Blazing Cat Fur is being sued for a half-million dollars for linking to a Mark Steyn article by, you guessed it. And yes, you read that correctly: $500,000. You can show your support for BCF, the blogger husband to blogger extraordinaire Five Feet of Fury, at a Chanukah party/fundraiser on December 1 organized by JDL. Here’s the info:

JDL Chanukah Party to support Blazing Cat Fur
When: Wednesday December 1, 7:00 pm
Where: Toronto Zionist Center 788 Marlee Avenue
For more information call 416-736-7000

Pope Hat has a great post on freedom of speech in the United States and Canada. The post is very long and well worth reading, but here is an important excerpt:

In Canada, you’d better watch what you say if you want to criticize The Man. You’d better make sure every word is the literal truth, and that you can back it up with records.

Ask Ezra Levant.

Ezra Levant, the Canadian blogger who was just ordered to pay a $25,000 judgment to Giacomo Vigna, a Canadian government official and lawyer, for … making fun of Vigna.

Giacomo Vigna is a professional censor. Levant, who has a history as a free speech activist and opponent of Canada’s censorship commission, has been censored for the offense of … criticizing a censor…

Levant, wisely, hasn’t said a word about the verdict. Neither have many of other Canadian bloggers from whom we’d expect to hear after a travesty like this. They’re probably taking stock of their options, with their lawyers, because they’re being sued by the censors themselves.

And that’s the point. Vigna didn’t file this suit to salvage his reputation. A prosecutor who would beg off from trial by whining about his inner feelings will have no reputation to save once word gets out. Vigna filed this suit to stifle Levant’s legitimate criticism of his agency and his methods. To make an example of Levant, and to warn more timid souls who would dare to criticize the censors of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. To censor an inconvenient critic who couldn’t be silenced by the usual accusation of hate speech.

Here is our January 2009 cover story on free speech champion Ezra Levant (pre-Vigna).