[T]he superficial fluffily benign language of multiculturalism that comes so naturally to our rulers provides a lot of cover for the shriveling of free speech...Steyn, like Kevin Michael Grace, thinks the biggest problem is voluntary self-censorship. Well, yes that is probably true in the case of the ultra-liberal elites that Steyn uses as his examples. But, I doubt that the majority of ordinary people really do self-censor, but are coerced into self-censorship instead.
As Canadians have discovered, liberty is lost very quietly and quickly. And trying to get it back is slow and painful — particularly at a time when artists, universities, publishers, and others who congratulate themselves incessantly on their truth-telling courage find increasingly pre-emptive self-censorship the better part of valor.
As I've said many times before, dismantling (or merely battling) the Human Rights Commissions is only the beginning. There is so much ingrained in society now that allows HRC-type events to occur. My favorite is the myriad of free legal aid services available for poor, minority complainants who can still go to a real court and sue those they deem racist or discriminatory. All kinds of similar subversive activities take place all the time.
So, Ezra Levant has to think about what his real battles are. It is well and good to eradicate kangaroo courts, but the problem lies much deeper than that.
The multiculturalism that Steyn writes about is being fueled by our high immigration rates, and that is part of where the problem lies. Certainly, homosexuals, feminists, the disabled and other "victimized" HRC complainants exist, but then, I attribute that to rampant liberalism, which is the same liberalism that allows multiculturalism to fester.
This is how Levant should be thinking, and not "optimistically" finish off his incomplete mission.