Mr. Awan is now a lawyer in Saskatchewan, but in 2007 he was the public face of a campaign to protest the representation of Muslims in Maclean’s magazine. This led to three failed human rights complaints and spurred Canada’s first online culture war over the hate speech section of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
That law has since been repealed by the Harper government and this case was one of the last loose ends in the broader conflict. As a total victory for Mr. Awan, it represents the revenge of the “sock puppet.”
iwe need to support Ezra
The enemy can’t win against us in a shooting war and they know it, but it certainly appears they have found another way to win. A country can’t survive when it is betrayed from inside by political correctness. Even if Ezra was in the wrong, the fine was excessive and a warning from the judge to others of what to expect if you criticize a muslim. This won’t be the last such ruling to be handed down. Many of us will find that out soon enough.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” Matt: 24:9
Done and done.
rd
Much as I like him, Ezra was in the wrong. He was unable to demonstrate that the plaintiff was an anti-Semite. It’s long established in law that we are convicted or not convicted on what we personally do or say. There is no guilt by association.
You cannot go around simply calling people anti-semites and liars. That’s libel or slander depending on the medium. An accepted defence against libel is establishing the truth of the statement. Levant was unable to do so. Hence, guilty.
Terry, try for once not to be a complete idiot. This isn’t about betrayal, it’s about the law.
I support Ezra. He must win this for the sake of freedom of speech.
And yet, CGH, every time I turn around some coloured mongrel is calling some white person a racist and nothing is said. And anyone that thinks the Islamic Congress isn’t anti-Semitic is an idiot.
The judge that made this ruling should be fired off a catapult at a brick wall – and so should you. Is this what this nation and our judiciary have been reduced too? Refereeing name calling fights?
CGH so according to you I could not call an assistant grand dragon of the klu klux klan a racist solely based on his membership and leadership of that organization. Huh?
That makes no sense logically or in our case law around defamation.
Based on our political discourse, I find it rather quaint that you believe it’s legally actionable to go around calling opponents racist or liars. That’s nearly the entire opus of the Liberals and NDP wrt conservatives and the CPC.
And don’t forget, Terry, that the law can be such an ass.
//The National Post says that one of Levant’s own arguments was essentially that his words were not defamatory because no one takes Levant seriously. //
http://bigcitylib.blogspot.ca/2014/11/your-daily-ezra-ezra-levant-gets-legal.html
I find that unanswerable. Call it the Mark Steyn defense.
I fear that if you call a particular person “anti-semitic” you are going to have to have evidence going to that person’s own position rather than the position of an organization with which he is involved. This fact does not limit Era’s right to call the CIC anti-semitic; but the guilt by association wheeze will not defeat a defamation suit.
By the same token, the judge seems to have found that Ez’s dislike for the CIC counted as actual malice against Arun which seems more than a little odd.
Ez might be wise to talk to either Peter Downard or Paul Schabus who were respectively losing and winning counsel in Grant before trotting off to the Court of Appeal.
This is akin to Hitler not being charged with war crimes (if still alive) because he “didn’t know” what was going on.
Well, Ezra got what he wanted. He wanted these sorts of things tried in “real courts” not human rights commissions and now he is out 80K.
I don’t have a single sympathetic bone in my body. The guy is full of half truths and hypocrisy. Some examples:
* Complains when anti oil sands groups are funded by American groups like the Tides foundations because Canadians should be having this conversation. OK fair enough. But does he complain the Fraser Institute which is pro oil sands takes US money? No. In fact Ezra does speaking engagements for them and has worked for them.
* The recent made up bullshit where he lied about a memo regarding Muslims and Nov 11.
* Complained that Trudeau had a selfie taken at Jim Flaherty’s funeral. Again fair comment. Did he complain Rob Ford, who he supports, did the same thing and Ford also had selfies taken at the scene of a fatal traffic accident? Nope.
* Says all those who wanted Ford out of office was because they didn’t like the fact that Ford cuts taxes. Nice, did Ezra actually talk to people to get their POV or just make up more crap? The latter. Even Jason Kenny said Ford should go. So Ezra, is Kenny against tax cuts or maybe, like many people, Kenny thought a lazy, drug addicted, lying person, who hangs out with criminals shouldn’t be mayor kinda like many other people who want him gone.
* He has a track record of this sort of behaviour. Lawsuits and apologies are all over. When Warren here made an error in the Mayor campaign about how he framed the issue of Tories Smart Track plan he apologised. We all make errors, quality people admit it. Getting an apology from Levant never comes by Ezra’s own conscious. It has to be enforced by court order, or Ezra’s employer has to do it on his behalf. Or, Levant waits months until it is clear that a lack of an apology in the Roma case may hurt his employers chance to get mandatory coverage and thus line his own pockets. Apologies never come from Ezra because he, Ezra Levant, realized he made an error.
* Loves to paint people guilty by association. Let’s see he works for a separatist politician. So by Ezra’s standards Ezra is a traitor to Canada who wants to break it up.
* When Trudeau stopped people from running as an MP Ezra complained that the Liberals weren’t allowing open nominations like the Conservatives. He pointed to the example of Rob, I slander Vets, Anders. But Ezra is a huge supporter of the Wildrose Party (WP). Did Ezra mention how the WP all but told Anders to take a hike and the same to Craig Chandler? No, because when Liberals restrict who can run it’s a problem. When right wingers do it Ezra stays quiet.
People aren’t putting up with his crap anymore. Ezra wants to frame this as free speech but he has all the free speech he wants. Slander and lies are something else and he can stop playing the victim card. You reap what you sow Levant and if you keep this up your bank account will get smaller and Sun will have to decide if they can afford to keep you on.
Terry Anderson….so Ezra is being persecuted and killed in the name of Jesus because he is preaching the gospel? While you are at it why not put a verse about talking snakes or that people shouldn’t wear clothing of two different materials because it would be just as relevant to Ezra’s situation as the verse you put up there.
I am a retiree, w/o a private pension (like so many civil servants have) so it means getting by on only about $1100/mo. and what I was able to stash in a saving account. I could only afford to send $30, but if even a thousand do so he will be able to afford representation against the this man and the courts that fail to hold Muslims responsible for their hatred of all faiths other than their own.
Ezra has always claimed that he is a Jew but not a particularly devout one, but still has been a paladin for other religious beliefs, even (and especially) Christianity (which upsets many other Jews not so liberally minded) and I think he deserves our support, and even the support of seculars who seek justice.
He plays a provocative blowhard on TV, and he is one. If he doesn’t like being sued he should go find a different job.
It’s a cost of doing business.
And now he’s begging for coins on the street corner? Thanks for the chuckle, Ezra. But it ain’t worth a dime…
Wow, talk about a reading comprehension problem. Congratulations, I’m speechless for the first time today. And that Bible verse I quoted just popped into my head because it seemed apt. Too deep for you huh? I’ll try writing slower next time, that may help you some.
Congrates to you. You put something in there that just popped in your head. Maybe next time think it through a bit more. Maybe it’s too deep for you but that is your issue not mine. Take care.
Gee I don’t know.
If you’re the leader of an anti-semetic group, it stand to reason you agree with their philosophy… and by ASSOCIATION… are an anti-semite.
Or I’m missing something here. My $200 is on its way.
Who cares? As long as he pisses off the Left, I’m happy about it. The Left has far more annoying butt holes on their side, by a country mile.
That’s ok. I just donated $50 in your name.
A fool and his money are soon parted
More witless drivel. People can and do call each other anything they like. But if the offended party sues then it’s off to court. “Refereeing name calling”? What do you think libel and slander laws are? They’ve been around for centuries.
As for basicillogic, of course it’s actionable if you go around calling people racists and liars. What part of centuries-old libel and slander laws don’t you understand? Ezra was sued for defamation and lost. The case doesn’t seem particularly complicated at all. Guilt by association is not part of Canadian case law, and that’s probably a good thing for at least some of the commenters here.
Well, I will be sending some money to Ezra. As far as this trial goes, I think the judge is wrong on the facts. Khurrum Awan is a devout muslim, it appears. As such, he is by default an anti-Semite. It’s baked into the damn cake. For a muslim to be friendly, or even indifferent to Jews, he or she has to act contrary to several passages in the koran and in hadith. People get their heads cut off for that sort of thing. A devout muslim cannot treat the koran as a buffet; it’s all or nothing, according to the koran itself, which purports to be the unalterable word of allah, as dictated to mohammed.
Now “cultural” or “secular” muslims can cherry-pick those parts of the koran that they wish to observe, if any, but such people are regarded as apostates by the faithful, and subject to the standard penalty.
Sorry, but some of you are so naive it defies belief.
Are you telling me that if you see a Hells Angels biker, complete with colours, on a loud Harley, with tattoos from his head to his toe, that your first reaction is going to be “What a sweetheart, I’m sure he’s never done anything wrong”. Sounds like some of you would let him marry your daughter just on a benefit of the doubt.
I was at the University of Waterloo when Elmasry was in full form. He would use the lecture halls to give presentations on Islam and related topics. Oh if only cell phone video cameras were available then.
Ezra has these folks pegged, always has, always will. I’m sending $50 to him. Freedom does not come for free, and Ezra has done a world of good for Canada. It is the least I can do in return for all he has done.
I have some ideas for raising the funds and will investigate what Ezra has planned (in a week or so, once he has things organized) and take it from there. We might be able to raise these funds faster than you might suppose — it’s all a matter of publicity. For every person who hears about these issues on an internet political blog, there might be a hundred like-minded persons out there who won’t find out this way. So we need to address that outreach, beyond the free speech community, and into the wider conservative-libertarian base beyond. I imagine Sun TV will be one key component of that outreach.
Gord, Hirsi Ali in her book Infidel wrote that while living in Kenya she was taught to hate Jews even though she and no one she had ever known had seen a Jew. This, as you noted is part and parcel of islam. The Koran has numerous passages on killing the Jew.
Please take note that the guy who hates Ezra Levant is the other Greg.
Also, Awan was not just a member of an anti-Semitic organization, he was the youth president of an anti-Semitic organization. How is that merely “guilt by association’?
Hyperbole and satire may have to be expunged, too, to satisfy the New Age gods and weak-kneed judges.
THIS is something that we’ll be donating to.
Well, you certainly can’t call someone a murderer or a rapist, but it seems to me that accusations like “Zionist”, “colonialist”, “anti-Semite”, “Islamophobe”, “racist”, etc., etc are so common at this point, and so intrinsically and self-evidently subjective (compared to, say, “murderer”) as to not be a whole lot different in effect than “fat” or “stupid” or “ugly.”
Anti-Semitism is undeniably a form of racism, a subset of racism. When someone — a black person, say, or a rampaging progressive — accuses a conservative of being a “racist” because he/she opposes affirmative action, or Obama’s policies – not that that’s ever happened (*cough-cough*) — or if an aboriginal person calls someone a racist for opposing opposing a certain land claim, or different sentencing standards, is the accusation of racism ever deemed actionable? I certainly can’t think of one single case where it has been. Could a black/aboriginal/progressive who makes an accusation of racism be successfully sued unless he/she was able to “prove” that the subject of their accusation was actually a racist?
I bloody well hope not.
Khurram Awan was the president of the youth wing of an organization led by a man who said that Israeli civilians are legitimate targets for killing, and that the Canadian government is run by a Jewish “cabal” – an assertion that in its many variants is perhaps the most common and virulent anti-Semitic trope of all time. Now, if a white person was accused of being a racist because he was president of the youth wing of the coo clucks clan (misspelled here to avoid the filter), could he successfully sue the person making the assertion on the grounds that while he was indeed president of the youth wing of the pointy hats organization, he hadn’t uttered the same racist statements as those of the actual leader of the group?
Let’s call that a billion-to-one longshot.
so let me see here now, in south America, in Africa, and in the middle east there are lots and lots of Christians that hate Jews, so by association all the Christians in here are anti Semitic, who’d da thunk
Thank you.
I donated to Ezra.
NME666, to reiterate: Awan lead a youth organization of devout Muslims, advocating for Islam. This is Awan loading HIS paint brush from the pot of antisemitism that you accuse commenters here of using in broad strokes.
As for Islam, as already stated above, antisemitism is baked into the cake. Antisemitism is also a key ingredient of the candies “Palestinians” hand out whenever one of their heroes succeed in murdering a Jew. Who’da thunk that?
Jesus Christ was a Jew. The Romans even nailed a sign on his cross that said ‘King of the Jews’ and you think actual real Christians, followers of Jesus, hate Jews?
Pfft.
Acts Chapter 21
39 But Paul said , I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
Paul wrote about 70% of the New Testament of the Bible. The entire New Testament was written by Jews, except maybe the Gospel according to Luke, who was a Greek physician.(some scholars think Luke was a Hellenic Jew) The entire Old Testament was written by Jews, all of it.
No Christians hate Jews. There are people who say they’re Christians that hate Jews, but they couldn’t be Christians and hate Jesus, who was a Jew. Christianity is Jewish.
Too logical for you? Too bad. I could give you more, but casting pearls before swine is a no no.
That’s all I’ve got for you, NME(ENEMY)666.
No surprise really… Ezra called like it is and now he’s being punished, the truth can be costly these days. The “judge’s” protective ruling is exactly what should have been expected. In Trudopia some tribes are more equal than others. The real question that the “judge” has left hanging is whether his ruling will have the desired effect of silencing the truth.
I received an e-mail from Ezra outlining his responses and requesting a donation since I have donated to him in the past. However, in my opinion, since he has become associated with Sun Media, he has been doing nothing but blowing hot air and finding that his facts aren’t always right. The donation tap has run dry.
Since you dislike Sun media, as all lefties do, and the usual “blowing nothing but hot air” that goes along with any CBC loving worshipper, I call bullshit that you would have ever supported Ezra or that he would have asked you personally for a donation. Of course I might take it back if you tell us about all those facts that “aren’t always right”. Inquiring minds want to know. Unlike CBC, we always like 2 sides to a story.
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
~George Orwell
I stand with Ezra.
cgh, all muslims are anti semites. it’s in the Koran don’t ya know.
Calling his webpage “Stand with Ezra” is a bit on the grandiloquent side.
One should really read Jonathon Kay’s article —
// True to form, during the litigation, Levant set up a website called “Stand With Ezra” to raise money for his lawyers. He presents himself as a martyr in the larger battle to protect our civilization from jihadis. Indeed, after Thursday’s judgment was released, he released a fundraising manifesto that is epic, even by Levant’s own self-martyring standards:
“This is a shocking case of libel chill that should concern anyone who is worried about radical Islam, the right to criticize it, and the right to call out anti-Semitism in the public square … If this ruling is allowed to stand, it will be open season on anyone who campaigns against anti-Semitism — any Jewish group, any pro-Israel group, even anyone who criticizes radical Islam. It is a national gag order, which will have the effect of silencing and punishing critics of anti-Semitism. This ruling doesn’t just affect my rights. It’s a setback for freedom for everyone.”
To those of us who oppose anti-Semitism and radical Islam — and yet manage to express our views without making malicious, recklessly incorrect personal attacks against identifiable individuals — Ezra’s appeal seems overwrought and cynical. But there is a certain brilliance in it. “Any Jewish group”? “Any pro-Israel group”? “Open season”? It’s like we’re one step from krystallnacht, and the only thing standing in the Muslim hordes’ way is Ezra’s law team. Can’t you cough up 10 bucks? Or are you an anti-Semite, too? //
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/11/28/jonathan-kay-the-weirdest-thing-about-ezra-levant-is-he-still-thinks-hes-right/
I reject dizzy’s view entirely.
Jonathan Kay is a fool. Ask his mother. A dhimmi fool.
He simply doesn’t get the gradual sharia infiltration into our culture. Classic liberal ostrich.
Talk about moral and intellectual superiority. It oozes from every pore of his body.
Yes, the fund raising can seem tacky betimes, but Ezra is a true patriot, a cheerful warrior. A mensch.
I sent $200 earlier today.
I sent him a much larger sum a few years ago during the Mo cartoons jihad.
In a just society Ezra would be an Order of Canada laureate.
As a author who has also been dragged through the dirt, I’m surprised that Jonathan Kay is throwing rocks in his own glass house.
http://truthjihad.com/news/?p=87
Let’s take the first bit of your link peterj: apparently Kay’s “glass house” is his dismissal of 9/11 Truthers
Holocaust apologist Jonathan Kay: A Bully Among the Truthers
Posted on October 31, 2012 by kbarrett
Here is a terrific new review of Jonathan Kay’s anti-truth diatribe “Among the Truthers”. The author, Yehuda Littman, is a young Orthodox Jewish man who has recently joined the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth. Yehuda is booked for today, Wednesday 10/31/2012, on Truth Jihad Radio. I hope he will return to debate Jonathan Kay – if Kay dares show his face after this!
etc
Ezra is Canada’s Andrew Breitbart. Smart, fearless, a go-for-the-gusto warrior.
I had noticed Jonathon Kay inching to the left for the last while.
I’ve got the cancelled cheques. You’ve got the bullshit.