Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Blog Post They Are So Proud Of

Andrew Coyne's coverage of Macleans appearance before the BHRC, for the first day and a half astoundingly non-newsy, takes off a bit in yesterday's afternoon coverage, in which he chronicles the cross-examination of complainant Kurrum Awan by Macleans' lawyer Julian Porter. Porter seems to poke several significant holes in Awan's account of his attempted negotiations with Macleans.

In fact, the magazine looks to be halfway in the clear, which means, oddly enough, that they lose--Coyne has admitted that he would rather see this thing appealed to the Supreme Court.

But what I am interested in at the moment is this brief passage from yesterday's morning session:

11:45 AM The hearing now turns to readings from various blogs I’ve never heard of: The Brussels Journal, some Catholic blog and… oh, the late Western Standard! Not obscure, just obsolete! (The mag, I mean — the website is still in business.) The Western Standard reference: a blog post by Ezra Levant, the defunct magazine’s former publisher, dated Dec. 2 2007. This is slightly surreal: he’s sitting in front of me as I write this, laptop in hand, writing about being spoken about with reference to something he’d written about … this case. This is getting so meta I’m losing track…"

Both Ezra and the Western Standard were thrilled to get a mention at the hearing. This is bizarre, and perhaps a little history lesson will explain why.

The blog post in question is entitled Elmasry vs. Steyn, and was composed by Ezra Levant on December 2, 2007. It was in fact the last blog post Ezra wrote for the Standard before he fled the flaming wreckage of its paper incarnation. By December 5 it had attracted a comment advocating Muslim genocide:

There is no such thing as innocent Muslims. They must all be killed. All of them.

This comment was left to fester for about two weeks, until Levant adversary Syed Soharwardy discovered it. He threatened a complaint to the AHRCC, and to organize a protest against the magazine outside of Calgary city-hall. He also called in the police. As a result, the Standard's new editor, Matthew Johnston, issued an apology, and has since been making an effort to weed out the crazies that occasionally still post to the WS Shotgun Blog. Mr. Soharwardy withdrew his threatened complaint, and the comment author was traced to Ontario, presumably with the assistance of the WS technical staff.

In any case, hardly the kind of thing to be proud of.

17 comments:

Johnathon said...

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CRISTIANS, AND THEY MUST BE ALL BE KILLED."

So the terrorists can have free speech, but us Canadians CANNOT.

Grow up.

Jerome Bastien said...

Hey BCL:

Do you realize that by the sock puppet's logic, that of attributing quotations to the person quoting, not the original author, you have just advocated that all muslims should be killed.

What? You didnt say that - no shit - neither did Steyn say that muslims were breeding like mosquitoes, or that they would take over Europe - those were quotations. Doesnt matter. Welcome to the world of HRCs, where logic, facts, and truth are considered arcane concepts.

You were so happy that these fascists distorted Steyn's words to take him to court, because as it happens, you hate Steyn. But what would you think of someone who knowingly distorted what you said to haul you, at no costs, to a HRC, so you got to defend yourself to the tunes of 10s of thousands of dollars, if not 100s, for quoting someone.

So, do you have the least bit of integrity, and can you admit this whole thing to be a sham and a travesty of justice? or do you reserve our fundamental freedoms only for those of the correct political persuasion?

bigcitylib said...

The quote thing is a red herring.
See here:
http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2008/02/actually-mark-steyn-did-argue-that.html#links

Jerome Bastien said...

red herring?

not really. do you share your talking points with faisal joseph, who I understand in his opening statement said that "free speech" is a red herring.

i think the coalition of leftists/fascist/islamists has the term "red herring" confused. It does not mean, as you and FJ suggest, that its "something I dont want to talk about cause it makes me look stupid".

bigcitylib said...

Did you read the link or no? In many cases, we quote somebody to help make our argument for us. That is the standard use of the mechanism. Its obvious that Steyn quotes the crazy Imam cuz the crazy Imam is reinforcing Steyn's point.

Jerome Bastien said...

Did you read the link or no?

no, well maybe I did back when you posted it, but I've suffered enough distress today, with Ti-Guy's thought crime and all. so, please spare me from reading another one of your contrived arguments in favor of fascism.

That is the standard use of the mechanism.

oh, is that how you were quoting the guy too, to reinforce your point that you want all muslims killed?

no, neither was Steyn. Did I read your post? who gives a fuck? A more relevant question is whether you read Steyn's The Future Belongs to Islam. Here's a clue, hes not quoting these people because he's in agreement with them, he's quoting them to show, look this is what they say, this is how they think. Much like, correct me if im wrong, you were doing for that WS post.

BTW, I see you deleted a post in the thread Re: christian right. Just tell me this, was it your post or Ti-Guy's that you deleted.

Johnathon said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Johnathon said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
bigcitylib said...

Jermo,

The guy in question is a nutty Norwegian Imam that the Norwegians have been trying to deport. He is apparently the only one Steyn could find in support of his argument that Muslims were outbreeding whites.

By the way, Jonathon insists he's on your side.

bigcitylib said...

Comments closed until Jonathon hoses himself down. Must be a way to ban IPs with blogger.

Ti-Guy said...

By the way, Jonathon insists he's on your side.

And Jermo doesn't have a problem with that.

They're all white supremacists; I don't know who they think they're fooling. The little fascists commenting at Macleans had indicated homepages to various hate sites.

No more talk. Call them all nazis and call it day.

Unknown said...

Of note, none of this has anything to do with Macleans and the BCHRC.

Jerome Bastien said...

And Jermo doesn't have a problem with that.

shut the fuck up retard dont put words in my mouth.

jonathon, aka the right's Ti-Guy, is a stupid fuck and he doesnt speak for me or anything. consider him thrown under the bus. hey, its not like I attended jonathon's church for 20 years or got him to baptize my kids or something.

anyways BCL, there is no difference between Mark Steyn quoting an obscure nutty imam or Faisal Joseph quoting an obscure nutty and anonymous blog poster. in fact, if there is a difference the nutty imam is likely much more prominent and much more influential, then this retarded poster.

you make a distinction without a difference. your only motivation for supporting steyn being prosecuted by the thought police is because you hate steyn. so, if you're okay with a guy being prosecuted for speech just because you hate the guy, at least live up to your convictions and take out the "Liberal" out of your name.

as a suggestion, you might want to use BigCityProgressive, because the progressives being the forefathers of fascism and nazism, have always been a-okay with speech and thought control, and your lefty friends wont understand the distinction.

Ti-Guy said...

Heh. He's shrieking up a storm.

Look, go see your priest. Just don't wear anything too provocative.

Ti-Guy said...

Police in Bastion o' Freedom shut down performance art.

Mark Steyn and speechies having conniptions.

...developing.

Unknown said...

= Police in Bastion o' Freedom shut down performance art. =

It's like Bill C-10 in action! Great stuff! No more offensive artists!

"...developing."

What? A coherent thought??

BCL and ti-guy, why no comments directly related to the BCHRC charade?

Things should start picking up at the hearing once the BCHRC finishes making up its rules.

Unknown said...

I don't understand how they can feel proud of themselves because of that. It is terrible. However, I am proud of buying Generic Viagra