Republishing the Danish Muhammad cartoons constitutes hate speech -- just ask Ezra Levant. So does publishing a scholarly book about the rising threat of Islamism -- just ask Mark Steyn. So does writing letters or giving sermons critical of homosexuality -- indeed you can be gagged on the subject for life if you do.
But apparently this does not constitute hate speech under the Canadian system.
A Toronto man who had posted messages on the Internet supporting terrorist attacks in Canada and the deportation of Jews will not face criminal charges, police said on Monday.The Ontario Provincial Police hate crimes and extremism unit had been investigating Salman Hossain - whose writings included a call to kill Western soldiers "so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters" - for willfully promoting hatred toward the Jewish community, but the case was recently closed.
"The OPP reviewed the case with Crown counsel. As a result of that review, it was determined that insufficient grounds existed to support willful promotion of hatred charges," said Detective-Sergeant Brent Young.
* * * Writing in online Internet forums, Mr. Hossain frequently singled out Jews, calling them derogatory names, claiming the Holocaust was "fictional" and once asking, "When do I get to shoot a few Jews down..."
In one posting, Mr. Hossain wrote, "Here's what I suggest we do ... just throw out the Jews (by religion or blood) out of the instruments of mainstream media, finance/banking, government/politics, and the intelligence/secret services."
"That's how the Muslims have done it in the past, especially when they were in power and glorious. Leave behind the token Jew here and there just to appear non-discriminatory.
"Then send the Jews packing on a different ship to their own territory or maybe the South Pole to live with the penguins. Do this before they claim we gonna do another ‘holocaust.' There's no Jew better than an exile Jew."
Apparently such Islamic anti-Semitism is perfectly acceptable in Canada. And while I personally believe that hate speech laws are anathema to the very concept of liberty, I do believe that they should be applied evenhandedly where they do exist. I guess that Ontario police don't hold to that philosophy.
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