Oh no! Keith don't go!
Liberal MP Keith Martin, the biggest defender of freedom of speech in Canada's Parliament is planning to fight his last election. That means that after the next Parliament, Keith won't be around to fight for human rights.
The National Post has a great profile of Keith Martin today. It's entitled Sick and Tired of Ottawa.
Don't forget that he has been leading the fight in Ottawa to get the egregious Subsection 13 (1) removed from the Canadian Human Rights Act through his private member's motion M-446.
But it looks like Conservative MP Jason Kenney, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, is stepping up to the plate [it does not seem to be uploaded yet] in the lion's den yesterday. The National Post covered the event here. I think it's good that Jason didn't experience what Monte Solberg did when, as Immigration Minister, he went into a lion's den of people opposed to Conservative immigration policies and, for his trouble, got swarmed by thuggish protesters who then roughed up his chief of staff.
I am eager to see Ezra Levant's report on the speech, since he was at the head table.
I have promised myself to get some housekeeping done today, so blogging will be light.
But I wanted to mention a couple of more things from yesterday's World Press Freedom Day luncheon. One of the attacks on freedom of speech in Canada that was also mentioned from the podium was the violent physical attack on a journalist in Mississauga for the way he covered Islam.
In 2007, of the 102 journalists killed in 2007, 44 died in Iraq. The next greatest number were killed in Afghanistan. Er, you know it wasn't the Americans killing them. Or members of the elected Iraqi or Afghan governments.
Ergo, it would seem that the greatest, looming threat to press freedom---the kind of threat that involves death and violence---is coming from Islamism, that pernicious political ideology that combines the worst features of modern totalitarianism--fascism and communism, with a theocratic, pre-modern version of Islam. But at home in Canada, the threat to press freedom comes from government agencies, our own sense of fairness and confusion over human rights, and illiberal groups who use our weaknesses to further the silencing of those who dare to report on them or criticize them. In a bizarre inversion, the rights of enemy ideologies and those who purvey them seem to trump those of our own journalists and citizens.
I also want to write more about the keynote address from CBC China correspondent Patrick Brown. Just a few thoughts before I go clean the birdcage, scrub some toilets and dust the livingroom:
Patrick Brown spoke about the role the Internet plays in the uncovering of news, including a horrific story about how young men were being kidnapped at a train station and put into forced labor at a brick kiln, under conditions rivaling the worst concentration camps. The news of this came out when parents started frequenting chat rooms, looking for information about their missing sons. A symbiotic relationship has grown up between Internet citizen journalists and professional journalists who sometimes feed stuff to the Internet to they can then report on things that are being said on the Internet. But, in China there is the great firewall of China, brought to us by our "Do no evil" friends over at Google etc.. Also ISPs are responsible for the content. Brown said China has at least 10,000 Internet police who go around looking of for stuff to block. ISP providers, since they are liable, also go onto sites and bulletin boards and remove content. "Brick kiln" is now a blocked search word in China.
I dunno, but Brown's speech and the looming shadow of the 800 pound Islamist gorilla that was mentioned several times yesterday, had a weird synchronicity to it because of parallels between China's thought policing and what is happening or on the verge of happening here in Canada. I thought of the intrepid Jadewarr and Lucy and all the secret identities of Canada's own thought police. Of the lawsuits that are aimed at making service providers and search engines responsible for content. Of efforts to tame the Internet in ways that remind me of China's.
But on a hopeful note, Brown said that the blocking capacity of the Chinese firewall is not that great. People have found ways to get around it. And the blockers cannot anticipate the future. Who would have thunk that "brick kiln" would become a forbidden word.
Maybe we Canadians will have to start looking at our SPAM folders for clues on how to get around our Canadian thought police. You know, the wonky misspellings of certain organs that some people seem to think need enlarging, etc. Hiumin Ritez anyone? Phree Speechez?
The National Post has a great profile of Keith Martin today. It's entitled Sick and Tired of Ottawa.
Don't forget that he has been leading the fight in Ottawa to get the egregious Subsection 13 (1) removed from the Canadian Human Rights Act through his private member's motion M-446.
But it looks like Conservative MP Jason Kenney, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, is stepping up to the plate [it does not seem to be uploaded yet] in the lion's den yesterday. The National Post covered the event here. I think it's good that Jason didn't experience what Monte Solberg did when, as Immigration Minister, he went into a lion's den of people opposed to Conservative immigration policies and, for his trouble, got swarmed by thuggish protesters who then roughed up his chief of staff.
I am eager to see Ezra Levant's report on the speech, since he was at the head table.
I have promised myself to get some housekeeping done today, so blogging will be light.
But I wanted to mention a couple of more things from yesterday's World Press Freedom Day luncheon. One of the attacks on freedom of speech in Canada that was also mentioned from the podium was the violent physical attack on a journalist in Mississauga for the way he covered Islam.
In 2007, of the 102 journalists killed in 2007, 44 died in Iraq. The next greatest number were killed in Afghanistan. Er, you know it wasn't the Americans killing them. Or members of the elected Iraqi or Afghan governments.
Ergo, it would seem that the greatest, looming threat to press freedom---the kind of threat that involves death and violence---is coming from Islamism, that pernicious political ideology that combines the worst features of modern totalitarianism--fascism and communism, with a theocratic, pre-modern version of Islam. But at home in Canada, the threat to press freedom comes from government agencies, our own sense of fairness and confusion over human rights, and illiberal groups who use our weaknesses to further the silencing of those who dare to report on them or criticize them. In a bizarre inversion, the rights of enemy ideologies and those who purvey them seem to trump those of our own journalists and citizens.
I also want to write more about the keynote address from CBC China correspondent Patrick Brown. Just a few thoughts before I go clean the birdcage, scrub some toilets and dust the livingroom:
Patrick Brown spoke about the role the Internet plays in the uncovering of news, including a horrific story about how young men were being kidnapped at a train station and put into forced labor at a brick kiln, under conditions rivaling the worst concentration camps. The news of this came out when parents started frequenting chat rooms, looking for information about their missing sons. A symbiotic relationship has grown up between Internet citizen journalists and professional journalists who sometimes feed stuff to the Internet to they can then report on things that are being said on the Internet. But, in China there is the great firewall of China, brought to us by our "Do no evil" friends over at Google etc.. Also ISPs are responsible for the content. Brown said China has at least 10,000 Internet police who go around looking of for stuff to block. ISP providers, since they are liable, also go onto sites and bulletin boards and remove content. "Brick kiln" is now a blocked search word in China.
I dunno, but Brown's speech and the looming shadow of the 800 pound Islamist gorilla that was mentioned several times yesterday, had a weird synchronicity to it because of parallels between China's thought policing and what is happening or on the verge of happening here in Canada. I thought of the intrepid Jadewarr and Lucy and all the secret identities of Canada's own thought police. Of the lawsuits that are aimed at making service providers and search engines responsible for content. Of efforts to tame the Internet in ways that remind me of China's.
But on a hopeful note, Brown said that the blocking capacity of the Chinese firewall is not that great. People have found ways to get around it. And the blockers cannot anticipate the future. Who would have thunk that "brick kiln" would become a forbidden word.
Maybe we Canadians will have to start looking at our SPAM folders for clues on how to get around our Canadian thought police. You know, the wonky misspellings of certain organs that some people seem to think need enlarging, etc. Hiumin Ritez anyone? Phree Speechez?
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