As Bugs might say: “Of course, you realize, this means war.”
That’s about all I can think of when I try and come up with a short summary, sufficient to the role of post title, of events that erupted over the weekend on the freedom of speech front. Here’s a short summary, accurate as far as I can tell.
A couple of Thursdays ago, Kathy Shaidle appeared on TVO’s “talking head” program, The Agenda, hosted by Steve Paikin. Self-declared political “ass kicker” Warren Kinsella, presently working as (I believe) a strategist for Michael Ignatieff, took umbrage with this — he has in the past lambasted Shaidle as all manners of extremist, and lately has been attacking her for being racist and, more confusingly, anti-Semitic.
(I say “confusingly” because any reader of “the Shaidle” will know that she is about as pro-Israel/pro-Jew as one can be without being…you know…a proud citizen of Israel and an even prouder Jew. The accusation of Racism is similarly baseless…and also meaningless, given that the term itself has become so very divorced — through mis-use — from its objective meaning.)
Now, interestingly, the topic on The Agenda that Shaidle was going to be addressing was not e.g. Islam, Immigration, or multiculturalism, but was in fact the atheist bus ads currently running in several Canadian cities. And while Kathy could hardly be considered a Catholic in full communion with Rome, she has no love of atheism and the antics of its adherents; she’s had a few good things to say about the issue, and was an excellent choice on TVO’s part as the person who would present the theistic perspective in the debate.
Moreover, according to Steve Paikin himself, it was understood by all concerned parties at TVO that the subject matter discussed would be limited to just the bus ads and atheism.
But evidently, that wasn’t enough for Warren Kinsella, who proceeded to do everything he damn-well could to ensure that Kathy was not allowed to appear on television. He posted several articles on his blog detailing her “racism,” wrote to the producers of The Agenda, and (apparently) even wrote to the Minister of Education (whom I assume has some authority in this matter), demanding at every turn that Shaidle not be allowed to appear. One notes that all of his cited reasons for doing so had to do with her comments on subjects other than the one which would be under discussion.
Not that Kinsella really has much of a leg to stand on here, given his own recent remark about a Chinese restaurant serving barbecued cat (and actually, there’s a twofer in that video: he slips in a remark about girlfriends and cooking that he himself would never tolerate had it been uttered by…well…someone not a member or ally of the Liberal Party of Canada). Moreover, Kinsella’s remark — unlike anything Shaidle has written — has proven to be something of an international embarrassment for Canada.
Steve Paikin summarized events that followed thusly:
It was with a considerable amount of surprise that I received an email from Warren, the public affairs consultant and Liberal Party operative, the day our program was set to air.
Warren has been a guest on The Agenda several times, and, in fact, had been a guest with Kathy Shaidle on The Agenda in 2007.
Warren told me that he planned to blog about our “outrageous decision” to “give Kathy Shaidle a platform, and for provincial tax dollars to indirectly fund same.”
He asked whether we had any comment to make and whether Kathy was being paid to appear (she wasn’t).
…
Later that same day, I received another email from Warren informing me that he was emailing the Minister of Education to ask her to pressure us to “unbook” Kathy Shaidle, and that if we didn’t, there would be significant consequences for TVO and The Agenda. He did, indeed, email the Minister.
Well, now we’ve got a different story, right? Now, it’s no longer a story about the appropriateness of our choosing Kathy to appear on the program. Now it’s a story about a well known Liberal Party operative threatening us (with what? We didn’t know) unless we did what he said.
That’s a very different story and as a result, we naturally refused to “unbook” Kathy. We do not take our marching orders on whom to put on or take off our television program from anyone, but most assuredly, not from partisan political operatives with personal grudges (Warren’s tangle with Kathy, I’ve learned, goes back awhile).
Paikin deserves no small amount of credit for taking a stand in favour of freedom of expression here, even in the face of threats.
But this isn’t where the story ends. Because, whereas before what had transpired was (as Paikin notes) an expression of a vendetta far larger (and more storied) than this one incident, what followed became an extension of that vendetta — Kinsella began to go after Paikin directly.
(BCF took a screenshot of Kinsella’s blog post outlining his first response to Paikin’s blog post, which can be viewed here.)
Saith BCF on this matter:
Warren Kinsella is a liar, that we know, however he is also evidently in need of an intervention, so obsessive is his self-destructive hatred for Kathy Shaidle that he is blind to the fact that he consorts with anti-semites of the left in order to pursue his petty vendetta, all the while employed by the CJC. It speaks to the fact that the Jackal has so few real allies otherwise. This would be mortally embarassing for anyone of right mind, but we are dealing with the Jackal here.
Yesterday Warren Kinsella ran this piece in which he claims Ms. Shaidle – a staunchly Pro-Israel blogger is ok discriminating against Jews. See the screenshot below. This is how desperate the Lying Jackal has become. He now resorts to outright lies. To anyone not in need of an intervention or otherwise cognitively impaired it is plainly clear that Shaidle merely lends support to the libertarian stance that the market place of ideas will deal far more effectively with discrimination than any other solution. Warren may be either too stupid or too blinded by hatred to understand that distinction, but I suspect he simply chooses to lie.
As noted previously, it would be harder to find a more pro-Jew/pro-Israel blogger than Kathy Shaidle…but equally, it would be harder to find someone who more clearly articulates what is an essentially libertarian ideal that Canadian businesses should be free to hire, or not hire, anyone they damn-well please, even if that means that businesses in Canada can refuse to hire e.g. Jews. To attempt to spin the latter opinion into some kind of evidence that Shaidle is herself an anti-Semite is patent stupidity, and an outright lie.
There are many reasons I wouldn’t vote for Michael Ignatieff; his choice of strategist is now added to that list.
Kenneth Hynek » Blog Archive » Interesting consequences (February 24, 2009, 11:41 am).
[...] Apropos of what was discussed earlier in regard to Warren Kinsella, it now appears that there may have been some very drastic consequences indeed to Mr. Kinsella’s waging of a war of vendetta against Kathy Shaidle that began as a campaign against her appearance on TVO’s The Agenda, but which morphed in only a short span of time into a war against the show itself and its host, Steve Paikin. [...]
Kenneth Hynek » Blog Archive » Interesting consequences (February 24, 2009, 11:41 am).
[...] Apropos of what was discussed earlier in regard to Warren Kinsella, it now appears that there may have been some very drastic consequences indeed to Mr. Kinsella’s waging of a war of vendetta against Kathy Shaidle that began as a campaign against her appearance on TVO’s The Agenda, but which morphed in only a short span of time into a war against the show itself and its host, Steve Paikin. [...]