Terry Cowgill

Oh Canada, Free Mark Steyn!

March 7, 2008 on 11:11 pm | In Media |

I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time. And now that I’ve got a free moment …

You know, I get a kick when I hear my lefty friends lament our shortcomings in the U.S. We should be more enlightened and farsighted. We should be more like western Europe or Canada. Canada? I don’t think so.

I’m a graduate of a very fine little university in the province of Quebec. During my 4 1/2 years there, I found a lot to like about Canada . There are some of the smartest, kindest, warm-hearted people you will find anywhere. Both the provincial and federal governments have done a pretty good job of eradicating poverty. The education systems seemed to be in decent shape and so forth.

But I also found much not to like. Despite the collective power of their intellect, the Canadian people were remarkably inclined toward knuckleheaded public policies — especially on civil liberties.

When I arrived as a freshman in 1976, I headed straight to the university radio station (forget the library!), eager to make my presence felt and learn a thing or two about broadcasting. When I submitted a programming proposal and playlist to the station manager, he looked it over carefully and shook his head after about 30 seconds. I remember thinking, “Well, I guess he’s not an Allman Brothers fan.”

“You’re playlist is unacceptable,”

“I don’t understand.”

“There’s only one Canadian song.”

“Come again?”

“The CRTC stipulates that at least 25 percent of our content must be Canadian-based.”

“I never heard of such a thing.”

“Well, get used to it if you want to work here.”

Evidently, my inclusion of the Guess Who’s “Share the Land” was not enough to appease Canada’s culture police, who rival only the French in their excesses. So I threw in some Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and a song by two American bluesmen, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, that happened to be recorded at The Rising Sun, a legendary Montreal honky tonk. The next day I was given the keys to the studio.

What struck me even more than the absurdity of the Canadian content law was the breezy acceptance it engendered in most Canadians. “If we didn’t have that law, our culture would be swallowed up by yours,” they told me.

“What you’re really saying is that, left to your own devices, you would chose non-Canadian content,” I replied. “You want the government to save you from yourself.”

“Sometimes government needs to do that,” was typically the reply from defenders of the law.

I also recall being horrified that the Ontario Censor Board had banned The Tin Drum, a award-winning 1978 film adapted from the novel of the same name by Gunter Grass. “It was a bad film anyway” was the response my Canadian friends gave me.

I came to learn that, while Canada does have the kind of universal government-administered health care many here in the U.S. long for, it also has a far more intrusive government that, for example, has much broader authority to search and seize private property. Again, most Canadians I knew had no objections to granting such authority to the powers-that-be.

* * * * * * *

Now to the main subject of this post. There is an ongoing controversy in Canada regarding free speech. You see, most Canadian provinces have things called “human rights commissions” whose job it is to search the country for speech that it finds offensive and bring complaints against the offenders in an effort to shut them down.

Consider the case of Mark Steyn, a British-Canadian writer much liked by conservatives in the U.S and consequently loathed by lefties in Canada. Steyn and his employer, Maclean’s (the Canadian equivalent of Newsweek), are the subject of complaints by the Canadian, Ontario and British Columbia human rights commissions filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC).

The CIC claims that Steyn’s writings violate human rights statutes by subjecting Canadian Muslims to “hatred and contempt.” As Canada’s National Post points out, the B.C. law is particularly appalling in its scope:

Section 7 of B.C.’s human rights act makes it an offence for any person to publish “any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation” that so much as “indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate” against a protected group, or “is likely to expose a person or group or class of persons to hatred or contempt.” No actual discrimination or hatred has to occur for an offence to occur. And, as pointed out on these pages over the past few weeks, truth is not a defence.

To their credit, some Canadians have reacted in horror at these shocking laws, as well as at the persecution of another journalist, Ezra Levant. Yet still others continue to defend the indefensible. Imagine that law passing a First Amendment test in the SCOTUS. Take it away, Scalito.

So I’m afraid it’s not possible for us to be more like Canada, even if we wanted to. We have a streak of rebellion against authority. The U.S. right hates “big government,” while the left is wary of police and military powers, for example. The Canadians I knew were more likely to shrug at such abuses of power. It’s the culture, stupid.

I’ve listened several times to Steyn’s weekly appearances on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. He is curmugeonly and very amusing. Give him a listen on Hugh’s podcast page, if you dare. And click here for a handy list of links to other writings on his case.

Warning: If you’re a lefty, you might be offended by Steyn (pronounced “Stein”). But fortunately we don’t have human rights commissions in the land of guns, the flag and apple pie. God bless America!