Free speech on the march

I've never been busier in my "real life", so please forgive me for not blogging as much as I'd like to.

Ann Coulter's tour was a huge success. For a day or so, whatever media discussion there was centred on Coulter's own views. But the moment that Francois Houle, the vice-president of the University of Ottawa, sent Coulter a threatening letter, the story changed. It wasn't about Coulter and her views anymore -- it was about Canada, and whether we were a free enough country to let her express her views. The University of Western Ontario and University of Calgary passed that test; Houle and his street thugs failed it. But the result was the most intense week of free speech discussions in Canada since the Western Standard published the Danish cartoons.

If you thought nothing could top last week in terms of free speech news, then you simply don't know Canada's human rights commissions well enough. There is nothing too bizarre, too fascistic, too embarrassing for them. And thus this week the trial of Guy Earle, comedian, began in Vancouver. You can read my original discussion of Earle's crime here -- the crime of heckling back at a heckler.

Seriously: now we have the government giving us judicial rulings on the funny-ness of jokes.

And then today, the Canadian Senate took up the cause of free speech in the form of a Senate Inquiry. I understand that at least four senators spoke to the subject today; as soon as their speeches are up on the Hansard, I'll link to them. (Blazing Catfur has the text of Senator Doug Finley's opening remarks here, Senator Mike Duffy's remarks here and Sen. David Tkachuk's here. I think the only one I'm missing is Sen. Pamela Wallin.)

Here's David Akin's great report on the debate.

I think Akin is right to point out the political pedigree of the speakers, especially Sen. Finley's role as Harper's two-time successful campaign chairman, and Sen. Duffy, who has clearly been a Harper favourite in terms of political work on the hustings. For those and other senior senators to speak so forcefully on this issue is very encouraging, in terms of reflecting the will of the government, and perhaps a renewed interest in tackling the issue.