Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights

By Janet Levy, AT:

Shakedown:  How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights
By Ezra Levant

McClelland & Stewart
232 pp., $25.95

When in September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons, most depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed, Muslims worldwide reacted with protests and violence that lead to the death of over 100 people and the destruction of three Danish foreign embassies.  Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen described the cartoon riots as Denmark’s worst international crisis since World War II.  Much debate ensued as to whether the depictions of Mohammed were legitimate expressions of free speech characteristic of Western criticism of all religions or, if in fact, the cartoons were blasphemous and evidence of rampant Islamophobia.

By February of 2006, the cartoons and their aftermath had become a major news story and a worldwide controversy.  Although the story of the riots was widely covered by the Western media, few in print and broadcast media actually displayed the offending cartoons.  Bristling at the idea of self-censorship and refusing to pander to political correctness, Ezra Levant, a lawyer and publisher of Western Standard magazine — based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada — made what appeared to be a logical journalistic decision to publish the story with the accompanying cartoons.  He felt strongly that this newsworthy story warranted showing the source of the chaos.

Levant’s single action of journalistic prerogative led to his battle of a lifetime over his own right to free expression and freedom from prosecution for exercising it.

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