“The right not to be offended, that’s not a real human right.”
Maybe it was the adrenaline of being constantly on the move, or maybe it was the euphoria of completing his third book. Either way, Ezra Levant was passionate and enthusiastic when he sat down to talk.
“We don’t need this group of busybodies looking over our shoulders making sure we’re behaving,” Levant says of human rights commissions, the subject of his new book.
In Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights, Levant explores what he sees as the corruption of human rights commissions and reflects on his experiences.
In 2006, Levant reprinted the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in the conservative news magazine he published, the Western Standard.
Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, hired several cartoonists to draw a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, to demonstrate how they believed some groups of people were restricting freedom of the press. It sparked riots all over the world. Levant reprinted the cartoons alongside a news story about the controversy and a complaint was filed at the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
“I had no idea that I would be hit with a human rights complaint,” he says. “We thought we were being pretty responsible about things. It generated a lot of media attention because we were [one of] the only folks in Canada to publish those cartoons.”
After a 900-day ordeal, with 15 bureaucrats working on his case, Levant was finally acquitted of any charges.
“I just learned how unfair [human rights commissions] were, and I did research on other cases and I discovered that hundreds and hundreds, indeed thousands, had been dragged through this problem before me,” Levant says. “I’m just so mad about the unfairness of the system, about what I’ve learned, that I’m going to keep going with it.”
It’s not that he thinks that racism is gone, he says, but rather that human rights commissions have taken equality too far. While Canada prides itself on its accommodating multiculturalism, Levant says that some principles, such as democracy, non-violence and gender equality, are non-negotiable.
“Come from any place in the world, bring the best of your cultures, but there are some things around the world that are not as good as our Canada way. And that’s difficult for people to say.”
A devoted conservative, Levant may disagree with a lot of people, but he says he has really come to appreciate the importance of not censoring his opponents.
“Once the law says you can censor ideas that are offensive, well one day someone’s going to say your ideas are offensive.”
Levant says he hopes this year will see some concrete reforms to human rights commissions.
“I hope it will light a fire under them. I hope it will propel MPs and provincial politicians to do the right thing.”