Now I will tell you about my trip to Victoria, British Columbia last
weekend.
As I was having my coffee this morning, trying to put my emotions for this
ZGram into gear, I saw myself again as I was more than three decades ago
when I first came to Canada - young, poorly educated, pregnant with my second
child, with a blue collar worker husband and a savagely handicapped baby.
I left behind a painful childhood and a hapless youth beneath the shadows
of four dictators: Stalin, Hitler, Stroessner and Peron. I thought I had
found freedom.
I remember so clearly a lasting impression: That Canada was clean. Pristine.
That everything was orderly. That if you worked hard, lived by the Golden
Rule, obeyed the law and saved more than you spent - presto! One day you
would be rich.
Now I came back to do a keynote for a group called The Canadian Free Speech
League, organized and headed by the legendary Battling Barrister, Doug Christie
- and what a legal swath he cuts across mendacity and falsehood in the courts!
The occasion itself was the annual George Orwell Award, to be bestowed on
someone fighting for free speech and freedom of assembly.
The evening before, Doug had received a call there would be a disturbance
caused by his political foes. The location itself was kept secret; not even
I knew where it was going to be.
About a hundred people met at a parking lot. From there, we went across
the street into a rented room inside a public library for a two-hour seminar
where several freedom fighters shared personal experiences about vicious
curtailment of speech. One of the speakers was a young Black from Mozambique
for whom Doug Christie had done pro bono legal work. In attendance were
also several Orientals, so this was hardly a "racist" or "white
supremacist" meeting.
The talk was of such things as how to get one's freedom back and that, so
as to know our rights as well as our responsibilities, we ought to get a
copy of the Constitution and study it. I said later to a friend: "There
was not one word spoken at this meeting that could not have been shouted
from the rooftops . . . " and she replied: "And that has always
BEEN so!"
At the conclusion of the seminar, participants were given maps. We were
told to disperse, travel by different routes and meet in yet another parking
lot. From there, we climbed a hill and, kind of through the "back door,"
met at a friendly, private meeting hall where the dinner was going to be.
Coming out of that library, we were besieged by media and pictures were
taken like mad. I did not see one Alan Dutton who had alerted media and
was said to be looking for trouble, but then he was of little interest to
me.
At the dinner itself, a low-key and gracious affair, one of the long-term
freedom fighters was given an award and asked to make a speech, the gist
of which was that somehow we had lost our spirituality and had to get it
back. The speech was very moving and put real lumps in our throats. I had
to swallow several times, remembering my passages.
Then I was introduced. I told them of my long, dramatic journey through
life of war and anarchy imported into European nations through no fault
of their own that made me end up having custody of the harassed and thoroughly
politically improper Zundelsite. In that room were many nationalities, some
of whom had fought against my country and my people. I am happy to tell
you I spoke to a standing ovation.
Afterwards, a person came to me and said in a shy voice: "We're brothers,
aren't we?" and I said: "Right. That is exactly right." And
he replied: "How come we only now find out?"
If I had to describe that free speech weekend in one word, I would say that
that word would have to be "congeniality." There was nothing but
nothing offending.
Now I am going to show you how this meeting was translated by the media
and was fed to the public for divisive consumption. Titled "Anti-race
foes angry" and, on another page, "Freedom: Couldn't ban"
here is a first-page lapdog treatise:
"Anti-racism activists are appalled that a meeting involving people accused of hate propaganda took place Saturday at the Victoria public library.
The two-hour seminar, held in the main Broughton Street branch, was organized by Doug Christie and his Canadian Free Speech League.
Christie is a Victoria lawyer who has gained notoriety nationwide for defending Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel and other people accused of anti-Semitism.
The seminar - held just a few hours before the Free Speech League's annual award dinner - was strictly a private affair and attendance was by invitation only. The location was kept secret from participants until the last minute and media were not allowed to attend.
'The meeting is about freedom of expression and we do it in private,' said Christie. Christie wouldn't divulge the nature of the seminar, but an invitation to the meeting indicated an Internet provider would be giving a lecture.
'It really concerns me that tax payers are subsidizing meetings of this nature in public facilities,' said Alan Dutton of the Surrey-based Canadian Anti-Racism Education and Research Society, who monitored the meeting from outside the library.
'I think the municipality and the City of Victoria have to understand the importance of not providing access to groups that have contributed to the disunity of this country by promoting views that are racist, that oppose immigration and multiculturalism.'
Michael Peters, former chairman of the Capital Region Race Relations Council, was equally dismayed when he learned of the meeting. The league 'professes to believe in freedom of speech and then uses that as a front to disseminate hate literature. . . It's unfortunate that they make the municipality an unwilling partner in that.'
The library's manager said that staff were aware of the nature of Christie's group when the meeting room was booked. 'We knew they were coming, but we can't ban people on the basis of what they might do,' said Jim Scott. 'It's public space. We can't say we don't like your point of view.'
The group was even given a 50 percent discount on the room fee of $100, since the league represented itself as a non-profit society. . . "
I must add here: It IS a non-profit society. This is as good a place
as any to insert a letter to the editor by one of the participants, Paul
Fromm of the Canadian Association for Free Expression Inc:
"Your article reports Alan Dutton of the Canadian Anti-Racism Education Research Society as piously complaining that "the taxpayers are subsidizing meetings of this nature in public facilities." The meeting room was properly rented and paid for. There was no "subsidy". Dutton's complaint is a bit much coming from a person whose now de-registered organization has collected over $742,000 from various levels of government in the past five years. Indeed, a printout provided me by John Bryden (Lib. -- Hamilton-Wentworth) indicates that, since 1991, the Canadian Heritage Department has provided Mr. Dutton's group with $232,600 for basically churning out "anti-racist" propaganda and trying to shut down those who disagree with him."
But back to the front-page article itself:
"Given the controversy, the library board will look into the event and may try to devise a policy that more closely scrutinizes groups using the facility, said board chairman Maurice Chazottes.
About 75 people attended Saturday's meeting. The participants included people from all over Canada, including Paul Fromm, a Toronto teacher who caused a stir four years ago when he spoke at a neo-Nazi rally, and Tony McAleer, who operated a Vancouver telephone line that carried hate messages before a human rights tribunal pulled the plug.
Also attending was Doug Collins, a columnist for the North Shore News newspaper in North Vancouver who maintains the number of Jews killed by the Nazis during the Second World War has been exaggerated. Collins is the subject of several outstanding complaints to the Human Rights Council.
One local woman, who refused to give her name, said she attended the seminar simply 'out of curiosity.'
After the seminar, the participants dispersed for the group's annual George Orwell free speech dinner. The dinner was held at an undisclosed location.
The dinner invitation stated that the Free Speech League 'will once again honor two people who have dedicated extraordinary effort to the promotion of freedom of expression in this country.' Christie, however, refused to say who the honored guests were.
Four years ago, the dinner was raided by police because British author David Irving - banned from entering Canada - surreptitiously came across the border to speak at the dinner and accept an award from Christie.
Irving, who claims the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated, was arrested at the dinner and later deported."
End of the brain wash cycle.
I need not point out that the article above is full of smears, inaccuracies
and innuendoes I will not get into - except to say that it is true that
David Irving has been banned from Canada NOT for what he said but for what
he MIGHT have said, had he been but allowed to speak.
This is your Canada today. I told them at the dinner how I escaped four
dictators.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"A square leaf on any tree would be ugly, being a violation of the laws of growth in trees, and we ought to feel it so."
(John Ruskin)