To be told what it is we do not have.
But it’s the thought that counts. (Press Release)

Today, Senator Doug Finley (Ontario South Coast) will introduce the Senate inquiry on the Erosion of Freedom of Speech in our Country on the floor of the Senate at approximately 4:00pm. Afterwards, Senator Pamela Wallin (Saskatchewan), Senator Mike Duffy (Cavendish – Prince Edward Island), and Senator David Tkachuk (Saskatchewan) are scheduled to share their thoughts on Freedom of Speech.
If you are unable to attend, you can access audio here.

Walk into a courtroom….
Update:

I’d like to stress… that I find it’s difficult because of my obligation as a lawyer and my commitment to the courts, the tribunals. I’ve practiced for 30 years and never been in a situation quite like this…
You’re not listening to me. You’re not interested in what the Supreme Court of Canada has said, you’re not interested in what the BC Supreme Court has said on this issue – [Geiger-Adams begins to interject but stops] – and I’m saying to you, that I’m put in this position, and you have put me in this position. You’re proceeding illegally, I have to leave this proceeding because it is an illegal proceeding against the rule of law.
You can’t wait to decide your jurisdiction, you can’t put somebody through this for three years, go to the Supreme Court, not follow what the Supreme Court judge said, put this guy through it – put these people through it – for three years and not even make a decision concerning your own jurisdiction.
Talk about an abusive process, this is high-handed and I have to – I cannot consent to it, because my staying here would show the respect that I have for the Tribunal. But I would be consenting to what is an illegal process and as a lawyer I don’t think that’s a very good way to go. So I have to leave the proceedings. I do so regretfully, and I do so with the greatest respect for the Tribunal. And I look forward to the reasons of the telephone conference which will permit me to file…
[putting on coat, leaving room]
I do so very regretfully. It’s too bad you wouldn’t listen.

More, including video here.

The George Soros left, at play;

By day, Marc Garlasco was [Human Rights Watch’s] only military expert, the person that its Emergencies Division would send to conflict zones to investigate alleged war crimes. He wrote reports condemning the dropping of cluster bombs in the Russia-Georgia war, the alleged illegal use of white phosphorus by the Israeli army in Gaza and coalition tactics that he said “unnecessarily” put Iraqi or Afghan civilians at risk. An enthusiastic source of quotes for the media, he was incessantly on the phone to journalists.
But by night, Garlasco was “Flak88”, an obsessive contributor to internet forums on Third Reich memorabilia and an avid collector of badges and medals emblazoned with swastikas and eagles.

Canadian “human rights” and the absolute power to destroy;

The BCHRT has ignored the Supreme Court of Canada, ignored reason and, now, ignored our plea to allow me to “testify” by telephone. Three years of my life have been jumping through HRC hoops and hiding in the shadows that accompanies a man found guilty until proven innocent. The HRC has crushed my spirit to perform and offer no faith in the current state of affairs in our country. This self-appointed, quisi-legal board of powertrippin’ losers need to be dissolved. Despite the majority of Canadians crying “bloody murder” over the continuing inhuman wrongs perpetrated by the oxymoronic Human Right’s Tribunal, the humorless, little people of the HRT go happily on, trying to destroy unqualified hapless dudes, such as myself.

Comedian Guy Earle is due to appear before the BCHRT in Vancouver today. I don’t know why he bothers when he could simply await the guilty verdict at home. The National Post has more on the incident. Bulletproofcourier will be live blogging the hearing.
Proud homophobes and heterophobes alike can help Guy out by clicking on and donating via his paypal button on his website. I sent him a few dollars yesterday.
Rednecks and knuckledraggers – doing the job Rick Mercer and Mary Walsh won’t do.
Related – the First American Prime Minister, with this reminder – “Robert Fowler has earned the right to say whatever he pleases…”
h/t Gord

“…about an American commentator who has come to this country with some outrageous comments.”

So, it must be good!

The Public Service Alliance of Canada condemns the Harper government’s decision to close Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax. The union maintains that the closure of the three offices will make it substantially harder for individuals from marginalized groups to launch human rights complaints.
The three offices slated for closure received 70 per cent of all signed complaints to the CHRC in 2008.

Finally a little good news. I’d taken to watching Glenn Beck in recent days, just for the calming effect.
Heh. I can see the messaging already …

Related – “Senator Doug Finley rose in the Senate to give notice that he would “call the attention of the Senate to the issue of the erosion of Freedom of Speech in our country” and that this would be done through an inquiry.”
Update: Don’t fill those party contribution envelopes just yet… fewer offices or more money? Sure glad we’re not running a massive deficit.

“This bitch does not speak for me.”
And with that I concur with “Gordon”, who sent this clip along. “Ann Coulter got what she deserved”

I’m starting to think the not-showing-up-to-riot is a failed conservative policy.
(Coulter updates here, including news that the Calgary venue has been changed, “to accomodate increased demand”.)

See? You can yell “fire” in a crowded theatre after all!
Via Rightgirl – “…word is coming out of Ottawa that the Coulter event had to be canceled because volunteers were attacked by “anti-racists”.
Details at the Ottawa Sun. Update: It’s just hit Drudge, making this in all probability, the biggest publicity coup of Ann Coulter’s career.

Congratulations, Ottawa! She couldn’t have done it without you.

“I dunno. A camel?” . Shaidle was there.
I disagree with the majority of right leaning freespeechers on this point – I believe we need more of this. “Either what (Mr. Houle) did was a hate crime, or the whole commission is BS.”
Update: And another poll goes horribly wrong….

Via Gay and Right I learned that the Swedish MSM have taken a stand.

The money quote from the referenced link:

Gunilla Herlitz, the Dagens Nyheter editor-in-chief, defended the reprinting of the cartoon as a legitimate part of the story of the day. “I believe that, in this case, the cartoon is a part of the news and therefore we would like to show the readers what this is all about. But the cartoon is published in a context and is not the leading picture on the page.”

Now, where have we heard that before?

Course, in the CDN version, the small magazine wasn’t three national newspapers and so couldn’t compete with the big gov’t HRC apparatus and it’s desire to destitute.

This one wonders if the Swedes have an HRC. If not, by Allah (MHNBP), they’d better get one!

Cheers,
lance

Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: The left is facilitating islamization. Leftists, liberals, are cheering for every new shariah bank being created, for every new shariah mortgage, for every new islamic school, for every new shariah court. Leftists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties.

His speech to the British House of Lords.
More here – “Today in London – All Kinds of Crazy”

Brussels Journal;

Yesterday’s local elections in the Netherlands resulted in a victory for the Freedom Party (PVV) of opposition leader Geert Wilders. On June 9th the Dutch will again be called to the voting booths for the general elections. Yesterday’s outcome reinforces the PVV’s momentum, which may result in a political landslide next June with repercussions all over Europe.
In yesterday’s local elections – the first ever in which Wilders’ party, established as recently as 2007, participated – the PVV became the biggest party in Almere and the second party in The Hague, two of the country’s major cities. The PVV won 21.6% of the votes in Almere and 16.9% in The Hague. The parties of the left had mobilized Muslim immigrants to come out and vote against Wilders. Many of them did so.
[…]
A poll taken yesterday by Dutch state television NOS predicts that Wilders will gain 24 of the 150 parliamentary seats next June. This would make the PVV the third biggest party in the country, after the Christian-Democrats (CDA) of the current Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende, and Labour. There are, however, other polls, such as the De Hond poll, which many consider to be the Netherlands’ most respected, which predicted yesterday that the PVV is to become the biggest party with 27 seats.

Rob Breakenridge; (link fixed, sorry!)

Last year an Alberta judge overturned Boissoin’s conviction and had some harsh words for the way the case was handled, especially how the human rights panel incorrectly interpreted Alberta’s human rights legislation.
Last week, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal did much the same thing in overturning Whatcott’s conviction. The ruling states the tribunal “failed to apply” some key principles of the law, and warned of the “danger that censorship can occur.”
The ruling even found there was no “attempt to balance the protection for freedom of expression”.

Via

The Australian;

In a trial that began last month, Wilders is being prosecuted for offending a “group of people”, for incitement and discrimination against Muslims. The summons describes scenes from his film Fitna as reason enough to put the leader of the Freedom Party in prison for up to two years.
In a sign of how twisted our Western antennae have become, the violence incited by Fitna is not against Muslims. Instead the film shows footage of Muslims preaching violence against the West. Yet Wilders is on trial for his opinions.
That said, Wilders does have harsh things to say about Islam. He likens the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and wants it banned. No doubt this is hurtful to Muslims. No doubt this offends them. It may even be hateful. But in June 2009 Dutch prosecutors declined to act against Wilders because “freedom of expression fulfils an essential role in public debate in a democratic society. That means offensive comments can be made in a political debate.”
Flexing its activist arm, the Dutch appeals court decided to prosecute Wilders anyway. Make no mistake. This is a political trial.
Wilders’s Freedom Party is presently the most popular political party in The Netherlands. In last year’s elections for the European Parliament, it won 17 per cent of the vote, second only to the ruling Christian Democrats on 19.9 per cent.
Wilders, who has made no secret of his views about Islam, could well be the next prime minister if that popularity is maintained. In other words, the Dutch seem interested in having a debate about what Wilders has to say about Islam.

Elections are June 9th.

“Let My People Go!”

“Who is the most important European alive today?”

Canadian Taxpayers Federation;

The Canadian “Human Rights” Commission (CHRC) has “placed itself in a position of deemed refusal” according to the Information Commissioner of Canada in response to complaints filed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF). After months of wrangling with the federal government’s chief censorship body, the CTF was able to obtain records from the CHRC revealing that Chief Commissar Jennifer Lynch spent much more on flights and hospitality than she revealed online, and that what she disclosed was at times nearly half of the actual cost.
The CTF filed three separate Access to Information Requests in August of 2009 to obtain details on Lynch’s expenses. The CHRC refused to provide information within the legally allotted time frame as it would “unreasonably interfere with the operations of the [Commission],” but finally bowed to pressure and released the documents more than a month late.

h/t BCF, who has this highly related item.

“It is irrelevant whether Wilder’s witnesses might prove Wilders’ observations to be correct”, the ‘Openbaar Ministerie’ stated, “what’s relevant is that his observations are illegal”.

Read the whole thing.
(Previous).
Related: “JDL Solidarity Rally for Dutch Freedom Fighter Geert Wilders”, Wednesday, January 20 at the Toronto Zionist Centre. Details here.

TOLERism: The Ideology Revealed – by Canadian author Howard Rotberg. “How did we get into this mess that so many people think that Tolerance is a more important value than Justice?”