Reposting the Boissoin Letter

Ezra has kicked off a campaign to repost Rev. Scott Boissoin’s nasty little anti-gay screed to take the mickey out of the Alberta Human Rights Commission and to protest the vastly over reaching nature of the “sentence” given to Rev. Boissoin.

I am not republishing the letter because I think its content is wrong in every particular and Boissoin, while sincere, is deranged on the whole homosexuality thing. I would no more publish it than the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or a Hamas press release.

That I will not publish this piece of religious mania does not mean that I think it is a hate crime or that I in anyway approve of the absurdity of the Alberta Human Rights Commission’s “sentence”.

The very point of a free press - and these little pixels, in my view count as such - is that the owner of the press is entitled to publish, or not publish, whatever the Hell he or she wants to for whatever reason.

Ezra says, “I don’t care if you’re Christian, or gay, or both. I don’t care if you agree with it or not. Just republish it. Do it because you’re not supposed to do it…..Do it to show that you’re alive. To feel alive. To show that democracy and freedom are still alive.” ezra levant

I am very much alive on a glorious spring day and I am not going to ruin that day by spilling any pixels republishing the ranting of a fundamentalist. And I feel fabulous exercising my right to run my press the way I want to.

Written by jay on June 13th, 2008 with 5 comments.
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5 comments

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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Intellectual Pariah
#1. June 13th, 2008, at 10:37 AM.

Well, I’m glad someone republished it. One of the problems with this kind of censorship is that public isn’t given a proper chance to judge the reasonableness of the decision. That would involve allowing the public to read the offending material, and the point of the exercise is to keep the public from being exposed that sort of thing. So there’s no real democratic oversight - that’s a big problem.

I agree that his letter is tad deranged and pretty far from my own views, but I’m mildly surprised they nailed him on the hate charge. His general comments on homosexuality - “I prayerfully beseech you to seek help, and I assure you that your present enslavement to homosexuality can be remedied” - are not the sort of thing that most gays want to hear, but hardly hate speech. Rather, his vitriol is directed towards gay activists and supporters (gay or straight) of what he calls the Gay Agenda. That’s criticism of a political movement, and I’d have thought even the HRCs could see the difference. (Well, Shirlene McGovern did, but she was overruled).

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jay
#2. June 13th, 2008, at 10:43 AM.

I agree IP. Just as with the Muslim cartoons, this letter is now news and it needs to be accessible. As it is and I have linked to it, I am now happy not to republish it.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Sean
#3. June 13th, 2008, at 11:44 AM.

Wuss.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Dr.Dawg
#4. June 13th, 2008, at 3:22 PM.

Not the kiss of death, I hope, Jay, but your sense of principle on this is impressive. Purposely wounding people is the sort of stuff that Ezra does. Good for you and your civility.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com dcardno
#5. June 14th, 2008, at 8:38 AM.

I agree, Jay. While IP has a point, public evaluation of the decision (assuming we are satisfied with HRCs in the role of thought police) can be equally well served by requiring the judgements to include the acts complained of. If freedom of speech means anything, it must include the right to determine what speech is not acceptable to a particular individual - as a reader, I retain the right to pass it by; as a writer, you retain the right to simply not say it.
Ezra’s plea makes more sense if he asks bloggers to find an issue they feel passionate about and speak on that issue, without consideration of the reaction of the HRCs. I disagree, Dawg, that Ezra deliberately wounds people - but in any event, that is an aesthetic issue: there is no human right not to be offended.

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