Apropos my impending show trial before various “human rights commissions” up north, The New York Post, “America’s newspaper of record” (Derb), weighs in on “Canada’s thought police“:
This whole process of dragging Steyn and the magazine before two separate human-rights bodies for the “crime” of expressing an opinion is a good illustration of precisely what he was talking about.
By comparison with the Post, Canada’s editorial boards have been very silent (except for the lads at the St John’s Telegram in Newfoundland). On the other hand, fellow columnists have had their say. In The Ottawa Citizen, David Warren channels Pastor Niemoller:
First they came for the redneck trolls, and I did not speak out because I was not a redneck troll. Then they came for the male chauvinist pigs, and I did not speak out because I was not a male chauvinist pig. Then they came for Mark Steyn, and I did not speak out because I was not Mark Steyn…
My oh my, a fellow could get used to the electric frisson of victimhood: I’m beginning to see why American college students get such a kick out of staging fake hate-crimes against themselves.
Incidentally, since this business came up, I’ve contrasted Canada’s increasingly heavy-handed regulation of speech with America’s First Amendment. However, the torment of Geno’s by the Philadelphia “Human Relations Commission” suggests the Liberty Bell is tolling a very Canadian tune.