Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 12, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg fret press May Page 7 Law serves to Cut off hatemongers by David Matas special to the free press everyone seems agreed that Freedom of speech is not an Freedom of speech Means the right to be it does not go so far As to permit the use of words to harm there Are All sorts of limitations on Freedom of speech now in the criminal aside from false aside from hate aside from obscenity Fere Are the offences of sedition valid there is the offence of it is a criminal Fence to is aft of Fence to incite or procure the commission of an it is a crime to conspire to commit an it is a crime to advocate not everyone believes that All of these offences should be no one with whom i have debated or discussed the Issue suggests All these controls should be boundaries the argument against prohibit Ion of hate propaganda has been More one of the of Fence is too it is open to the Law will catch those who make a thoughtless remark in anger As Well As the hard Core it is All right to argue against hate propaganda in the the practical reality will be that Freedom of speech will be unduly now that we have the Zundel this argument seems to me whatever else one might want to dispute about the Zundel it seems pretty Clear he was a he has not been prosecuted for some ill tempered offt Decuff if we to have operative hate propaganda1 Zundel inexact by the sort of person we would want to catch with these borderline problems arise with every they can be resolved in the courts for these Laws As they can for other the notion that there is some inherent vagueness in this Law in any if noting More than group libel if libel against an individual is a Clear Why should not libel against a group be a Clear concept As Well the acute fear of abuse in this above All is hard to any Law May be in some even murder Laws Are abused for political Rea does that mean there should be no Law against murder when we look at the value of a we should look at what it is intended to if it is Worth we should have the real suffering the Zundel Case has Demon in graphic the Dan Ger we face from hate pro Pagan by denying the Zundel has denied the the the grief of real living denying their suffer ing has forced them to relive it is a Wanton cruelty committed against people who have suffered More than enough their grief should be hallowed and con it is ridiculed and that act to As Zundel is attempting to generate hatred against he claims not just that the holocaust never but that the exis tence of the holocaust is a jewish fabrication used As part of a zionist plot of world if people really believed what Zundel is trying to get them to we would at the very intolerance and discrimination generated against the jewish hate literature the danger ultimately is a lot More extreme than Holo Caust denial is a key element in the Neo nazi the exis tence of the holocaust is a major obstacle to the revival of it should not be forgotten what nazism nazism is an ideology based on with antisemitism Central to its the holocaust was not an unfortunate Side effect of is the reason the nazis sought if Neo nazis deny the holocaust it is Only so that they can Complete whatever harm we May face from prohibiting hate propaganda is completely overshadowed by the harm we face in allowing Canada would be self destructive if it would rather suffer a great Harro than a Small crackpots then there is the argument that hate propagandists Are peripheral by taking these people seriously we give them an undue importance they do not de what i have said and do say to that is that creeps Are peripheral Only if we make them a person does not become peripheral Only because his statements Are ridiculous or far there is the argument that the danger May be but it is it is Only when the danger is Clear and present that we need to me the danger that Zundel represents is we cannot wait until he has a mass until the nazis in Canada have a mass if we wait for that it will be too once the or a significant accept hate propaganda As the damage is already beyond we will not be Able to counter the danger it is Only when the danger is Remote that counter by keeping it the whole notion of Clear and present danger has been discussed by the american in Exa mining the guarantee of Freedom of expression in the cons Titu those courts have said that Freedom of expression can be limited Only if there is a Clear and present they have also said that this Clear and present danger restriction on allowable limitations does not apply to hate propaganda hate prop As the supreme court has no essential part of any exposition of and therefore outside constitutional hate propaganda need not meet the test of Clear and present perhaps the argument that has Given most people cause for thought is the publicity that the Zundel trial had Given Zundel and his believes the trial was a Benefit to him because of the publicity he when i see newspaper editorials raising this i feel they Are being it after the Media that gave the Zundel trial i do not say that should not do say they should have courage of their own it is hypo critical to give a trial publicity and then to criticize the prosecution because of the publicity it Gen the coverage was not Al ways it sometimes seemed to give credibility to Zun dels malicious on the the publicity Given to the Zundel trial was not a disadvantage of the it was an there is such a thing As bad Zundel after get if the holocaust denial got a lot of so did the holocaust 1 do not believe there Are Large numbers of people who now believe that the holocaust did not but there Are Many people who know very Little about the the trial helped Over come the Rundels statements were publicized in a context in which they Are the alternative would have been to allow Zundel to prop Agate his he might have reached fewer but those he did would be receiving the propaganda the effect of the trial was to Stop Zundel propagating his Zundel was Given a 15month jail sentence and three years Proba during that time he is prohibited from publishing anything on the whether you con Sider the publicity of his trial Good or the result is that he can no longer spread hatred with Imp uni David Matas is National chairman of the Bani brith league for human Law places free speech in danger by Alan Borovoy special to the free press in the mid a Mere 20 years after the end of the second world North americans were shocked by the emergence of new political groups which called themselves donning uniforms and displaying these fledgling groups began to resurrect the in and racist invective of the Hitler once the social climate was contaminated by shrill mind less White christians were admonished to be on guard against Mongrel nation by inferior Blacks and subversion by an International the Brazen chutzpah of this propaganda provoked widespread in the revulsion found expression in demands that new Laws be enacted to Stop the propagation of racial by the end of the the parliament of Canada had enacted an amendment to the criminal code making it illegal to espouse certain forms of religious and ethnic the theoretical arguments for such legislation Are rather allure racists would not allow free speech for Why should they enjoy it it is one thing to tolerate legitimate differences of opinion on racial there is no need to tolerate outbursts of sheer a value at risk problems when the focus shifts from theoretical considerations to practical at that the question is How to articulate a prohibition which is precise enough to curb this Neo nazi propaganda without running a risk of catching in the same net a lot of other material which it would be unconscionable for a democratic society to sup the value at risk is Freedom of the Canadian Law prohibits the Public communication of state ments which wilfully promote hatred against people distinguished by and i could see no objection to a Law which purported to prohibit the incitement of racial violence in situations where there was an imminent peril that the violence would but hatred is a much More nebulous there people have suffered under this during the 1975 shrines Parade in the police used the ant hate Law to arrest some Young people who had been Distri buting leaflets bearing the words Yankee go although the Crown attorney had the Good sense subsequently to withdraw the feed the suppression of their free speech rights and some of them spent up to two Days in de spite the fact that the British counterpart of the Canadian anti hate Law was similarly inspired by Neo nazis groups in that one of the few convictions registered there in recent years was against a Black Power anti White while i hold no special Brief for the anti White slogans of some Black Power i think it is Clear that a democratic society has no business suppressing those kinds of yet this is the very risk which is created by a prohibition against if certain people have their an even greater variety of people could be there Are attempts afoot to remove from the ant hate Law a number of provisions that had been inserted there As special protections for Freedom of while i never believed that those Safe guards were i think their removal would be downright a number of people Are calling for the deletion of the wilful re this change is de signed to eliminate the need to prove a specific intention to pro Mote but that require ment is there in order to reduce the risk that this Law might be used against overeager speakers in the context of an otherwise legitimate for in a fit of anger Over a land claims a native spokesman blamed Canadian Whites 1ft general for the poverty of the Indian while such a statement would arguably be in it should certainly not be democratic debate can not coexist with such a demand ing obligation to bite ones there is some indication also of an attempt to remove the sate1 guards for certain religious Dis while this change might make it easier to take action against the racist sermonizing which periodically there is also a serious Downside How for would such a deletion Render vulnerable a like Quebec Jehovah witnesses for the kind of Nasty things they said about the roman Catholic Church during the late 1940s and Early 1950s believing As they did that the Church Hierarchy was behind the persecution they suffered at the hands of the Duplessis the witnesses Stream of ant Catholic the response of the Duplessis Ern ment was to charge the groups leaders with seditious the supreme court of Canada was widely praised for dismissing the charge on the grounds the creation of inter group ill will was not an Ironi some of the very constituencies which hailed that judgment As a landmark Protection for civil liberties Are now advocating legislative change that could undo to what end Are we asked to incur All these risks in order to Nail a minuscule group of pathetic peripheral creeps whose constituencies could not fill a Telephone despite its Tion in favor of the ant hate Law which was finally the government appointed Cohen committee admitted that our hate mongering problem could not be described As one of crisis or near crisis in this it is Worth Exa mining the condition of Albertas social credit the political party that accepted James Keeg Stra As a candidate despite the reports of his Antisemitic act Vii last that party contested 15 it ran last in 11 and polled Only per cent of the total i do not suggest that we should ignore the fringe fascists in our of they Bear watch ing lest they begin at some Point to acquire More serious even at we might not have to Between Nal prosecution or doing political hell consider again the Case of Al Bertas Jim after the revelation of the sorts of things he was reportedly teaching to his Stu his Board of education deprived him of his teaching Posi Tion and the voters deprived him of his mayoralty after All prosecution is a monumental in my the most sensible response to hate mongering in today Canada is to raise political hell whenever racist utterances emanate from people of authority or social the goal should be to drive them out of their positions of influence unless or until they make an adequate pub Lic apology for their objectionable As for the More peripheral i think our Public response should generally be in we should continue to strengthen our Laws against racially discriminatory behaviour in Public the fallout from a stronger program against racist deeds is Likely to weaken further the Impact of racist i of that such suggestions represent an inadequate response to the phenomenon of hate i believe it is the least inadequate of the available in the real there is no More compelling measure of Good Alan Borovoy is general counsel for the Canadian civil liberties immigration is changing the nature of Winnipeg the face of Winnipeg is changing the White Anglo Saxon majority has been replaced by a multiracial ethnic mosaic from All Over the world and the effects of this change Are now the subject of heated How Are we coping with the new reality and what does the future hold for race relations in this City a few facts and figures will put the Issue into historical in there were people who identified with the United Church of Canadian that number had dropped to the anglican Church population has been reduced from to in the same Winnipeg jewish Community has shrunk from almost 25 years ago just Over the Catholic population has grown substantially from in 1961 to almost in the visible minority groups have grown rapidly in this same Jim Carr at City Hall although the data available from statistics Canada is a bit fuzzy on the subject of ethnic it is Clear from the numbers that we Are a society in thousands of Southeast Paki South and Central Ameri filipinos and West indians have come to especially during the past few so How Are we coping Canada is racist says Wade win chairman of the forum for the awareness e the minority and these Arent my they Are the words of parliamentary committee on visible Williams says All one has to do is look at City the legislature and the parliament of Canada to see that the True nature of Canadian society is not reflected in the political Lead visible minorities dont want Only to be told that they Are equal by a charter of they want to have a say in their visible minorities Are denied Equality by the color of their skin and that wont change until politicians and bureaucrats understand the they think they understand but they they want to keep us Williams Yoram Hamis Rachi sees the prok Lem in a similar a Mizrachi works at the International Centre and is an outspoken activist for minority we see Canada at the Corner of Portage and but we dont see it under the Golden he a Mizrachi views multicultural politics in Winnipeg As a classic confrontation Between the old guard and the Avant what is multicultural us he is it song and dance is it having Tea parties with ministers or is it giving people their rightful place in Canadian society there is a View expressed within some organized ethnic communities that far too much emphasis is placed on the frills and vestiges of Folk culture and not enough attention paid to creating jobs and crashing through the barriers of Dis criminal Anderson is the chairman of mayor Bill Nomes race relations he believes that we should not move away from the folkloric aspect of multiculturalism because it is often the Only feature of a culture which having said Anderson is Quick to add that structural discrimination and attitudinal barriers must be Des Anderson is worried As he looks ahead to future generations and their Success in fulfilling their dreams and just look around he do you see visible minorities work ing at the cashier counters at the supermarket do you see them at City Hall i fear Down the a majority of people wont fully participate As equal partners in Ca Nadian Andersons solution demands changing attitudes and heightened awareness by Politi Claudia Wright is the chairperson of the Manitoba human rights com she is no More sanguine about the present situation than an Derson and but she re Mains an were sitting on a powder Keg and were not coping very she we think of multiculturalism As cultural events rather than trying to integrate peo ple into Canadian Wright is particularly concerned about the new communities of immigrants where frustration is Wright believes that Many politicians and Community leaders think that discrimination is isolated individual action rather than a social problem with Community Impact she is that an Active and powerful race relations commit tee will vault Winnipeg on its a avg lasting and positive As might be mayor Rie is More hopeful and less Ala Niimd Over the current Wise to talk in emotive he the mayor says action a Tut happen quickly and the Best Way begin is by helping visible become in the City make the police Force and the dirt department More representative at the is not the place it use Jap whether that reality is a Hajj Tow progression or a social crisis depend on our ability As citizens adapt and adjust to nex we will have a look at some Winni Eggers Are coping with the problem by tackling it head ;