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 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" Levant has been spreading about him.
"Contriteness implies that you've done something wrong for which you need to apologize or atone," 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 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 already had ignited violent protests and death threats from Muslims around the world after the images 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.
Levant, his lawyer and his wife attended a closed meeting yesterday with a 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.
For Soharwardy, the issue has become intensely personal.
He fired off a letter to Calgary police yesterday, complaining about statements made by Levant on his blog that refer to the Muslim leader as a "radical, Saudi-trained imam who has publicly called for sharia law to be imposed in Canada."
"I have asked him, what kind of training did I get in Saudi Arabia?" an angry Soharwardy said from Calgary.
He said Levant has also called him anti-Semitic, despite the fact Soharwardy's mosque celebrates Hanukkah with the local Jewish community.
"These people have the intent to incite hate against Muslims," Soharwardy said.
"God forbid if somebody reads from his website - (if) any fanatic reads it - and he attacks me, who's responsible?
"If any crime (is) committed against me or my family, I will hold Mr. Ezra Levant responsible."
Levant isn't backing down, calling his appearance before the human rights commission "an interrogation."
"To me, this is offensive," he said.
"A secular government bureaucracy has essentially been hijacked by a radical Muslim imam. It's being used to further his fatwa against these cartoons."
"We have a great tradition of free speech in Canada," he said.
"My freedom to publish a cartoon that some radical Muslim imam doesn't like - well, that's the free west for ya."
