My friend/enemy "Lizard" - he of the "fight censorship list" who has given me a hard time in the past by stating, for example, that if a "Nazi" says that two plus two is four and ex-Nizkorite Jamie McCarthy says that two plus two is five, he vouches for the latter - is seeing things our way in certain ways. Here he comments on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's despicable attempt to coerce BC Tel to pull the plug on Bernard Klatt, a British Columbia server who is housing some unpopular websites:
Writes Lizard:
"Since it seems the SWC has been unable to convict Klatt under the hate speech laws, they are putting pressure on the telephone company to just cut him off. I am unfamiliar with how telephone companies work in Canada -- are they truly private entities, or quasi-socialist entities as in the US?
"If the former, while they have the right to decide whom to offer service to, making such a decision on the basis of 'offensive' content is morally questionable, and any customers of theirs who believe in free speech should seek other providers immediately.
If the latter, they are taking advantage of a state-enforced monopoly (or state-controlled 'competition'), and thus, cannot pick and choose freely."
( for more, check http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9803/31/hate_bctel.ap/ )
Right on, Mr. Lizard. If you didn't hate us so because you are a Jew and we are Gentiles, you might even like us!
Moving right along in cyber history. From Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression Inc. ( http://www.canadafirst.net ) comes this:
"An article in today's Vancouver Sun came as a real shock. I notice that you are to lobbied by David Matas, a lawyer for B'nai Brith, on Monday.
The Vancouver Sun article said, in part: "BC Tel should cut off service to Fairview Technology of Oliver 'because they give access to hate-group promoters,' David Matas said. ...'It's basically that they can do it and they should do it. Legally nothing stops them. There are standards that suggest that they should do it,' said Matas."
The suggestion that BC Tel deny service to long-time customer Klatt because vociferous pro-censorship groups like B'nai Brith don't like some of the clients that ISP Klatt rents space to is breathtaking in its totalitarian arrogance.
As a provider of telephone service, BC Tel enjoys a monopoly. With this commercial position comes the responsibility, naturally, to provide service to anyone who pays. Censorship and discrimination are simply not an option.
B'nai Brith, sadly, indulges in language excesses that may well amount to slander. To label some of Mr. Klatt's clients "hate groups" is to assert that these groups have broken Canadian law -- the willful promotion of hatred being contrary to Section 319 of the Criminal Code. None of these groups has ever been so charged or convicted. The accusation that these are "hate" sites is rhetorical overkill.
I urge you to continue to serve the B.C. public fairly and to reject thecensorship calls of the totalitarians in our midst.
You might want to check out our webpage -- http://www.canadafirst.net --
and see the comments of people around the world who have rallied to the defence of free speech on the Internet. People in other lands know what it means to have lost their freedoms. Again I urge you to tell the censor wannabees firmly and definitely "NO".
And from Eileen Pressler, another well-known patriot, writing to BC Tel:
"I have followed the Simon Wiesenthal/B'nai B'rith vs Bernard Klatt controversy and find the pressure tactics applied by these mainly Jewish special interest groups to be ruthless and without regard for the rule of law or Canada's Charter of Rights.
Until Mr. Klatt is charged with a criminal offence, tried and convicted in a court of law, we must assume that he is innocent. Therefore, for Mr. Mattas to even suggest that Mr. Klatt's telephone service be terminated is nothing short of commercial blackmail.
Bear in mind that Mr. Klatt is merely an internet service provider and the websites referred to belong to his clients and are not Mr. Klatt's. Are we to expect that each and every time a Sol Littman, David Mattas or Bernie Farber disapprove of something, we are to immediately oblige them - no matter what the legal and moral consequences of those actions?
Mr. Klatt is a small businessman who is working within the existing Canadian laws to earn a living. A man should not be deprived of his livelihood based on the amount of economic pressure that may be exerted on those upon whom he relies for his living - in this case, telephone lines provided by BC Tel.
I trust that BC Tel will maintain its integrity by continuing its business relationship with Mr. Klatt and Fairview Technology centre.
And, finally, Bernard Klatt himself:
"Hi guys,
You can follow the progression of the BC Tel vs: B'nai Brith Internet censorship confrontation at: http://www.ftcnet.com/~bwklatt/gmvs0328.htm
I liked Matas' quote where he says "Klatt is unique , . . unusual in a global context".
The thinly veiled 'suggestion' from AG Ujjal Dosanjh (Attorney General of BC ) calling on BC Tel to be a 'good corporate citizen' and 'work with' B'nai Brith might be an indication of the expected outcome."
Well, I am not so sure. I try hard not to be pessimistic. We are a handful only - but two plus two EQUALS four.
Last night, I worked long and hard on the April '98 "Power" letter that is to go out of the Zundel-Haus today to those supporters out there who are "soldiering" in their own ways against the greatest of all odds to make sure that the balance sheet is right.
Writes Mr. Zundel, in conclusion:
"There is no day too hard and no night too long that I would want to miss in doing this work in the service of truth. I miss my paints, my colors and my artist's brushes, to be sure, and I wanted to snatch for myself a little bit of normalcy and all that it entails . . . it was not meant to be. I am happy with my job and resigned to my life in this incarnation. I am humbled and grateful to whatever this unseen Force is that has guided me so strangely-that I am the one chosen to do this job, in this place, at this time in history, for my own people and my own kind. I consider it a privilege-and only regret that I have only one life to give."
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"What's next? The Palestinian Treatment - air strikes or bulldozers to take out a website?"
(Bernard Klatt, as quoted in an article titled "BC Tel pressed to axe website")