Canada, worst than Germany

IT LOOKS GOOD ON THE HYPOCRITES

The Editor, The Globe and Mail.

Dear Sir: BY FAX -- For Publication

Writer Stephen Williams has been given a $5,000 grant by Human Rights Watch "to defray the legal cost of defending himself against criminal and civil litigation over two books he wrote about serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka." (Globe and Mail, "'Persecuted' in Canada, author wins rights grant"). Some people, naturally, are upset that Canada is lumped with such brutal censors as Myanmar, China, Peru and Sierra Leone.

The comparison looks good on Canada's hypocritical legal and political establishment. Certainly, we don't torture or execute dissident authors. We operate in a typically mushy and more restrained Canadian way. Yet, those whose views upset or annoy the powerful are every bit as much in peril in Canada as in some of the more obviously repressive states.

Bricklayer Brad Love, an inveterate letter writer and opponent of Canada's open door immigration policy, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last July for writing anti-immigration letters to MPs. The legal excuse was Canada's so-called "hate law."

Now in his 15th month of solitary confinement in the Metro West Detention Centre is Ernst Zundel. For years, he's published largely the writings of others reflecting his own view of World War II, seeking to deconstruct some of the anti-German bias. Naturally, his opinions seriously outrage many and even he has admitted in court to being "a pain in the ass". He's being held, never having been charged with any crime, as being a "terrorist" and danger to Canada's national security.
A well-known journalist for a rival paper who covered the far-right in Toronto in the 1990s and who is no admirer of Zundel, has declared the allegation of his being a threat to national security preposterous. Yet, Zundel languishes in prison, not for being a violent man, which he isn't, but for his published views.

Finally, late last month, the Canadian Senate passed an amendment to the "hate" law, making criticism of homosexuals that is considered 'hate" to be a criminal offence. Some Christian pastors now fear that quoting Biblical scriptures on homosexuality might earn them up to two years in prison. Provincial human rights commissions have already fined Christians for using such texts.
The Human Rights Watch grant is a reminder to smug Canadians that our Charter guarantees of free speech exist more on paper than in reality.

Sincerely,
Paul Fromm
Director
Canadian Association for Free Expression
Box 332,
Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3
Ph: 905-897-7221; FAX: 905-277-3914
May 12, 2004