How things are escalating! Wherever you look these days, there is a sharpening and tightening of "us" versus "them"!
It feels like boils that are festering, about to break open and spill infection everywhere. There will be pain - but also relief, and then healing.
In Russia, where the economy is in collapse and chaos and where 150 million people are facing a very hard, hungry and cold winter, hostility is such that the people's democratic representatives refuse to censor a popular former Red Army general and now a member of the Duma or Russian Parliament who made a blunt anti-semitic remark. It looks as though that huge country is truly pogrom-ready - and what an irony!
From England, via the London Times, comes the odd and disturbing report of an Israeli biological "ethno bomb" said to be targeting specific races for extermination - a report that is being taken seriously enough by many respectable traditional journalists to spread it far and wide. Among them is the well-known Canadian commentator and popular columnist, Eric Margolis <margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com> who published a cautionary and, I thought, covertly legitimizing article of this report's veracity just a few hours ago. (Inside Track On World News, Toronto Sun, November 26, 1998 )
In Switzerland, hostility about the Nazi Gold extortion is as outspoken as anything that I have ever seen in any European country in my lifetime. I heard reports of several street riots in Swiss cities relating to this issue, where the police were siding with the people.
In Germany, more than 7,000 people are now before the courts or else in jail for politically incorrect infractions - mainly relating to the Auschwitz "gas chambers" Holocaust controversy. This is more political prisoners than Communist East Germany had at the height of its repressive rules! And all these people are only the tip of the disbelievers' iceberg, in my opinion, judged by the letters I get out of Germany and from very angry German-Americans fed up to the hilt with Holoschlock overload.
And now there's Canada, as I reported yesterday.
If Canada should cave in to the politically correct psychological terrorists who have first captured, then neutralized, then mutilated the freedom-loving Western mind in that country for decades by parading before them the "villain" Ernst Zundel, ". . . the man they love to hate", and who are now pushing for a ". . . truth is no defence" charade even in regular courts when it comes to matters of history and the "Holocaust", there will be soon only one country left to offer up meaningful and effective resistance: The good old USA.
Here is a press release from the Canadian Association for Free Expression (some of it a repeat of yesterday's ZGram - but never mind; it merits repetition) :
"Possession of hate propaganda for the purposes of distributing it to others could soon be a crime. The measure is among several planned Criminal Code reforms aimed at toughening laws against the spread of hatred.
"The package will include specific new penalties for the desecration of churches, cemeteries and other institutions. It would also include a Criminal Code revision allowing police to seize computer hard drives containing hate propaganda.
"Another move would prevent those charged with promoting hatred from using the defence of truth based on denial of the Holocaust or any other historically recognized act of genocide.
"Federal and provincial justice ministers quietly agreed to the changes recently during a meeting in Regina. 'There was unanimous support for the principles here, that hate-motivated violence is something that we condemn,' said Pierre Gratton, press secretary to Justice Minister Anne McClellan." (National Post, November 25, 1998)
Readers will note the sneaky verbal shell game. It isn't violence that's being legislated against - it's already illegal - it's dissident thought. Being added to the list of privileged minorities will be "sex, sexual orientation, age, mental and physical disability.
Federal justice officials are studying the planned revisions with the aim of bringing in legislation next year, Mr. Gratton said (November 24). Religious conservatives should note that condemnation of homosexuality could well land them in jail. Canada, like most totalitarian regimes, will be adopting state-authorized history - a sort of secular religion. Truth will be no defence in questioning the Hollywood version of World War II.
'The provision will make it easier to crack down on hatemongers while protecting the right of people to openly discuss controversial issues, said Ujjal Dosanjh, British Columbia attorney general, who has been pushing for the adoption of the new measures.'
The . . . logic of the Indian-born B.C. politician is mind-numbing. You protect people's right to discuss controversial issues by seizing their computers, jailing people for possessing quantities of "hate" literature, and making truth no defence in discussing certain matters? That's the sort of "freedom" they enjoy in Pyongyang!
This story warns that the arrogant feds are determined to impose special interest censorship on thinking Canadians. However, these ideas are not yet legislation.
If you care about freedom, call or write your MP. Even more important, go and see him/her over the Christmas parliamentary recess. In decent terms, explain that you cherish freedom of expression and debate. All historical questions must be open for discussion. There can be no sacred cows.
***What sort of "truth" cannot stand challenge and debate?***
Secondly, write, e-mail or fax Justice Minister Anne McLellan, c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6, Canada.
Telephone 613-992-4524
Fax: 613-996-4516
e-mail: McLellan@parl.gc.ca
Let her know that you oppose the idea of introducing such totalitarian legislation. Let the politicians know that this will be a controversial and unpopular measure if it becomes legislation. It's important to derail these dictatorial proposals before the government's prestige is tied to them in legislative form.
Canadian Association for Free Expression, Inc. Box 332, Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3
Phone: 905-897-7221
Fax: 905-277-3914
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Thought for the Day:
"Life treads on life,
and heart on heart,
we press too close
in church and mart
to keep a dream
or grave apart."
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)