Sure.
Evidence of meeting #154 for Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ideas.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #154 for Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ideas.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
I don't want to go into a situation where you have to speak out on every little thing happening, and if you're silent, you are a culprit.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Not little things but the big things, do you think they should criticize the big things?
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
Then we have to go into the difference between a little thing and a big thing, and you can see how these things go in circles.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Sure, but you would agree with the notion that the big things should be criticized.
You think the big things, as you put it, should be condemned.
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
Yes, but then the problem is the operational definitions.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Thank you for that.
Mr. Steyn, I think you essentially admitted to the fact that you have said obnoxious and hurtful things in the past. Would you—
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
[Inaudible—Editor] I've been in this business a long time, and I don't think you'd find anyone, including most of my editors, who would find me anything other than obnoxious, unpleasant and hurtful.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Okay, so in the article you wrote in Maclean's, “The future belongs to Islam”, where you stated, “It's the end of the world as we've known it”. Would you agree that's alarmist and obnoxious?
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
That's a bit of the problem. With respect to Mr. Garrison thinking this is all academic and mumbo-jumbo, that's what my learned friends would call res judicata. The thing has been adjudicated.
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
No. I was taken to three human rights tribunals, and I won, sir.
If you want to take me to court for a fourth time—
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
That's been adjudicated, and I'm in the clear. I beat the rap in British Columbia, at the federal human rights commission and in Ontario.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
I don't think you were adjudicated as to whether you were obnoxious or you were hurtful. Were you?
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
No, but that's not what you really think. Is that correct?
Would you agree with that, whether you were obnoxious or not?
9:45 a.m.
As an Individual
That my obnoxious—
I sat in the Robson Street courthouse in Vancouver and heard an expert witness flown in from Philadelphia discourse on the quality of my jokes, some of which are indeed obnoxious and hurtful. I think that is better left to an article in the Literary Review of Canada, sir.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Thank you for that.
You also objected to Chris Cuomo, the CNN commentator saying, “The real problem is white supremacists in America. They're the real monsters”. You took issue with that. Why?
9:50 a.m.
As an Individual
I am not sure I have any particular.... Here's the thing. My Q.C. in that case, Julian Porter, who is also the Prime Minister's Q.C., took the position—
9:50 a.m.
As an Individual
I'm answering your question. He took the principled position that we had nothing to defend under Canadian law. I am not here, sir, to justify to you words I have used on TV in the United States and radio in Australia—
9:50 a.m.
Liberal