What "freedom of expression" means

It means you have the right to say what you want. It does not mean the taxpayer is obligated to pay for your microphone - or, in this case, for your pro-terrorist, pro-Islamist activism:

Under pressure from the pro-Israel lobby [ooga booga! - DP] and the US government, Canada has banned both Hezbollah and Hamas. Both of these groups are legitimate political parties, with grassroots support, and are represented in the legislature and the cabinets of Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority respectively. Both groups are resisting the illegal Israeli occupation of Lebanon and Palestine respectively which right is guaranteed under international law.

Recommended Course of Action
· Remove Hezbollah and Hamas from the list of banned organizations.
· If any group deserves to be place on the list of banned organizations, it should be the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) who murdered 8 Canadian civilians and a Canadian UN peacekeeper in Lebanon, and was accused by Amnesty International and our own Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, of committing war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza.

I have no problem with CAF publicly expressing these positions. (On the contrary, I appreciate their honesty.) I have a big problem, however, with the CAF taking these positions while receiving federal money. (Officially, the money was earmarked for a program to help immigrants adjust to life in Canada - yep, that's a job I'd entrust to this bunch - but every dollar they get from Ottawa is one more of their own dollars they can use to tell me that Hamas has a right to its kind of "resistance.")

That doesn't get the Minister completely off the hook, though. The CAF position paper noted above is from 2006. (The same year the group supported "anti-Zionist" leaflets targeting Bob Rae's wife. Classy folks.) Apparently this kind of thing wasn't enough to get the Canadian Arab Federation's funding cut, but calling Jason Kenney names? That's another story.

Damian P.

Update: much more about the "moderate" CAF here.

Posted by damian at February 17, 2009 03:50 PM