Contrition wasn’t on Ezra Levant’s mind.
The controversial conservative commentator went into an Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission hearing in Calgary with guns blazing yesterday, using his website to republish the same cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that got him into trouble in the first place.
And Mr. Levant’s dispute with some members of Alberta’s Muslim community became even more personal this week, as the head of a Calgary Muslim group said he now fears for the safety of his family due to “lies” Mr. Levant has been spreading about him.
“Contriteness implies that you’ve done something wrong for which you need to apologize or atone,” Mr. Levant said moments before his 90-minute meeting with the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission. “I have not done anything wrong.”
The commission is investigating Mr. Levant’s decision two years ago, as publisher of the Western Standard magazine, to print a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The same cartoons had already ignited violent protests and death threats from Muslims around the world after they appeared in a Danish newspaper.
Syed Soharwardy, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, filed a complaint after the Western Standard published the cartoons, and the commission is now investigating. The cartoons included an image of a Muslim man with a bomb-shaped turban.
Mr. Levant, his lawyer and his wife attended a closed meeting yesterday with human rights officers.
The commentator said he was asked about his rationale for publishing the cartoons.
“I don’t need to be reasonable. I have maximum rights of free speech,” he said later. “I have the right to publish this for the most offensive reason, for the most unreasonable reasons.”
The commission’s director said it would decide whether the complaint should be dismissed, go to an arbitrator or go to a full human rights complaint hearing.