Your Daily Ezra: Ezra Levant Gets Legal Ass Handed To Him

He's going to be paying Khurrum Awan $80,000 for "reckless disregard for the truth".  I've read the decision, and will excerpt a bit tomorrow, and try to post it if it isn't available elsewhere by that time,  but it isn't really that interesting if you have followed Levant's career.  He spread evil bullshit intent on destroying careers and lives and when brought before the legal system, got hosed.  Just like all the previous occasions.  And just like the next time, because it's hard to imagine the Warman v. Levant case being any less of a slam dunk. Ezra's dad will have to dig deep to pay all his kid's legal bills.

Update: Judgement is here.

How's Ezra's Defamation Trial Going?

Well, yesterday he brought forward a gentleman named Greg Felton to contest some of the statements made by complainant Khurrum Awan.  Former CJC head Bernie Farber is familiar with Greg:

Greg Felton, arguably one of Canada's more notoriuous antisemites will be testifying today on behalf of Ezra Levant http://t.co/oKqypKmMV0
— Bernie M. Farber (@BernieFarber) March 6, 2014

So how did his testimony go?  Christie Blatchford gives us a relatively g-rated account:

Felton, a blogger and freelance journalist, sounded for all the world like a 9/11 “truther.” For instance, he said he’s quite sure no planes ever flew into the World Trade Center and that the buildings’ collapse was due rather to the planting of mini hydrogen bombs in the towers, probably by, you guessed it, the Jews — and who also refers to Israel and the United States as “Isramerica” because in his view “Israel has so thoroughly bought off the Congress” the countries are essentially one.

[...]

Amusingly, Felton was also called by MacKinnon, because in all his prolific writing over the years, he allegedly may have accidentally written a purely factual paragraph, which is to say, one that may favour Levant in this trial.

[...]

In the piece, Felton quoted Awan saying that despite the fact that his side lost, “we attained our strategic objective — to increase the cost of publishing anti-Islamic material.”

However, during cross-examination by Awan’s lawyer, Brian Shiller, who read gleefully aloud from some of Felton’s other efforts, Felton’s views were sufficiently on the table that it’s dubious how much weight his evidence can be given by Ontario Superior Court Judge Wendy Matheson.

On the other hand, Ezra fan-boy Arnie Lemaire, best known for being once almost-famous far-right blogger Kathy Shaidle's husband, used  stronger language to describe the testimony:

Ezra's lawyer cross examined Felton and it went reasonably well, Felton seemed sane during the exercise as he explained the history of the article and his association with Awan. Despite having misplaced the notes he made for the piece he came across as a reasonable human being.

Then he was cross-examined by Awan's counsel and  Rocketship Batshit Crazy left the launch pad.

Shiller had a field day having Felton describe the locus of his work as a "journalist" starting with "Kennedy’s assassination is the coup d’état that dare not speak its name".

"JFK abhorred nuclear weapons, and wanted to rid the world of them. He was determined to conclude a peace treaty with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, with whom he had been keeping a secret correspondence, and to implement a unilateral test ban. Most significantly, JFK refused to sell Israel nuclear weapons and demanded that Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona be completely open for inspection. On July 5, 1963, Kennedy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (né Shkol’nik) to that effect.

The request was contemptuously ignored; four months later Kennedy was dead. Johnson proceeded to turn Kennedy’s rational policy on its head and put the U.S. on the long humiliating road to becoming Israel’s bitch."

So I think we can safely say that this bit didn't go very well.

Ezra's due up today to testify on his own behalf.  According to his latest fundraising email, he's going to talk about "freedom".  I've said this before, but its a fact that judges really, really don't like it when you use their courtroom to play to the press.

Update:  Mark Steyn thinks Ezra's doomed.

Ezra Manouvers

From Joe Brean's twitter feed, the rumours are confirmed:

O yea, O yea, O yea, court is in session. First up, motion to adjourn. At this rate, we'll hear opening statements next year.
— Joseph Brean (@JosephBrean) January 6, 2014

Ezra Levant has been trying to get a new lawyer since October. Christopher Ashby, his lawyer of record, is beside him. No explanation.
— Joseph Brean (@JosephBrean) January 6, 2014

Khurrum Awan opposes the adjournment. Judge says he has "significant justification" to throw away his costs.
— Joseph Brean (@JosephBrean) January 6, 2014

Brian Shiller says his client Mr. Awan "vigorously opposes" adjournment. "We were ready to go [last fall]," he said. Ready again now.
— Joseph Brean (@JosephBrean) January 6, 2014

Same nonsense Ezra tried in Vigna v. Levant.  Lets hope the judge doesn't allow it.

Update: Crap, he did!  But he seems to dinged The Ez for some dough:

Levant trial adjourned to March 3. Cost him a few bucks. Iain MacKinnon, known for media work in the Rob Ford follies, is his new counsel.
— Joseph Brean (@JosephBrean) January 6, 2014