Human rights panel dismisses complaint against Ezra Levant

The Alberta Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint against publisher Ezra Levant for reprinting the provocative Danish Muhammad cartoons in his magazine in 2006.

The complaint was filed bythe Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities.

Levant, who has characterized thecontroversy as a free speech issue, said he was pleased with the outcome and pledged to continue fighting against censorship.

In February 2006, Levant published the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in the now defunct Western Standard, arguing that they were "the central fact in the largest news story of the month."

The series of cartoons, originally published in September 2005 in Denmark and subsequently reprinted in other papers across Europe and around the globe, had already outraged the Muslim world and sparked protests and boycotts in several countries.

"I'm doing something completely normal. I'm publishing the centre of a controversy. That's what news magazines do," Levant told CBC News at the time.

Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, had also launched a complaint against Levant with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, but later withdrew it.