{"id":892,"date":"2015-08-13T23:16:17","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T03:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=892"},"modified":"2015-08-13T23:16:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T03:16:17","slug":"alberta-law-society-charges-levant-for-misconduct-for-disrespecting-human-rights-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=892","title":{"rendered":"ALBERTA LAW SOCIETY CHARGES LEVANT FOR MISCONDUCT FOR DISRESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Post, georgia, serif;\">ALBERTA LAW SOCIETY CHARGES LEVANT FOR MISCONDUCT FOR DISRESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Post, georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Post, georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Post, georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Ezra Levant is a Zionist, a self-promoter and a bit of a loudmouth. However, going back to his college days at the University of Alberta when he came to the defence of Ron Gostick&#8217;s Canadian League of Rights when an unholy tag team of communist professor David Lethbridge and the head of the Alberta Human were trying to pressure hotels not to host the League;s annual meeting, Levant has been a consistent supporter of free speech.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">He was an outspoken opponent of the pernicious Sec. 13 (Internet censorship) of the Canadian Human Rights Act.. He used his bully pulpit on Sun News to skewer human rights commission censors and other menaces to free speech. More recently he has been a consistent defender of traditionalist Christian Trinity Western University against Christian hating law societies in Nova Scotia, Ontario and B.C. who have announced they will not recognize the credentials of graduates of TWU&#8217;s law school because students and faculty have to take a pledge to practise sobriety and to \u00a0refrain from sexual relations outside a heterosexual marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Sadly, as we have pointed out in increasingly politically correct and fanatically Canada. the price of dissent is unemployment and poverty. His enemies are now seeking To get Levant disciplined or disbarred for being rude to our new commisars, human rights commissioners.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Levant explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: xx-large;\">Paul Fromm<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: xx-large;\">Director<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: xx-large;\">CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Post, georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Post, georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Ezra Levant: \u2018Crazy\u2019 prosecutions<\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/author\/specialfp\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72846deff27920a214ddd712ba18c9dd?s=34&amp;d=mm\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>Republish Reprint<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/author\/specialfp\" target=\"_blank\">Ezra Levant, Special to Financial Post<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0July 23, 2015 3:42 PM ET<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/author\/specialfp\" target=\"_blank\">More from Special to Financial Post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2015\/07\/erza-levant.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"This October Ezra Levant will be prosecuted for being \u201cpublicly discourteous or disrespectful to a Commissioner or Tribunal Chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission.\u201d\" width=\"620\" height=\"495\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>Canadian PressThis October Ezra Levant will be prosecuted for being \u201cpublicly discourteous or disrespectful to a Commissioner or Tribunal Chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><em><strong>It would be unprecedented to prosecute a journalist for having the wrong opinions about a government agency<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here we go again.<\/p>\n<p>This October I will be prosecuted for one charge of being \u201cpublicly discourteous or disrespectful to a Commissioner or Tribunal Chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission\u201d and two charges that my \u201cpublic comments regarding the Alberta Human Rights Commission were inappropriate and unbecoming and that such conduct is deserving of sanction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because last year I wrote a newspaper editorial calling Alberta\u2019s human rights commission \u201ccrazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever heard of a journalist being prosecuted for being disrespectful towards a government agency? A journalist in Canada, that is \u2014 not in China or Russia.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been through something like this before. In February of 2006, I was the publisher of the Western Standard magazine. We ran a news story on the Danish cartoons of Mohammed and the deadly Muslim riots that followed. Being a news magazine, we included photos of the cartoons to show the central element of the story.<\/p>\n<p>Muslim activists filed \u201chate speech\u201d complaints against the magazine, and me personally, for reporting this legitimate news story. What followed was straight out of Kafka: a 900-day investigation by no fewer than 15 government bureaucrats and lawyers for the thought crime of publishing news \u201clikely to expose a person to hatred or contempt.\u201d Truth was not a defence; journalism was not a defence. The commission had invented a counterfeit human right not to be offended.<\/p>\n<p>I spent $100,000 on legal fees before the commission dropped the charges against me \u2014 because it was taking such a beating in the media. Even the provincial cabinet minister in charge of the commission at the time, the Hon. Lindsay Blackett, told reporters the commission had become a \u201ckangaroo court.\u201d I guess he\u2019s allowed to say that, but I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n<p>Over time human rights commissions have gotten much more scrutiny, and the federal human rights commission even had its censorship powers repealed by Parliament. But last year, Alberta\u2019s commission stumbled back in the news. A Czech immigrant had failed the provincial engineering exam three times, so he complained to the commission that the exam was \u201cdiscriminatory.\u201d In a shocking ruling, it agreed and ordered Alberta\u2019s engineering profession to lower its standards and pay the complainer $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>I have an opinion about that. I think it\u2019s: crazy. You may have the same opinion and, if you\u2019re not a lawyer, you\u2019re allowed to express it. I expressed it anyway. After all, I was a journalist and hadn\u2019t practiced law in many years. My job was to express my opinion. Sun News hired me, as a journalist, to do exactly that.<\/p>\n<p>This time the commission didn\u2019t come for me. But one of its prosecutors did. Arman Chak filed a complaint to the Law Society of Alberta about my column. Even though I haven\u2019t practiced law in years, I\u2019m still a lawyer. That was his angle.<\/p>\n<p>At first, the Law Society dismissed his complaint without even a hearing, as it does with other nuisance complaints filed against me over the years by my political opponents. It would be unprecedented to prosecute a journalist for having the wrong opinions about a government agency.<\/p>\n<p>Alberta benchers aren\u2019t always so fastidious about courtesy. Earlier this year Dennis Edney, Omar Khadr\u2019s lawyer, stood outside the Edmonton court house, blaming Khadr\u2019s legal situation on the legal system\u2019s anti-Muslim \u201cbigotry.\u201d But like Chak, Edney is a law society bencher himself. He is not being prosecuted. Nor should he be \u2014 we need passionate lawyers, zealously advocating for their clients, even if they\u2019re sometimes prickly.<\/p>\n<p>To my knowledge the decision to prosecute me is unprecedented. Unlike Edney and his court-house remarks, I\u2019m not even a practicing lawyer. I\u2019m a journalist who happens to be trained in the law. There are tens of thousands of inactive lawyers like me in Canada. They include politicians like Peter MacKay and Thomas Mulcair. Sometimes these politician-lawyers are polite. Sometimes they aren\u2019t. Two years ago, my fellow member of the Law Society of Alberta, an opposition politician named Rachel Notley, compared the Alberta Energy Regulator to a \u201cbanana republic.\u201d It\u2019s a quasi-judicial tribunal, like the human rights commission. But it\u2019s unthinkable that the Law Society would have prosecuted her for being \u201cdiscourteous\u201d to a government agency. Because we live in a democracy and value public debate.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I do too. And I\u2019m going to keep calling the human rights commission \u201ccrazy\u201d for the rest of my life. And the fact is that their old prosecutor is still trying to get me \u2014 that is a bit crazy, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>_____________________<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">Canadian Journalist Faces Jail Time<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">For Calling Government Agency &#8216;Crazy&#8217;<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\">by Sputnik News<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\">July 24, 2015<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sputniknews.com\/us\/20150724\/1024981139.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/sputniknews.com\/us\/<wbr \/>20150724\/1024981139.html<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">Canadian lawyer and media personality Ezra Levant, who was cited by the Law Society of Alberta for remarks he made about the province&#8217;s human rights commission, said his prosecution is &#8220;crazy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>In a March 2014 Toronto Sun\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontosun.com\/2014\/02\/28\/next-stop-crazy-town\" target=\"_blank\">opinion column<\/a>\u00a0titled &#8220;Next stop, crazy town,&#8221; Levant called out\u00a0the Alberta Human Rights Commission&#8217;s ruling that the province&#8217;s engineering exam &#8220;discriminated&#8221; against\u00a0an immigrant who failed the test three times. Levant also slammed the commission&#8217;s order to\u00a0Alberta&#8217;s engineers to\u00a0pay him $10,000 and lower their standards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But with\u00a0human rights commissions, when you think you&#8217;ve hit rock bottom, you haven&#8217;t,&#8221; Levant wrote. &#8220;The crazy keeps going down. You gotta get out\u00a0your shovel and dig to\u00a0get to\u00a0the crazy that&#8217;s underneath\u00a0the crazy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lawyer and then-Alberta Human Rights Commission member Arman Chak launched a complaint to\u00a0the Law Society that same month, saying Levant&#8217;s comments were &#8220;inappropriate and unbecoming&#8221; of\u00a0a lawyer, even though Levant had not practiced law in\u00a0years.<\/p>\n<div>The complaint was initially dismissed without\u00a0a hearing, with\u00a0the Law Society ruling that Levant was acting as\u00a0a journalist when he made the statements about\u00a0the Commission. But Chak appealed last fall, and the panel granted his appeal seven months later, paving the way for\u00a0a hearing on\u00a0the citations in\u00a0October.<\/div>\n<p>Interestingly, a month after\u00a0Chak appealed the Law Society&#8217;s ruling in\u00a0Levant&#8217;s favor, he was dismissed from\u00a0the Human Rights Commission. Chak has since\u00a0sued the Commission for\u00a0wrongful termination and defamation.<\/p>\n<p>In an opinion column published\u00a0Thursday\u00a0in\u00a0Canada&#8217;s Financial Times, Levant writes: &#8220;Have you ever heard of\u00a0a journalist being prosecuted for\u00a0being disrespectful towards\u00a0a government agency? A journalist in\u00a0Canada, that is \u2013 not in\u00a0China or Russia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To my knowledge the decision to\u00a0prosecute me is unprecedented,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;I&#8217;m not even a practicing lawyer. I&#8217;m a journalist who happens to\u00a0be trained in\u00a0the law. There are tens of\u00a0thousands of\u00a0inactive lawyers like\u00a0me in\u00a0Canada.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Levant said that he values public debate, and is &#8220;going to\u00a0keep calling the human rights commission &#8216;crazy&#8217; for\u00a0the rest of\u00a0my life. And the fact is that their old prosecutor is still trying to\u00a0get me \u2013 that is a bit crazy, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALBERTA LAW SOCIETY CHARGES LEVANT FOR MISCONDUCT FOR DISRESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ezra Levant is a Zionist, a self-promoter and a bit of a loudmouth. However, going back to his college days at the University of Alberta &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=892\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[391,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}