’s a worthy cause and offer thanks to Michelle for giving it the attention it deserves!
#282614

On April 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am, StrangeLove said:

We should annex Canada and give these folks 1st amendment protection.
#282620

On April 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am, fulldroolcup said:

And how are Canadians reacting to this nonsense? Are they ponying up money to protect free speech in their own country?

Not likely, from what I’ve seen at Steyn’s site. Any country that would allow their “Human Rights” commission to operate with Kafkaesque procedures that DENY the presumption of innocence isn’t all that interested in “human rights”. Any country that would permit a legal “cause of action” on such specious grounds isn’t interested in free speech –unless it’s on one-sided “liberal” terms and conditions.

So pity the poor PC-addled Canadians who are acceding their precious freedoms to vicious fascists like Warman while at the same time surrendering inch-by-inch to dhimmitude.

Pity them.
#282628

On April 9th, 2008 at 11:59 am, Chuck said:

StrangeLove is right. Our cousins to the north got blitzed by the lefties while Chretien was boss. The whole panoply of lefty ideas got front row seats. The National Health Care idiocy is slowing but surely falling over like the Tower of Pisa. I hope this rape of free speech finally gets their attention and they put a stake through the heart of the CHRC. It is run by and for the usual suspects whose only goal is to shut you up.
#282652

On April 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pm, almeehan said:

If they all got together and hired a Soprano type it would cost less and save a lot of time. Obviously this man has caused much trouble in the Canadian legal system. Don’t they have judges that can prevent frivolous lawsuits?
#282660

On April 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm, secondsight said:

Canada is its own special brand of hell. Looks nice, thinks badly. Must be a bilinguial sort of affliction where half of everyone’s brain is beset by Quebecois French, eh? Or alternatively by Canadian English, eh?
#282663

On April 9th, 2008 at 12:32 pm, greenfairie said:

Canada isn’t a free country and hasn’t been for a long time.
#282678

On April 9th, 2008 at 12:47 pm, Drained Brain said:

Yet there are people up there fighting the good fight. Ironically, one of the reasons they’re so reviled is that they refute the blatant anti-Americanism that passes for civil discourse in intellectual circles up there (think San Francisco with snow) and continue to see the U.S. as a beacon of sorts.

Kate McMillan, for example runs one heck of a great website while working as a self-employed graphic artist, a free-enterpriser who won’t have deep pockets as a result of Canadian taxes.

Yes, one can leave these lonely conservative Canucks to fight their fight alone, and adopt a Swedish-style neutrality, but, as another Canadian columnist once commented when the former Liberal government refused to support the U.S. in Iraq, “standing on the sidelines shouldn’t be confused with the high moral ground.”
#282730

On April 9th, 2008 at 1:38 pm, DanGrantTx said:

Canada must not have any laws covering vexatious litigants. Sounds like the federal and provincial parliaments need to pass this kind of legislation immediately.
#282811

On April 9th, 2008 at 3:03 pm, Mambo Bananapatch said:

Thank you so much, Michelle, to you and your readers for bringing attention to this and helping out our Canadian bloggers.

This is a travesty, and God help us if Warman wins this.
#282840

On April 9th, 2008 at 3:43 pm, Jaded said:

I couldn’t give what you gave Michelle but I did give $25.00 to small dead animals because I actually get around to reading that one every couple of weeks…..Thanks for being on top of this because it is only through knowledge that we can defeat this vermin.
#282974

On April 9th, 2008 at 6:12 pm, Hank said:

Matched Michelle’s 100 each place.
#283029

On April 9th, 2008 at 7:24 pm, TexasTiger said:

Good Lord. Let’s hope Richard Warman never meets Rusty or Mookie.
#283096

On April 9th, 2008 at 9:53 pm, WarTip said:

And when they came for me, there was nobody left to cry out to!

As I recall, last time I was stateside we did have “protection” from frivolous lawsuits. Yet I could not get a hot cup of coffee at McDonalds and I daresay that drycleaners were having a time debating whether or not it was worth the cost of a pair of pants to stay in business. The problem is not so much with lawsuits that are frivolous as it is with politicians who do not see them that way, courts legislating from the bench and judges seeing an opportunity to get their names in the history books.

The problem is that we have allowed the fringe to become the norm and actively protest (often with seditious actions) the very law that this land was founded on and all of the principles in place which are necessary to make a constitutional republic of laws. While Canada’s history and governmental makeup may be different, the attack by these socialists and radicals remains the same and their effect is every bit as real.

The problem is that nowadays we have come to the point where we are forced to defend our conservative values in this way every day. We have to win the fight each and every day. They have to win only once before they can advance their cause to the next level seeking out a little more intrusion into our personal liberties. (Think about government controls and regulations regarding the limitations and rights of people to smoke legal tobacco in the comfort of their own homes … creeping legislation every bit as dangerous as Sharia law or any other challenge we face in these dark days)

Their battle is a progressive one and ours is a fight for our very right to exist. I find little comfort in the fact that historically the “useful idiots” have traditionally also been the first ones placed up against the wall once their tactics were successful. My fear is that we may already have “progressed” too far down the slippery slope to even check our descent, much less stop it or return this nation to its historical standing.

Would our founding fathers have been proud of the fact that they were correct in the warnings they gave us so clearly or disappointed that we have come to ignore them completely and allowed the very horrors that they described to become such a reality?

Unfortunately, I cannot offer financial donations at this time, but for what it is worth, I will be offering my prayers. I will also be watching closely but my hopes are not high. Of the government, by the government and for the government?

Waiting from justification for this from the trolls in 5, 4, 3, 2 … Huh? Chirping crickets?
#289198

On April 16th, 2008 at 12:24 am, USpace said:

This fellow in the HRC, Richard Warman, sounds like a totally
wonderful human being who doesn’t have a huge chip on his shoulder
or one evil bone in his whole fair-minded body.

He doesn’t at all sound like a sick and demented bastard who is angry and bitter
because he got his butt massively kicked in those elections years ago.

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe likes
human rights commissions

that violate human rights
while claiming to protect them

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe hates
real freedom of speech

an American concept
which is NOT for Canada

.
Why Does Canada Allow This?

http://www.richardwarman.com/

http://haltterrorism.com

.
#309889

On May 3rd, 2008 at 7:38 am, Michelle Malkin said:

test

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“In the matter of the human rights code…”

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