Ezra Levant, the publisher of the Western Standard and, if I’m any judge, Prime Minister of Canada sometime between 2015 and 2030, mounts a keen defense of media freedom in a Senate hearing transcribed here (scroll down a little more than halfway, after “Mr. Chin” finishes his testimony).

Ezra successfully defends an individual’s rights to his own mind, his own property, and his own choices. It’s a great read, and I’m sure it was even better in person.

I especially enjoyed reading the exchange between Ezra and Senator Jim Munson, I believe the final Chretien appointee (although I may be wrong about that), who was a “media person” (CTV News) prior to his elevation to the Red Chamber.

Senator Munson: On another subject, you say you do not think there is a role for the CRTC. Reading all the regulatory business with the CRTC and saying there must be certain things — for example, Al-Jazeera cannot do live television and cannot come here, and so on — but you say eliminate the CRTC. Is it just people coming in here and building radio and television stations and newspapers without any regulation of any sort, just a free-for-all with foreign ownership, American stations, as you said, in Vancouver? I need a bit more of your thinking on that.

Mr. Levant: That sounds exciting to me. Talk about a true marketplace of ideas — not just one or two.

Senator Munson: You might not have a country. [emphasis added]

Mr. Levant: How would they succeed? If a Mexican company were to set up a television station here they could succeed or fail in a number of ways. They might succeed if they were to appeal to a niche market of Spanish-speaking Canadians or Mexican Canadians. They might, if they were to pursue a local market, have to out-local the locals. They would have to do a very good job of reporting local news or they would fail. If they were to use their own money, who would care? What a buffet of choices that would offer us rather than just the same, staid alternatives.

I find it highly exciting to go to New York or London and see the massive choices of newspapers on the whole ideological spectrum and in dozens of languages. That is healthy. If someone from a foreign country wants to risk their own money to please me, a reader, I am delighted. Speaking as a publisher now, if someone from abroad were to invest in the Western Standard I would be equally delighted because I would have more than just the Canadian capital market to choose from. I believe there would have to be some basic rules for things such as defamation, fraud, et cetera, but we already have a common-law structure to deal with that. Who will liberate the media? Believe it or not, it will people like Howard Stern, who leap over the FCC and the CRTC, and can beam directly to people.

We have a little radio program that our magazine does once a week. We spoke with executives from Sirius Satellite Radio, the satellite company out of New York. They are talking about 10 different channels just for Canadian talk radio — on the left and on the right. Perhaps it is four but it is more than only one station. It will be a number, spanning the whole spectrum. If some Americans want to put money into paying for Canadian talk shows on satellites, why should the CRTC have anything to say about that? Why should we care if foreigners want to spend their money giving us information. Either it connects with Canadians and the company profits or it does not profit and goes away. Would it not be wonderful to have such a choice rather than a few tired dailies and a handful of television stations?

The only people who profit from keeping out competitors are the incumbents. It is the same in the media business as it is in politics. The more rules you have, the more you actually protect the existing players. I know why my friends in the established television and radio stations and in newspaper love it as it is: because it keeps out competitors. I am an upstart so I do not mind the idea of competition. In fact, I would like to bring down the rules that subsidize my long- time competitors and give them some of the advantages that they have.

Munson (no doubt labouring under the impression he must stand as the Defender Of Canadian Media against this upstart Westerner) obviously is a charter member of the Sheila Copps Canadian Culture Skool: if we don’t force those little b*st*rds to read and watch Canadian Content, they’ll bloody-well choose “Married with Children” or “USA Today”, and then CANADA WILL CEASE TO BE!! We must TELL EACH OTHER OUR OWN STORIES! Especially MY STORIES!! ME!!!

koff koff

sorry, got a bit carried away there

But despite Munson’s histrionic panic, Ezra calmly and clearly takes his measure, and speaks past him. Canadians are capable of making their own choices in media, and are no more likely to suddenly switch to USA Today than to Spanish-language television. I am delighted that the Canadian media has such a prominent member who is willing to speak out in defense of my own rights–rather than just stick his hand out and whimper for a handout like the rest of them.

Good on you, Ezra.