COMPLAINT WITHDRAWN re DANISH CARTOONS

In February of 2008, Alberta Islamic Leader, Syed Soharwardy, withdrew the complaint he had filed 2 years earlier against Ezra Levant’s Western Standard for its having published the controversial Danish cartoons dealing with the prophet Mohammed. According to an editorial in the Calgary Herald, the complainant explained that, when he filed his complaint, “he didn’t fully appreciate what free speech rights meant to people in this country. Now, having listened to Canadian Civil Liberties Association General Counsel Alan Borovoy on his recent visit to Calgary, and some close friends, he says he gets it.”

Toward the end of January, Borovoy and CCLA Free Speech Director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv spoke at a number of public events in that province organized by the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership, questioning the legal limits of offensive speech. Their visit included participation in a public panel and a meeting with members of the Calgary Herald editorial board. Borovoy also addressed a public meeting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.