interrogation,rights,danish,cartoon,canada,levant,islam What was your intent?

What was your intent?

posted by dbot2006

11 months 3 weeks ago • 1132 views

tags: interrogation, rights, danish, cartoon, canada, levant, islam

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“Boards of Canada - An Eagle in your Mind”

Ezra Levant is interrogated by a Canadian human rights officer after republishing the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

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written by dbot2006

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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great answer!

written by kulpims

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Upvote only cause of the behind-the-scenes view of how human rights investigations are conducted.

written by Maven

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Wow, what a bitch.

Edit: And indeed, a great answer.

written by JAPR

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Awesome post. Everyone, Canadians in particular need to watch it, and think long and hard about what it means to have these types of "investigations" going on in a supposed free country. Kudos to any publisher who printed those cartoons, and shame on anyone who refused to out of fear.

written by TheSofaKing

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Oh, this is sweet. And ought be sifted, top 10. A wonderful answer by an articulate and thoughtful man. Perhaps the state attorney was "phishing" for thought crimes or perhaps she is out of her league (simply asking rote questions without conceiving of their implications), but regardless, the simple and straightforward answer that he gave ("My intent was to exercise my freedom.") serves its purpose and need not be elaborated on. He's done so out of annoyance, frustration -- I can understand.

written by Trancecoach

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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I dunno, I think the way this guy is answering the question, he's taking it a bit far. He's saying, basically, in a free country he has the right to publish whatever he wants and offend whoever he wants, and that he should absolutely never be accountable for that. Well, no... There's such a thing as hate speech (and I'm not saying these cartoons fall under that). If he wanted to, say, publish that the holocaust never happened, or that black people were better off under slavery, he'd be treading into a gray area, even under free speech. He'd have to be accountable for that, and he'd have to have a fairly good reason to publish something like that. He couldn't just say "well, it's a free country, fuck you, I can say what I want."

written by Sarzy

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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A recent Salon article on Levant featured this video.

The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/13/hate_speech_laws/index.html

Ezra Levant is a right-wing Canadian neoconservative who publishes Western Standard, a typical warmongering, pro-Likud journal -- a poor man's Weekly Standard for Canadian neocons.

It's a very lucid look at the unintended consequences of enacting hate speech laws.

written by fissionchips

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Damn, I had something insightful to add, but then I read what f&c wrote above and have completely forgotten what I was going to say. Hmmmm....

written by djsunkid

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Ah yes, I remember now! I was going to compliment Mr Levant on an excellent rant! Bloggers take note!

written by djsunkid

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Sarzy

" If he wanted to, say, publish that the holocaust never happened, or that black people were better off under slavery, he'd be treading into a gray area..."

I completely disagree with you, and was going to ramble off a long winded post to argue my point. But why pass up an opportunity to plug one of my own sift's. Especially since he talks specifically about one of your examples.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Christopher-Hitchens-on-Freedom-of-Speech

He says it better then I could.

written by TheSofaKing

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Sarzy, you hit the nail on the head, you wrote exactly what I was thinking.

written by Maven

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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Hate crime laws have to go. The idea that you can be thrown in jail for vocalizing your beliefs is insane.

written by eric3579

| 11 months 3 weeks ago | CH

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I love when really articulate people get all fired up and let fly with a torrent like that. Good on you sir!

written by budzos

| 8 months ago | CH

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Sarzy, I don't think that's what he's saying at all. He published a cartoon that is open to whatever malicious interpretation the viewing public might bring to it. His objection is to being asked his intent. He's saying that the intent of a publisher is beside the point. I take the inference that what matters is content.

ie; if you publish a lovely story about Strawberry Shortcake and say your intent was to glorify Hitler and deny the holocaust, you have not committed a crime. If you publish a story about how great Hitler was and how the holocaust is a big lie, and then say your intent was to celebrate Strawberry Shortcake, then you may have uttered hate speech... you can take the intent out of those examples and still adequately and fairly judge the legality of the actions taken.

written by budzos

| 8 months ago | CH

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