Monday, January 28, 2008

Warren Kinsella & Richard Warman - rotten peas in a pod*

In recent days there’s been a blogospheric blizzard surrounding that illiberal Liberal hack and attack mutt Warren Kinsella and professional censor Richard Warman. Kinsella has been busy slagging Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn and at the same time boosting for his pal Richard Warman, lawyer, former HRC investigator and odious serial abuser of the odious HRCs’ odious censorship ‘system’.

A selective roundup:

Blazing Cat Fur: Steyn on Warman, Kate’s email, Oh Hell, it’s all here and here.
Five Feet of Fury: Warman, Kinsella,
Mike Brock: Freespeecher: The New Leftist Pejorative
Small Dead Animals: Freespeecher,
Western Standard: Kinsella is full of s*it
Mark Steyn: Warman vs David Icke, Kinsella’s fog, Warman and HRC "joke jurisprudence",
Ezra Levant: Ruthless bullies - blogger defense fund needed:

I don't think Kinsella is a thinker; he's a doer, or more accurately an undoer. And his goal here was to confuse and chill the growing media scrutiny of human rights commissions generally, and Warman in particular. In a series of over-the-top blog posts (here, here, here, etc.), he has threatened a number of Warman's critics with defamation lawsuits if they didn't stop. It was classic war room style: stampede your opponents with enough threats and half-truths to panic them into a hasty over-reaction.
[...]
Kinsella and Warman are lawyers by profession, but they try to avoid real lawsuits -- better to win by the mere threat of one. Compare their high school braggadocio towards little bloggers, with
this rather meek demand letter sent to the Post in response to a column I had written about him. It was properly ignored....
[...]
That reply is not just me being lippy; it's knowing the difference between empty, blustering, Kinsella-ish threats made as a political tactic, and a real legal problem.
If Kinsella, Warman and their ilk are the lead champions of the HRC censorship system, then that alone should be sufficient to completely discredit it. There’s little doubt their quasi-fascistic mentality is well represented within the HRC bureaucracy. After all Warman was once an HRC insider. That should scare the crap out of any reasonable person.

Update (01-31-08): Ezra on "Borin' Warren"

*Note: I had originally considered naming this post "Kinsella and Warman - assholes" but when I started this blog I vowed not to use profanity (I use it more than enough off the web) and I intend to keep that vow.

13 comments:

  1. free dominion, the site that started the latest warman controversy
    exploits freedom of speech. the true fascists are neo-nazis like mark lemire, paul fromm etc who are good pals of the fourniers.

    freedom of speech and hate speech aren't the same thing. you should know that. maybe you agree with the likes of fromm and lemire?

    ReplyDelete
  2. freedom of speech and hate speech are indeed two separate things. If you can't tell the difference then you need to grow up a little.

    The Fourniers, who operate FD, are good friends with the likes of Mark Lemire. Why are you attempting to defend those who defend neo-nazi's?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Who defines hate speech? Seems to me that uttering a threat is already illegal. Inciting hatred by encouraging others to commit violence against some identifiable group is illegal. But when challenged, surely the defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and can rely on the right of freedom of speech. The onus should be on the plaintiff to prove harm.

    I see a lot of offense taken by members of a religion whose brothers can be seen in public demonstrations carrying signs threatening infidels with beheading. How about a common standard?

    One more thing. In Canada there is no constitutional law about the separation of church and state, and in the US it has been convenient for some to misquote the constitutional amendment that uses that terminology. But for those on either side of the border who would argue against Christmas carols in schools and or prayer at public events, why should any level of government pay one red cent to aid an identifiable religious group claiming it has been offended? Can't have it both ways.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anon - even Neo-Nazi's deserve a fair hearing.

    I for one do not care to trust my freedom to unelected bureaucrats who operate above the law.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anon,

    I can’t claim to know much about the alleged neo-Nazis you named here or whether or not the Free Dominion owners are their “friends” or simply standing up for their free speech, which, as Blazing Cat Fur correctly observes, they are entitled to.

    If neo-Nazis or any other “hate” group strays across the line into true ‘criminal’ hate speech then, as Half-wise points out, there are laws that apply involving real courts, real evidence and real judges who issue judgements that can be appealed.

    In their own way Kinsella and Warman have more in common with the Nazis than they (and you) might realize. The issue is unaccountable HRC bureaucrats using arbitrary, extra (quasi?) judicial proceedings to punish speech they arbitrarily deem to be ‘unacceptable’. It’s a kangaroo court approach that Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin would have been (and were)very comfortable with. Neo-libs like Kinsella and Warman are endorsing and defending this 'quasi-fascism' (perhaps I should upgrade that to straight “fascism”).

    That the ridiculous complaints against Levant and Maclean's/Steyn are being seriously considered by the HRCs is clear evidence of the danger posed by HRCs and their kangaroo courts.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hilarious. All they can come up with are anonymous drive-by smears.

    It really drives them crazy that we have an established reputation so their guilt-by-association tactics don't work.

    Sorry, Anon, but we are going to continue sharing information with other people who have been targeted by Warman and the CHRC...and we are going to expose every bit of dirt we can find.

    The 90sAREOver, welcome to the age ove the new media.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I believe it to be the same Anon who has visited me of late. Hope he comes back, its good medicine for him.

    ReplyDelete
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