Copyright (c) 1997 - Ingrid A. Rimland
"How Anarchists Tried to Disrupt Free Speech Meeting in Vancouver
QUESTION: When is Freedom of Speech NOT free?
ANSWER: When the speaker challenges one of the sacred cows of liberalism.
QUESTION: How do you deprive him of his right to speak?
ANSWER: The preferred method is intimidation through violent confrontation. However, since violence can lead to legal problems, it is essential to insulate oneself against any liability.
Do this by turning the dirty work over to a young left wing activist named Jaz who is able to mobilize street people with words of hate and promises of free food and (other inducements) when the job is done . . . Oh yes, an anonymous call to the TV NEWS notifying them of a possible riot is a good idea, since (media) can be relied upon to edit their tape in such a way as to make it look like it was the speaker's fault.
So it was when Paul Fromm came to Vancouver to tell the story of his dismissal from his teaching job in Ontario. After years of being targeted by B'nai Brith, his school board decided to throw him to the wolves.
I had never met or communicated in any way with Mr. Fromm prior to the meeting at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Feb. 28th, 1997. I decided to attend the meeting after reading about his difficulties in Doug Collins's column.
I attended alone and paid $5.00 admission at the door. I expected a speech, a question period and maybe (a) cup of coffee. I certainly was not prepared for the violent events that followed.
7:40 PM. I arrive early for scheduled 8:00 PM start. I pay my $5.00 at the door where Mr. Fromm introduces himself to me.
7:50 PM. I take a seat in second row of room set up for about 50 people. Three young people sit in the front row directly in front of me. They are conspicuous because of their appearance. Coloured hair, body rings and clothes reminiscent of the Hippie era. They sit quietly, staring straight ahead.
8:00 PM. Paul Fromm approaches the trio and politely asks them for their $5.00 admission fees. They had apparently walked past him at the door while he was engaged with someone else. One of the three, an Indo-Canadian, states that they have no money but intend to stay anyway. At this point I look back at the open door and see that several other similarly attired people are being prevented from entering. It is plain that there is a problem.
8:10 PM. Paul Fromm and others are unable to reason with the intruders. They won't pay and they won't leave.
One man gets up and offers to pay the $15.00 himself, so that the meeting could proceed. Several people object to the idea of appeasing the intruders. The man sits down.
(The intruders) are told the police would be called. They refuse to pay. The call is made.
8:25 PM. The young Indian, seemingly emboldened by the passive attitude in the room, ((becomes) very vocal. He calls us 'racist white trash' The others being held back at the door start to chant. 'White trash, white trash!'
One of the trio within the room prefers to call us 'f-----g honkies!' He is black himself. The East Indian shouts that his people are 'the doctors, the lawyers, the engineers. We are the future. Get out of my country, you white trash!'
More chanting. No sign of police.
8:35 PM. Guests are losing patience. Some want to forcibly eject the trio. Others think this unwise.
Where are the police? Most people are on their feet now. An elderly lady who has come with her daughter is frightened. The only escape is through the lobby to the front door. The lobby is occupied by the intruders.
Others are in the parking lot now. They pound on the curtained glass windows that form one wall of our room while they shout insults and chant incessantly.
The East Indian man walks to a table and grabs some papers and attempts to pocket them. He is seized by both arms and pushed through the door into the lobby. The other two are also ejected after a teenage girl carrying an infant is persuaded to step aside from the point position she had taken at the doorway after the first ejection.
Still no police.
8:45 PM. The intruders are now restricted to the lobby and the parking lot, but the pounding and the shouting grows worse. The noise is making it impossible for Paul Fromm to speak. There is also a real possiblity that the large plate glass windows will break and injure someone inside.
Paul Fromm and a couple of others decide to go to the front door to warn the mob that the windows are in danger of breaking and what the consequences could be. It is then Paul Formm is seized by a number of mob members and thrown to the ground.
He is quickly rescued and pulled back inside the building but not before his suit had been virtually torn to shreds.
Two bike patrolmen finally arrive. They are told of the assault. They will take no action but they will stay to keep the peace.
9:00 PM The meeting gets underway but must be shortened because of lost time. We are told how a web of misinformation and blatant untruths have led to (Fromm's) dismissal after 27 years on the job.
The pounding on the windows has started again. The police must have left.
Paul Fromm tries to continue over the din but it is hopeless. A look through the curtains indicates even more goons than before. The police are called again.
9:45 PM Police arrive within 10 minutes, this time several constables and a sergeant. They tell us to finish our meeting and then leave as a group. They will lead us through the gauntlet to our cars.
This is done, and we venture through the lobby, only to be met by
a news camera pointed at the front door.
I make it to my car safely and back out of the stall as several of the goons start to beat on the roof and windows. One tries to open my driver's door. He foolishly grabs the top of my slightly open window. I quickly close it, trapping his fingers.
I am so angry by this time that I fantasize momentarily about dragging him along for a few blocks but quickly dismiss the idea. I release him and head for home. It's 10:30 PM.
But what about this guy Jaz and the free food (and other inducements) that I mentioned in the first paragraph? Well, if you remember, there was the third member of the original trio that has not been mentioned so far. He was a Caucasian male about 18 years old.
During the period when the three were occupying the meeting room together, he was observed talking to a fiftyish man at some length. It seemed that the man was trying to reason with the boy in a fatherly way. At one point, I overheard him say: "You mean to say that you came down here to cause trouble because someone told you we were racists?"
(The boy) would not point Jaz out and declined to say if he was even at the scene. When asked where Jaz would get the money for the burgers (and the inducement) the boy said: 'I don't know, but he said he would have it for sure.'
One thing was obvious throughout the incident. They had absolutely no fear of the police. On the other hand, we were warned by the sergeant immediately prior to leaving the room that '. . . the first person who pushes, shoves or uses any kind of physical force will be arrested and will be going to jail. I'm telling you that right now.'
If anything surprised me about the incident, it was the arrogance and hatred displayed by some of the non-whites. One Chinese who wore a red kerchief around his forehead pushed an elderly man to the ground while screaming, 'go back to Europe, you f-----g honky.'
A policeman intervened but he let it go at that. . . "
Thought for the Day:
"We have to condemn publicly the very idea that some people have the right to repress others. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evild-doers. . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations."
(Alexander Solzhenitsyn)