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Monday, March 24, 2008
Jonathan Kay on Marc Lemire
In a column in today's National Post, Jonathan Kay wrote:
Marc Lemire is a former leader of Canada’s neo-Nazi Heritage Front. He helped distribute flyers informing Canadians that “Immigration can kill you.” On the Internet, he acts as webmaster for a variety of anti-Semitic organizations.
In short, he is a bigot — a poster-boy for all those who claim that racism is still alive and well in modern Canada.
But when Lemire faces off against representatives of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (HRC) on Tueday, I will be rooting for him....
Find out why here.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on March 24, 2008 | Permalink
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On related subject:
I find it ironic that Warren Kinsella does not get worked up over the fact that Pierre Elliot Trudeau, undisputed God of Canadian Liberalism, in his youth used to ride his bike with his buddies thru the streets of downtown Montreal dressed in Prussian military uniform, complete with German “Pickelhaube”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Trudeau) while Canadians soldiers were getting killed in droves at Juno beach.
Warren should know that, history tends to repeat itself especially when one refuses to learn from it, so he should just cool it off a bit as this youth wearing German “Pickelhaube” demonstrating in downtown Edmonton while Canadian soldiers are getting killed in Afghanistan is already so confused at his young age that when he grows older he might become next leader of Liberal Party of Canada.
How dares he call them “Neo Nazis”??
These poor misguided kids are the future of Liberalism in Canada.
http://www.warrenkinsella.com/index.php?entry=entry080322-141047
WHAT OUR GRANDFATHERS FOUGHT FOR
--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, March 22, 2008, 02:10 PM
From the Calgary Sun:
...
Tensions boiled to a fevered pitch when white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators clashed in the city's downtown core yesterday. A group of neo-Nazis calling themselves the Aryan Guard staged a march from Mewata Armouries down 8 Ave. to city hall, prompting anti-racism activists to stage their own demonstration. Activists, union leaders, anarchists, minority groups and passers-by held their own rally as a counter-demonstration to the white supremacist rally, said Anti-Racist Action Calgary's Jason Devine...Roughly 25 Aryan Guard members amassed at the Franklin LRT station, rode the C-Train downtown and made their way down to Mewata Armouries, when they were blocked by counter-demonstrators along 7 Ave., in front of the Kerby Centre. The animosity between the two groups reached an instant peak, prompting police to set up a human barrier between the two groups.
...
And the Herald, here.
As I and others have been suggesting for months, none of this - as depressing and as outrageous as it is - is surprising. As Western economies continue to slide, we will be seeing more and more of these expressions of hatred (eg. "I HATE JEWS," newly added to the wall at our kids' hockey rink, and spotted this morning). It is what has happened throughout history, over and over.
I note, parenthetically, that since two notorious conservative blowhards started hypocritically attacking human rights in order to promote themselves, I've been receiving mail from people who tell me that their grandfathers went to war to fight for free speech.
My response is always the same: no, young man, if your grandfather did in fact fight in World War II, he went there to fight something else. And that would be the likes of the Aryan Guard.
Neo-Nazi rallies in the middle of the day in one of Canada's greatest cities, you see, are not an unanticipated outcome of the free speech absolutism of Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, Jonathan Kay, Keith Martin et al. Neo-Nazi rallies in broad daylight are its inevitable consequence.
So, when one of those gentlemen provides the Aryan Guard with the name of the street on which they live, and invite the neo-Nazis to lead a parade through their neighbourhood, I'll applaud their willingness to put their money where their big mouths are.
But until then, they remain full of crap.
Posted by: Karol Karolak | 24-Mar-08 11:42:50 PM
Ms. Karolak does not seem to realize that the gentlemen whom she calls free-speech absolutists condemn neo-nazism. In fact, these gentlemen contend that the arena of free speech is the best way to fight neo-nazism. I remember learning in my catechism days that the Roman Catholic Church's index of forbidden books in some (or many) cases actually popularized them. Someone else--either Mr. Steyn or Mr. Levant, I think--noted that Weimar Germany's suppression of free speech actually enabled Hitler to spread his propaganda without dissent.
Human language is a messy medium, and George Orwell's books should remind us of the problems that result when we try to restrict it. Not only is the medium always an inaccurate attempt at representation, but those using it--including those monitoring it--are themselves troubled by ignoble instincts. As the old saying goes, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Whether or not the esteemed gentlemen do, I do NOT regard myself as a free-speech absolutist. I'm not sure whether a free-speech absolutist can prohibit pornography, but I certainly would. Homosexual propaganda has no place in the schools.
I think that I would go so far as to prohibit blasphemy, e.g. in the fashion of the old laws that used to have it "bleeped" out on the radio. Since I am a Christian, blasphemy does not include pictures of Mohamed; and since the democracy of contemporary Canada is not Christian, my law will never become reality.
However, here's some much-needed legislation that I hope will some day have a chance: a law to protect pre-born Canadians from abortionists. What an irony that this identifiable group, with no voice of its own, targeted by the hate speech of those who deny the humanity or personhood of the human fetus, is also denied the advocacy of recognized citizens, e.g. the University of Calgary's recent attempt to stifle the Genocide Awareness Project organized by some of its own students.
What good are the h.r.c.'s? It's okay to kill a baby, but don't you even think of saying that the emperor has no clothes--or homosexual activists no shame. (Of course, the h.r.c.'s must work with the laws as they exist. There's no law to protect pre-born Canadians, but that's in part my point: what good are the h.r.c.'s?)
Posted by: Jon | 3-May-08 10:40:38 AM
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