by Matt Barr

Canadian fascism

The June 20 National Review includes a piece by David Frum reproduced for non-subscribers here that begins:

Mel Brooks once offered these succinct definitions of tragedy and comedy: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole."

By that definition, Canadian politics these days might seem very comical indeed. But I am counting on Americans to be less callous than the mordant Brooks--and to recognize that the events now occurring in Canada are serious, even sinister. There is though one warning I'd better immediately deliver to readers: Along with at least four other public commentators, I have recently been served with libel papers by a leading figure in this story. Because National Review is distributed in Canada, and therefore can potentially be reached by Canada's more restrictive libel law, I have to be a little circumspect in what I say here.

Canadian columnist Andrew Coyne is also being sued for libel. Both pointers from Small Dead Animals.

This is beyond sickening. I'll resist snarking at Americans in blue states and blue states of mind who think their speech is being chilled and dissent stifled (or did I just?).

The hew and cry when Microsoft helps the Chinese censor words on MSN blogs is deafening. Glenn Reynolds is disturbed. Roger Simon is moved to call Bill Gates names. At Classical Values, there is incredulity and disgust.

But you'll find 13 blog posts -- total! -- from the last month about the Coyne libel suit and one on Frum (Kate's SDA post hasn't made Technorati as of this writing). Nexis has four stories about Coyne, all from Canadian papers; none about Frum. At least we can count on Reporters Without Borders... never mind.

At its root this is a government threatening to imprison people for writing things it doesn't like. Isn't that normally a big deal? If you're thrown off by the absence of tanks, ask yourself what the difference is, really.

UPDATE: Being American in T.O. has a comprehensive roundup of various intimidation tactics lawsuits revolving around the Canadian political crisis. "[T]he truth," Debbye writes, "is not relevant in libel suits up here." Where you allow public political figures to sue over opinions in the first place, and you don't have truth as a defense, you've got what I would think is an untenable basis for democracy.

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