It is a bit of Kafkaesque beauty.

Well if I ever want to make a mountain from a molehill, or stretch 15 minutes into 15 hours, I’ll know who to call…

I’m generally sympathetic to his cause. I think the original complaint was frivolous and I have some reservations about the utility HRCs.

Even starting more or less on his side I think the way he has handled himself is disgraceful. I watched with mild embarassment for him as he tried desperately to make his interview into and inquisition. I know he was trying to make the biggest deal he could out of it but still …

His repsonse to the Calgary Herald editorial, in which Syed Soharwardy announced he was dropping the complaint and where he made an honest admision that the complaint was a mistake, was graceless and vindictive.

This too seems graceless and vindictive.

I guess someone was impressed with his performance, he’s been showing up lately on the political talks shows as a Conservative strategist. Nauseating.

>a lower level bureaucrat who was trying to do her job.

Duty is still one of the last respites of people doing what they know to be wrong.

I feel bad for Ms. McGovern, but I believe she’s gotten what she deserves. I believe she’s on the wrong side of the issue, and even though I assume she never thought about the issue, that hasn’t ever been an excuse for a government bureaucrat except in…

And if the HRCs survive, why shouldn’t Americans living in Canada (a minority) use them to complain that this site might cause hate against Americans?

I don’t care since there’s no evidence Americans in Canada are targets of violence or denied the ability to debate Americaphobes.

But I am curious why so many Canadians fear free debate.

“Ms. McGovern was doing a job that, in the view of Parliament, helps protect Human Rights. She was doing her job.”

I didn’t say Ms. McGovern wasn’t doing the job the government hired her to do. I said she (probably) didn’t think about her job, which liberal democracies stopped accepting as an excuse 60 years ago. Ms. McGovern could’ve worked for Canada Post.

“To do as Ezra has done and brag about humiliating her simply lowers my already minimal opinion of him still further.”

I didn’t know who Ezra (or any Canadian blogger) was prior to his posting the interview videos.

But the consensus is that Ezra has the right opinion, based on your site (http://www.stageleft.info/2008/01/16/the-right-not-to-be-offended/), most of the Canadian media, and the very few opposing viewpoints. (I don’t care that opposing viewpoints are few, I care that a visionary hasn’t spoken one. Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

I’ve always believed in shoot the message or save the bullet.

[My comment: And if the HRCs survive, why shouldn’t Americans living in Canada (a minority) use them to complain that this site might cause hate against Americans?] “They’re certainly welcome to – they have access to the same mechanism Ezra does.”

Ezra didn’t “access” the “mechanism”, he was its target. And I don’t think you would think kindly of an American minority in Canada using the HRCs to advance their agenda. I wouldn’t either.

[My comment: But I am curious why so many Canadians fear free debate.] “That’s an easy one. They don’t.”

My comment wasn’t well-thought-out, and I apologize for posting it. Canadians are debating, and many Americans are following the debate.

Thanks for the clarification, but I don’t feel that I “dodged the point”.

I feel that an individual has the ultimate responsibility for the consequences of their free will, including the shame that comes with doing something legal and “considered socially acceptable” that turns out to be not considered socially acceptable. Plenty of Americans, public servants and ordinary citizens, have fallen afoul of this peculiar American hypocrisy.

I’ll accept the argument that the above American hypocrisy isn’t a Canadian value and therefore not relevant, but if that’s not your argument, I don’t accept the argument that “Ms. McGovern is doing a job that Canada has created, approved, and continues to demand be done”.

After all, the debate is whether or not the HRCs have overstepped their mandate, which if they have means Ms. McGovern was serving her bureaucracy instead of her nation. And that I have no sympathy for.

Anyway, you’re right, it’s your debate, I’ll stay out of it, thanks for pointing out my misuse of the American language, and I’ll continue reading the blog.