Ezra Levant gets his day in what he calls a "kangaroo court"

Ezra Levant, the erstwhile editor of the Western Standard magazine, finally got his day in court with the Alberta Human Rights Commission on Friday and he's making the most of it. The old saying is that the best defence is a good offence, and Levant certainly sets out to be offensive.

As readers may recall, two complaints were made to the commission (see some earlier posts here and here and here.) when the magazine published the so-called "Danish cartoons" that lampooned Muslims.

It has taken more than 18 months to come to a hearing and although in the interim, the Western Standard has ceased to publish in print, Levant had made no secret about relishing the opportunity to fight the government's right to question him. And relish it he did.

You can come to your own conclusions about the hearing and Levant's chosen method of dealing with it because he and his lawyer videotaped the session and, despite being asked not to, made the tape public; Levant is in the process of posting 5 - 10 minute excerpts on You Tube (one segment is above) and has posted them, along with re-posting of the cartoons that started it all, on his personal website.

Levant makes a long opening statement, which his website publishes in full, saying he doesn't recognize Alberta's, or anyone's, right to call him to account for exercising his right of free speech. He concludes his opening statement in this rather grandiloquent way:

I have no faith in this farcical commission. But I do have faith in the justice and good sense of my fellow Albertans and Canadians. I believe that the better they understand this case, the more shocked they will be. I am here under your compulsion to answer the commission’s questions. But it is not I who am on trial: it is the freedom of all Canadians.You may start your interrogation.