An Editorial from National Review Online

NRO speaks out loud and forcefully about what's going on here in Canada. Make no mistake that the battle to reclaim our fundamental free speech rights is very much ongoing and will take years to win. As we've all learned from last week, there are dark forces of social activists fighting against everyone else who believes in free speech. They've infested our media, our universities, our human rights commissions, and large swaths of our governments.

In the NRO editorial, they call for international political figures to speak out against Canada's current free speech policies. I wholeheartedly support this initiative.

Call me cynical, but I've become convinced that most modern day politicians are primarily motivated by two things:

1. Getting re-elected
2. Political correctness - aka "not offending minorities"

Up until now, it has been extremely dangerous for a politician to vocally support free speech. There's a legitimate fear that they'll immediately be labeled a racist. This is done as effortlessly as a minority activist group making the charge in a press release and then holding an impromptu press conference at a local coffee shop. The media always hops on board and amplifies the charge to whatever levels are necessary to silence the politician. I don't think such collusion is ever formally organized but birds of the same feather necessarily squawk together . . . and always loudly it seems!

Put yourself in the shoes of a Canadian politician. Even with your international colleagues telling you that the quasi-judicial status quo must change, you still have your own career to worry about. It's quite a balancing act and I'm not at all convinced there's yet enough pressure in Canada to push a politician away from political correctness and toward adamantly supporting free speech.

I thus once again renew my recommendation for international political figures to tie Free Speech in with the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. A boycott of athletes isn't necessary but perhaps a refusal to attend the Opening Ceremonies may go a long way to getting our politicians to do the right thing. I am absolutely not anti-Olympics but what's more important here, the free speech rights of all Canadians or the two-man luge event?