Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Free speech shakedown: Canada, 1984, and the future

George Orwell's writings appear more prescient as the years past. His 1984, for years downplayed as a minor classic, may be just that. But his vision of a dystopia in which thoughts and intentions were ferreted out by government bureaucrats is coming true in many areas.

This article is an example of such an event, this time north of us in Canada. Americans should beware of smugly dismissing these happenings. We are facing similar bureaucratic insanity in our own borders.

"On Jan. 11, 2008, I was summoned to a 90-minute government interrogation. My crime? As the publisher of Western Standard magazine, I had reprinted Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad to illustrate a news story. I was charged with the offence of "discrimination" and made to appear before Alberta's Human Rights and Citizenship Commission (AHRCC) for questioning. As crazy as it sounds, I became the only person in the world to face legal sanction for printing those cartoons."

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