Here in Maryland, the political spectrum is well-represented by bloggers of all stripes, from those on the left who contribute to the Free State Politics website over to my cohorts and I who write for Red Maryland – not to mention the hundreds of independent websites that have popped up over the latter half of this decade.
But imagine if only the politically correct side was allowed to prosper, while the other side did its best but was threatened by legal and financial ruin at every turn. And we’re not talking about some freedom-starved nation like North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, China, or Cuba (to name a few) – we’re talking about our neighbor to the north, Canada.
Michelle Malkin has been following the battles up there and earlier this week she posted about conservative Canadian bloggers running into legal trouble in both civil and criminal court. One example was a blog called Free Dominion, whose writers opted to sell their site to a larger company rather than face continuing legal issues. This essay from a blogsite called No Apologies by one of Free Dominion‘s co-founders gives a rundown of what can happen if you run afoul of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Here’s a small excerpt:
The conservative internet, however, is under attack. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has already been used on many occasions to shut down websites and to place lifetime speech bans on webmasters who have been hauled before its tribunals. (Emphasis mine.)
The human rights commission attacks on Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn have made a lot of people aware of the danger of allowing these government bodies to regulate the speech of Canadians, and the internet has been abuzz with stories of bureaucratic abuse. The fight for free speech has begun.
(snip)
The fact that site owners are being sued over posts that have been made by their members is already making webmasters wonder if allowing free speech on their websites is worth the risk to their homes or their savings.
I know locally we already have a veteran of being sued for alleged defamation of character because of items on his blog, but that’s small potatoes compared to having yourself hauled before this commission and placed on notice that what you think and believe does not belong in society because someone who happens to not agree politically took offense to what you wrote. In short, Canada no longer has a free society and, like Orwell’s 1984, thoughtcrime is now a punishable offense.
I made the remark on Michelle Malkin’s site that this could be something Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would be interested in importing from Canada, despite their misgivings about NAFTA. While most would argue that a group like the CHRC would violate our First Amendment rights, I happen to believe that items like so-called “campaign finance reform” and “political correctness” have already diminished our First Amendment rights and can be construed as the canary in the coal mine, the overcoming stench wafting throughout our society. To me, it’s not that much of a leap to imagine the conservative side of the blogosphere targeted for financial and legal ruin by a group seeking to silence them. While most of these attempts would be thrown out in court, it only takes one judge to set a precedent.
The price for free speech is the exercise of vigilance.
