I've touched on Andrew Bolt's current travails over at National Review here, here and here. What he's going through is very familiar after what happened to me in Canada - if anything, Andrew is rather more of a respectable and mainstream figure than I've ever been in the Great White North, but he's on trial for the same crime I committed, the crime of "offending" members of the Professional Grievance Community. And Andrew's in a slightly worse situation than I was: After receiving legal advice that it was not technically possible to be "in contempt" of a "Human Rights" Tribunal, I went on the warpath against the commissars and their kangaroo courts, but Andrew is being tried under an unjust law in a more or less regular court and does not have the same latitude.
Free speech - that's to say, stuff that would have been well within the realm of public discourse a few years ago - is on the retreat in Oz, as it is in Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, and elsewhere. It's happening very fast, and it needs to be stopped. If you're an Aussie or you just happen to be in Victoria this month, please consider showing your support for Andrew Bolt and the cause of free speech down under. The IPA, who hosted me on my last appearance in Melbourne, are putting on an event for Andrew at the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria on Monday June 20th. Michael Kroger, who threw a splendid dinner for me and Peter Costello a couple of years back, will be speaking, as will others. And through the miracle of technology I'll be appearing via videotronic technicolor vistavision. It'll be just like having me there in person except I'll be blown up to big-screen size so you'll be able to see the fried egg stain on my tie. Tickets are going fast (they're a bargain at 15 bucks), so I would recommend early booking, which you can do right here.
Andrew Bolt should not be having to fight this case. Nor should Lars Hedegaard in Denmark, any more than Ezra Levant or Ken Whyte should have had to in Canada. In some of the oldest free societies on earth, we are losing freedom of speech - and, when you no longer have the freedom to speak out, the loss of other freedoms will surely follow.
