First Coyne is sued by Tim Murphy, now the Libranos are targeting David Frum;
By that definition, Canadian politics these days might seem very comical indeed. But I am counting on Americans to be less callous than the mordant Brooks–and to recognize that the events now occurring in Canada are serious, even sinister. There is though one warning I’d better immediately deliver to readers: Along with at least four other public commentators, I have recently been served with libel papers by a leading figure in this story. Because National Review is distributed in Canada, and therefore can potentially be reached by Canada’s more restrictive libel law, I have to be a little circumspect in what I say here.
In any sane democratic country, a slap suit against an opinion columnist by a government operative would provoke outrage and non-stop editorials in the mainstream press. The item would be leading the newscasts, with punditry convening soberly on our TV screens. Reporter scrums would pepper government leaders to explain their actions in curtailling that most hallowed (in their eyes) of all freedoms – freedom of the press.
But of course, this is Canada – a nation of “natural governing” one-party rule in which a “living” constitution permits such limits on speech as are consistant with a Liberal Kleptocracy.
So, as the Liberals draft laws that push more and more areas of government operation outside the reach of Freedom of Information requests, weaken protections for whistleblowers, when they brazenly refuse to acknowledge the defeat of their government in non-confidence motions and ignore the Auditor Generals concerns about billions of tax dollars being funneled into unaccountable foundations – the Lloyd Robertsons and Peter Mansbridges busy themselves studiously studying Stephen Harper’s facial expressions and providing Canadians “Better News Through Polling” .
They remain virtually silent on the assaults on members of their own profession – silent, because for the most part, the majority of mainstream media in Canada functions as nothing short of a communications arm of the Liberal Party. In other words, they see themselves as nothing less than an unelected arm of government.
So, when the most compelling critics of the Liberal Party they hold dear face libel actions for simply speaking the truth, the majority of Canadian political punditry breathe a collective grunt of approval, and commission another poll to create new opinions to feed back to the electorate who ensure they stay near the top of all the right invitation lists.
Isn’t Kinsella one of the others being sued? I seem to recall after he and O’Leary and Herle appeared before Public Accounts Committee, the latter threatened to sue over that memo Kinsella had outlining questionable contracts. So that would be Coyne, Frum and Kinsella, right? With the Librano$ attempt to derail Gomery, and short-circuit John Reid’s tenure, guess we’ll be completely dependent on Toronto-based newspapers for our news. Let’s face it, the branch plant-media take editorial direction from the centre-of-the-universe home offices. I agree. We need O’Reilly on side, and in a big way. Watch the Libs do their best to black out FOX TV in this country after this happens.
Good move by the Tories to try to bargain C-38 delay for C-48 passage, which won’t see the light of day anyway. This has sent a message to disgruntled anti-SSM Libs that at least the Tories tried, ostensibly to get more public input. Librano$, I believe, said nyet, and this might piss off those 34 enough to get them to pull the plug tonight. Stranger things have happened than to have a Liberal grow a spine/develop integrity overnight.
A bewildering number of lawsuits
June 16 – My question about the libel suit against David Frum has been answered – in spades. Many thanks to Candace for finding this ” href=”http://wakinguponplanetx.blogspot.com/2005/06/lawsuits-abound.html”>discussion thread on the Frum column and fo…
Lesse now what Charter rights has the single party state FUBARed this year?…freedom of expression and freedom of religious conscience are the two that stand out.
I would complain about property rights but unlike gay rights that were “read in” to the charter, we can’t expect ideologically myopic Jurocrats from the single party state to “read in” individual property rights….better to recognize state decreed entitlements of 2% of the population than the natural rights of the remaining 98%…Canada the home of constitutional dyslexia.
Axeman: William Wallace WAS a Scottish Highlander; He lived in a BIG way. This man fought for Freedom for the Scottish people from the tyrant Edward II (Longshanks) and everything in Braveheart (almost without exception) is documented in historical fact. William Wallace set the stage for Robert the Bruce to establish Scotland as a independant nation and that nation lasted 200 years.
Freedom is the stuff of life, it makes a person master of their own fate. Without Freedom nothing is worth anything, if you cannot control your own destiny , a person is a rudderless boat floating forever; going nowhere. After watching Braveheart at least four times, read “The Rhyme of the Ancient Marnier”. Canadians have a ‘Librano’ mind-set around our necks (symbolized by an dead Albatross, shot for no reason by the sailer on a ‘dead sea’ on a dead boat, in the poem). It is the lazy liberal school system that prevents students today from studing such inflamitory liturature. Axeman, Braveheart is at the vidio store, there is lots of back-up on the history of that time in Scottish history on the net. Type in William Wallace or Robert the Bruce or Great Scots. The entire poem, ‘The Ancient Marinier’ is also on the web. People need to look up some Abstact nouns like Freedom, Liberty, Love, Hate, Redemption, Justice,…Most modern students think these are ‘noun-verbs’- that is what they have been told! Ideas are the NOUNS of life – Abstact Nouns create the vision for the viewing of all other nouns, without them life is dead and people are dead before they ever live (another theme from Braveheart). Old Squid, thanks for the clarification. It is time for the Celts in Canada to take the lead and prod the rest of Canadians to take back their rights and their Freedom -ie drop the Albatross from around their necks into the manure pile , let it rot there. Lift up the limp necks of the cowed so they can breath!
Scotland and Ireland sent Canada the pioneers that built this country. Decendants of these brave, audacious people owe it to their forfathers, who bled buckets of blood for their own and their children’s right to live as free men and women to STAND UP FOR CANADA. In the context of Braveheart, the CPC Party slogan inspires!! Take the scrap to the Liberanos, lay down the negotiations to the supressers, take REAL revenge on traitors, fight for the right to live and breath the intoxicating air of a FREE man. Do not back away from Andrew Coyne and David Frum -STAND UP FOR THEM. Press the press gang, challange them here and on every media outlet, phone people, e-mail Liberanos, threaten, PRESS them beyond their frail fortitude. Liberano/ND types trive on the sweat and blood of people who brush them off because the presence of these types makes us feel like vomiting. Don’t eat, fortify with some whiskey and smoke a LOT (the freaks hate smoke and liqueur and the smell makes them nervous – you don’t have to be a smoker or a drinker (it helps if you are though), just SMELL like a rebel and be IN THEIR FACE until they run. Ask questions and listin to the answer so you can dispute it in a cloud of fury. The Lib/ND outfit type people do not have one quarter the spine that Longshanks had, we have it easy!!
“What will you do without your Freedom”?
NOTHING because NOTHING will matter.
Spooky; Thank-you for the inspiration. It was there right before our eyes and we didn’t notice it because we were so busy defending ourselves. We had forgotten how to be aggressive. Let the Liberano’s put up the Firewalls, we can blow them off with a passion for getting rid of them and their lack luster, repressive, agenda. The Lord hates a coward.
same old same old
CRTC fined Collison and Fast in 2000?
Gotta keep the Libs in power and if it takes the full weight of government…..
Not that I agree with that.
Er, Jema54, Braveheart is a great movie, but “documented in historical fact”? I don’t think even Mel Gibson would claim that. Moreover, the “tyrant” Edward I is also known as “the English Justinian” for being one of the early leading lights of the common law and of English constitutional liberty: it was he who convened the Model Parliament of 1295, the one that first included the Commons.
Would it not make sense for the blogging community to take this cause on? Why not create a specialized blog (“Buckets of SLAP,” “Buckets of Libel”?) as the clearing house for all the information we can find on the suppression of free speech through the abuse of the libel statutes?
Such a clearing house might shame the MSM into standing up for their own, and at least would be a resource for the O’Reillys and others in countries far enough away to be protected from similar tactics.
Do you think Bob Fife might be one of the four?
Dav e I – Brush up on your history – take my challange – look it up!!
Canada, oh Canada!
Small Dead Animals reflects on National Review’s David Frum being served libel papers from the Canadian governmnet. In any sane democratic country, a slap suit against an opinion columnist by a government operative would provoke outrage and non-s…
tuesdae and whipped ass
My Lloyd, Why Hast Tho…