From Other Sites on the Line: 11 Apr 08

Canadian Bloggers Vs. Richard Warman, or Freedom Vs. Thuggish Brownshirt

Written by: Evrviglnt on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Cross posted from Political Vindication:
http://politicalvindication.com/?p=1938

Many of us have witnessed the left lose its composure over what it describes as a ‘corrupt administration shredding our civil rights.’ This derangement syndrome quickly devolved from comical to poisonous. The responsible citizen should naturally be sensitive about government encroachments that endanger fundamental freedoms, especially during times of war, like now. Apathy and ideology are the natural blinders that aid rapacious politicians and bureaucrats who prey on our freedoms, making every lucid voter precious. But just as dangerous as apathy is the habit of the hysterical or opportunistic to cry wolf, such as claiming that our government is checking our library cards or listening in on our phone calls. This often results in a populace inured to those real threats to our freedoms that move silently under the cover of shrill nonsense from black clad know-nothings who see danger in every attempt by our government to protect us from enemies within and without. They never seem to appreciate the irony that to see conspiracy in both the failure and the success of our government to protect us robs them of the credibility they crave.

There is a case of a real threat to fundamental freedoms happening today, and strangely there is no outcry from the left to be heard. Canadian blogger RightGirl posts today about conservative Canadian bloggers being sued into silence by a crusading activist and his attendant army of government bureaucrats. The sordid history of attorney Richard Warman began benignly enough, but has blossomed from a hunt for Nazi hatred to a business plan prostituting petty grievance. He is suing five bloggers who he insists have libeled him for his incestuous relationship with the Orwellian ‘Canadian Human Rights Commission’, a government outfit he once worked for and that now serves as his personal piggy bank. The CHRC is no longer the unseen sugardaddy it once was, earning deserved notoriety for its attack on Ezra Levant and then Macleans Magazine (for printing a snippet of Mark Steyn’s book ‘America Alone’). The suit against Macleans was thrown out, but the British Columbia Human Rights Commission is still mulling its opportunity for a mugging. Such is the way of things in Canada today. It’s easy to despise the small mindedness of Richard Warman, or the totalitarian instincts of these Canadian human rights commissions, but the fault lies with a Canadian populace and political class that allow frivolous charges to swell into dark threats to the fundamental freedoms outlined in their own Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

2. Everyone has the following 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.

This assault on freedom of opinion in Canada is cloaked in a call for decency and tolerance, and the statement released by the CRHC concerning the dismissal of the suit against Macleans talks magnanimously of such things. But no liberties are safe if simplistic obfuscations can bring a free people to their knees. The ability of citizens to speak freely is more than the “foundation” of a democratic nation, it is the purpose for which the “foundation” is even conceived. If the priority of a nation is security, then a Spartan military system would suffice. If it is religion, then a strict theocracy rules. But a democracy only fulfills its definition by practicing what it promises. What we see happening here in Canada is a challenge to the relationship between the citizens and their government. In a democracy, the people rule and freedom flourishes because the people understand that with such responsibility comes dignity. But in a democracy where the government controls its people and doles out freedoms piecemeal as if such adult liberties must be rationed, then the relationship is one of the parent to the child. In the long, dark hallway of human history tyranny has relegated freedom and the dignity it accords to fleeting glimpses. No one who stands in freedom can afford to allow Canada to kneel now.

The five blogs challenged by Richard Warman and his cabal deserve our support and our money. Visit these blogs, write about them, and even if you can only send them ten dollars to help with court costs, you will be able to say you did more than wax eloquent. Freedom needs defenders.

Kate McMillan - Small Dead Animals

Kathy Shaidle - Five Feet 0f Fury

Ezra Levant - Ezralevant.com

Mark and Connie Fornier - FreeDominion.com.pa

Jonathan Kay - National Post blog

EXTRA!: Kathy Shaidle will be appearing on Political Vindication Radio on April 22 - call in and give her your support!

Note from Radarsite: For more on the infamous Richard Warman see here:
http://www.richardwarman.com/