Ezra Levant

Ezra Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian blogger, author, journalist, lawyer and conservative political activist. He is the former publisher of the Western Standard magazine.

Family and early life

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. 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. 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. Ezra Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student.

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 of Alberta's speakers committee, Levant flew in controversial lawyer Doug Christie, best 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. 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. 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.

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" 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.

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."

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. 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 and was one of the leaders of the movement to create the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to broaden the party's base.

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.

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. 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.

In early 1999, Levant left Ottawa to join the editorial board of the fledgling National Post newspaper in Toronto. A close friend of Stockwell Day's son Logan, Levant proclaimed himself a "Stockaholic" 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. 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.

Candidacy and resignation

Later in 2001, Levant returned to Calgary to practice law. By February 2002, he won the Canadian Alliance party nomination for the riding of Calgary Southwest, 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, announced on March 28th that he would not step aside. Later that night, however, he relented after widespread pressure from the party and accusations that he was putting himself ahead of the party.

Publishing

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

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." He continues to write occasionally for the National Post.

Levant has written three non-fiction books: Youthquake (1996, ISBN 0889751676), Fight Kyoto (2002, ISBN 1553065468), and The War On Fun (2005, ISBN 0973954108).

Human Rights complaint

On February 14, 2006 the Western Standard drew the attention of the Muslim community by reprinting the controversial editorial cartoons depicting Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

Levant republished the Muhammed cartoons on his website in January 2008 on the same day he appeared before a hearing of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission investigating a complaint by Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, and the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities about Levant's earlier publication of the cartoon. Additionally, Sowharwardy has filed a complaint with Calgary police about Levant saying he fears for his safety because of "lies" he says Levant has been spreading about him claiming Levant is inciting hatred. Police said they were actively investigating the complaint.

Levant was called before the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission and asked to respond to the complaint. At the demand of Levant and his lawyers, he was allowed to videotape his interview with Shirley McGovern, a human rights investigator with the commission. The videos of his interview before the Alberta Human Rights Commission were published on YouTube by Levant, which received a notable amount of interest from bloggers and internet users, spending several days in the top ten viewed videos on YouTube. The videos have been collectively viewed more than half-a-million times, and excerpts of the audio and video been featured by many notable radio and television programs. Soharwardy's complaint was ultimately withdrawn and the police investigation ended; however the identical complaint by the Edmonton Muslim Council proceeded. The complaint 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.

Levant 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 the lawyer in relation to human rights complaints he has initiated.

In July 2008, Levant was invited to be an expert witness before the U.S. Congress's Human Rights Caucus, where he spoke about the tribunals.

See also: Canadian Islamic Congress human rights complaint against Maclean's Magazine

Stance against the Alberta Human Rights Commission

In 2008 Levant republished the letter of Steve Boissoin that had gotten Mr. Boissoin fined $7,000 and ordered not to publicly comment on homosexuality again. Although a complaint was filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission over Levant's letter, the commission claimed his publishing of it was legitimate political discourse.

Levant denounced this inexplicable change in attitude as an indication of the uneven standards of the AHRC and the fact that it was intentionally anti-Christian. Although it has cited several Christians over the years, it has never once called into question the actions of a Jew, and apparently even Levant's intentional disregard of the AHRC's policies would not cause them to change their policy of never punishing Jews.

Support and criticism

Levant has been lauded by a wide-ranging group of Canadian citizens, particularly libertarians and free speech advocates. His case has attracted the attention of organizations such as PEN Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists, Egale Canada, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association — all of which have called for reform of the commissions.

Proponents of the Human Rights Commissions have also asserted their belief, that the commissions have done well in promoting social justice in Canada, and the efforts by both Levant and Mark Steyn to undermine them, could have negative effects for all Canadians.

Levant's case has been featured on Glenn Beck's show on CNN.

Awards

In 1992, when he was a University of Calgary student, Levant's two person team won the "best debating" category in the Intercollegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University.

External links

• Ezra Levant's blog
• YouTube Account