Ezra Levant

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Ezra Levant
Born	1972 Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Education	B.A. in commerce; law degree
Alma mater	University of Calgary, University of Alberta
Website Ezra Levant

Ezra Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian writer, lawyer, and conservative political activist. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard magazine, and the author of Youthquake (1996), Fight Kyoto (2002), The War On Fun (2005), and Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (2009).

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Political activism 2.1 Views on Quebec 2.2 Uniting the right 2.3 Political organizer and aide 2.4 Candidacy and resignation 3 Publishing 3.1 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy 3.2 Richard Warman 3.3 Stance against the Alberta Human Rights Commission 3.4 Support and criticism 4 Books 5 Notes 6 External links

[edit] Early life and education

Born in Calgary, Levant holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather immigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia, and paid $5 for 65 hectares of land to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta.^[1] Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary and attended a Jewish day school in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school.^[1] Levant's father, Marvin, worked in Saskatchewan during the doctor's strike against the introduction of the country's first system of Medicare and sided with the doctors.^[1]

Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student.^[1] In 1992, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Intercollegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University.^[2] In 1994, he was featured in a Globe and Mail article on young neoconservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring women and aboriginal professors. His actions outraged aboriginal law students, feminists, and a number of professors, and he was called to a meeting with the assistant dean who advised him of the university's non-academic code of conduct and defamation laws. As head of the university's speakers committee, Levant flew in Doug Christie, a lawyer known for his advocacy in defence of Holocaust deniers and accused Nazi war criminals, for a debate, against Thomas Kuttner, a Jewish lawyer from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.^[1]

Levant gained a reputation as the university's leading neoconservative; he was invited to write a guest column for the Edmonton Journal and interviewed on television.^[3] He spent the summer of 1994 in Washington, D.C., in an internship arranged by the libertarian Charles G. Koch Foundation Summer Fellow Program. He worked for the Fraser Institute in 1995, writing Youthquake, which argued for smaller government, including privatization of the Canada Pension Plan. Levant saw "youthquake", the term he used to describe what he identified as a conservative youth movement of the 1990s, as similar to the 1960s civil rights movement except that instead of being enslaved by racism, his generation was "enslaved by debt" and, in order to liberate itself, society needed to dismantle elements such as trade unions, the minimum wage, universal health care, subsidized tuition and public pension plans.^[4]

[edit] Political activism

[edit] Views on Quebec

Levant favoured Quebec separatism and a yes vote during the 1995 Quebec referendum in a Calgary Sun column titled "10 Reasons to Hope for a Yes Victory"^[5] Among his 10 reasons were Levant's views that the departure of Quebec from Canadian confederation would lead to the elimination of bilingualism and multiculturalism, that it would give the Canadian government the "fortitude" to say no to "other special interest groups" such as First Nations and environmentalists; it would end corruption in Parliament which Levant blamed on Quebec politicians; and would clear the way for Preston Manning to become Prime Minister of Canada.^[6]

In 1996, Levant wrote a column saying that if the federal Liberals were re-elected, Alberta could separate from Canada making it "free from Quebec's demands."^[6]

[edit] Uniting the right

In 1996, Levant worked with David Frum to organize the "Winds of Change" conference in Calgary, an early attempt to encourage the Reform Party of Canada and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to merge so that a united rightwing party could defeat the Liberal Party of Canada in the subsequent election.^[7] While unsuccessful, the conference anticipated future attempts at a Unite the Right movement which ultimately led to the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Levant supported Preston Manning's United Alternative initiative in 1999, a more advanced attempt to unite the country's conservative movement^[8] and was one of the leaders of the movement to create the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to broaden the party's base.^[9]

[edit] Political organizer and aide

An active political organizer in the Reform Party, Levant guided the successful attempts by Rahim Jaffer and Rob Anders to win party nominations.^[10] In 1997, he went to Ottawa to work for the Reform Party, becoming a parliamentary aide to party leader Preston Manning and being put in charge of Question Period strategy.^[6] Levant wrote a Reform Party fundraising letter in 1998 in which he called Alberta Progressive Conservative Senator Ron Ghitter lazy and un-Albertan. Ghitter sued and in 2000, Levant and Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders issued a formal apology and also made an undisclosed payment to settle the suit.^[11]

In early 1999, Levant left Ottawa to join the editorial board of the fledgling National Post newspaper in Toronto.^[9][12] A close friend of Stockwell Day's son Logan, Levant proclaimed himself a "Stockaholic"^[13] and supported the elder Day in his successful attempt to defeat Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance. In February 2001, he returned to Ottawa as communications director to Day.^[14] In May of that year he resigned after leaking to the National Post a letter that he sent to dissident MP Chuck Strahl in which he threatened to sue over Strahl's criticisms of his office.^[15][16][17]

[edit] Candidacy and resignation

Later in 2001, Levant returned to Calgary to practice law. By February 2002, he had won the Canadian Alliance party nomination for the riding of Calgary Southwest,^[18] but stepped aside after public pressure so that new party leader Stephen Harper could run there in a 2002 by-election. When the by-election was called, Levant, who said he spent over $150,000 to gain the nomination,^[19] announced on March 28 that he would not step aside.^[13][20] Later that night, however, he relented after widespread pressure from the party and accusations that he was putting himself ahead of the party.^[21]

[edit] Publishing

In 2004 Levant co-founded the Western Standard, a national magazine with an emphasis on Western Canada, political conservatism, and libertarianism.^[22] In October 2007 the magazine ended its print-run due to its unprofitability and became an exclusively online publication.^[23] Levant sold the publication's remaining assets to Matthew Johnson.^[24]

A column by Levant appeared in the Calgary Sun on and off, over a ten year period, until October 2007 when the paper dropped the columnist because of an "internal personnel decision."^[25] He continues to write occasionally for the National Post.^[26]

[edit] Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

On February 14, 2006, the Western Standard published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons depicting Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, in a manner regarded as unacceptable by the Muslim community.^[27] Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities complained about the publication to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, and a hearing was scheduled for January 2008. On the day of the hearing, Levant republished the cartoons on his website. Sowharwardy also filed a complaint with Calgary police about Levant saying he feared for his safety, claiming Levant is inciting hatred.^[26]

At the request of Levant and his lawyers, Levant was allowed to videotape his interview with Shirlene McGovern, a human rights investigator with the Alberta Human Rights Commission; Levant later published the video on YouTube, where it spent several days among the top-ten viewed videos, and was watched more than half a million times.^[28][29][30] Soharwardy's complaint was ultimately withdrawn ^[31] and the police investigation ended. An identical complaint by the Edmonton Muslim Council was dismissed by the Commission on August 5, 2008.

The timing of the Levant case was notable, in that it coincided with a high-profile case considered by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The case was initiated by the Canadian Islamic Congress against Maclean's magazine for the printing of material they alleged was also discriminatory towards Muslims.

[edit] Richard Warman

Levant, Kate McMillan and several other conservative bloggers, as well as the National Post, are being sued for libel by lawyer Richard Warman as a result of comments made about Warman in relation to human rights complaints he has initiated.^[32]

In July 2008, Levant was invited to be a witness before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus "about the threat posed by radical Islam using Western legal mechanisms as weapons".^[33]

[edit] Stance against the Alberta Human Rights Commission

Levant is a fierce critic of the Alberta Human Rights Commission,^[34] particularly concerning Rev. Stephen Boissoin, who was fined $7,000 and banned from publicly "disparaging ... gays and homosexuals" in May 2008. This case concerned a letter published by the Red Deer Advocate in 2002 in which Boissoin attacked the "homosexual agenda" as "wicked". In June 2008, Levant republished Boissoin's letter on his blog.^[35] When the AHRC dismissed the resulting complaint in November 2008, Levant accused the HRCs of religious discrimination, asserting that "100% of the CHRC's targets have been white, Christian or conservative" and that "It's legal for a Jew like me to publish [Boissoin’s letter]. It's illegal for a Christian like Rev. Boissoin to publish it."^[36]

[edit] Support and criticism

Levant's allies against Canada's Human Rights Commissions include libertarians, free speech advocates, conservative Catholics, and gay rights lobbyists.^[37][38][39] His case has attracted the attention of organizations such as PEN Canada,^[40] the Canadian Association of Journalists^[41], Egale Canada^[42], and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association^[43] — all of which have called for reform of the commissions. He has featured on Glenn Beck's show on CNN.^[44]

Levant supported the Canadian government's decision to refuse George Galloway entry into Canada in March 2009. While other free speech advocates protested the move, Levant described it as "an immigration matter".^[45]

[edit] Books

• Youthquake. Fraser Institute. 1996. ISBN 0889751676. 
• Fight Kyoto: The plan to protect our economy. Essence Publishing. 2002. ISBN 1553065468. 
• The War On Fun. Western Standard. 2005. ISBN 0973954108. 
• Shakedown: How our government is undermining democracy in the name of human rights. McLelland & Stewart. 2009. ISBN 0771046189. http://books.google.com/books?id=Cf10fE2hP4cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=shakedown+levant&ei=Wy7CSrf1KYG0yQTuh63NBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Ezra Levant's blog
• YouTube Account