Read for the Very First Time

Never has it been more important to defend free expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience and opinion than right now — when opponents of terrorism are slagged as oppressors, and opponents of war (crimes) are attacked as bigots; when the supreme court of a supposedly constitutional democracy suppresses the voting rights of minorities and the right to bodily autonomy of half the population; when internet-sheltered thugs run hateful lynch-mob campaigns to destroy reputations and lives; when even the intelligentsia refuse to defend the right of all to share research or utter opinions that may dismay a multitude of protesters (including financiers). All of the above has happened — is happening — and I do not need to spell out the examples. But that is why I delight in a set of essays, interviews, and stories, edited by Éric Falardeau and Simon Laperrière, about a late-night television series once beamed into homes in Quebec and the National Capital Region every...