
Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Prof. Stephen Scheinberg National Chair	Ruth Klein National Director of Advocacy

1996 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents

HATE IN CANADA

The State of the Neo-Nazi Right in Canada

In the last few years, the organized neo-Nazi right in Canada has become somewhat fragmented. The Heritage Front, which rose to prominence from 1990 to 1994, declined rapidly after the expos… in 1994 of Grant Bristow, a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) “mole,” and the arrest of Wolfgang Droege. Since the demise of the Heritage Front, no single individual or group has been able to rebuild and bring order to the far-right movement in Canada. There are several reasons for this lack of leadership. First, no dynamic individual has emerged with the skills or a focused agenda to unify the various groups within the hate movement. Secondly, after the “Grant Bristow Affair” a great deal of suspicion remains within the extreme right regarding possible infiltration by police or CSIS “moles.” As a result, there is a reluctance to create an organization with an identifiable leader and hierarchy similar to the pre-1994 Heritage Front. That is, in Canada, groups have adopted the strategy of “leaderless resistance,” creating small cells of individuals to elude infiltration. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of these cells in Canada, a pattern similar to the United States. Thirdly, until recently some of the key activists of the hate movements such as George Burdi of the Church of the Creator, and Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front have been serving jail terms. Despite these factors, which have contributed to the far right’s fragmentation and apparent decline, there continues to be recruitment in high schools and suburban areas. There has also been a steady increase in the proliferation of hate on the Internet, perpetrated by various individuals and small groups.

Legal problems persisted this year for several members of Canada’s far right. In late April, Matt McKay, a former member of the Airborne Division, and Robert Welsh, a suspected former leader of the violent white supremacist Northern Hammerskins, were charged in connection with the murder of Gordon Kuhtey in Winnipeg in 1991. Police believe that Kuhtey was killed because his attackers thought he was gay. In March, Canadian authorities deported Oliver Bode, a friend of Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel, after he was red-flagged at Pearson International Airport because of his 12 neo-Nazi hate crime convictions in Germany. Despite an appeal, Bode was ordered out of the country. Also in March 1996, Charles Scott, last year’s “Aryan of the Year,” was ordered by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) to shut down a hate line. The use of telecommunications to promote hatred violates the Canadian Human Rights Code. In November, two individuals were charged in Oshawa, Ontario, for willfully promoting hatred. The two are alleged to have distributed a large amount of NSDAP-AO material throughout the Durham region. The trial is set for early 1997.

In 1996, two cases against the far right did not succeed. In March, charges of defamatory libel and conspiracy to promote hatred against Jews were brought against Ernst Zundel by Holocaust survivor Sabina Citron. However, charges were withdrawn by the Crown due to insufficient evidence. In April, a Federal Court judge dismissed a contempt charge against the Heritage Front due to inadequacies in the evidence. The case was launched by the CHRC which alleged that the Heritage Front leader Wolfgang Droege and member June French had violated a court order not to communicate hate messages on the telephone, by setting up another line after the Heritage Front hate line had been shut down. Both cases indicate the importance of gathering sufficient evidence and preparing sound cases when bringing hate mongers to court.

An interesting twist occurred this year, when Gary Botting of Victoria B.C., a former recipient of the George Orwell Free Speech Award from Doug Christie’s Canadian Free Speech League, denounced Christie’s League as a front for “anti-Semitic pro-Nazi propaganda.” Christie is the Victoria lawyer who has defended a string of Holocaust-deniers including Ernst Zundel, James Keegstra, and Malcolm Ross, among other members of the far right in Canada. Botting, who once testified on behalf of Zundel, returned his award to Christie and denounced both Zundel and Christie.

Hate on the Internet

There is evidence that, despite the various setbacks, elements of Canada’s far right remain alive and well, particularly in “cyberspace.” The League has documented the beginnings of the use of computers by hate groups in the last few years. But in 1996, under the rubric of webmaster Marc Lemire’s “Freedom Site,” Canada’s far right has taken to the Internet in a big way. Most of the ideologues of Canada’s extreme right, such as Paul Fromm, Ernst Zundel, and Doug Christie have established sites on the World Wide Web both to disseminate their propaganda and recruit new “foot soldiers” to their cause. The growing sophistication of these web sites, including their use of RealAudio which allows for real time audio broadcasts, is testimony to the importance these individuals place on the Internet as a tool to maximize their influence. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to measure the real impact of the Internet in terms of hate recruitment. The Internet has indeed proved to be a boon to both those who are actively seeking hate material and to those who want to disseminate it.

The Internet’s attractiveness lies in its ability to reach a diverse audience and to give the hate mongers a level of credability, control, and influence that far outweighs their numbers. In the most recent issue of their fundraising letter, the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) stresses the importance of its Internet presence and sums up the reasons it has become such a useful tool for the extremist right:

Probably our single most important achievement in recent years has been through the Internet ‘information superhighway’ computer network. Around the clock and around the world, millions can instantly access hard-hitting IHR pamphlets and Journal articles on the World Wide Web. Crossing national boundaries and defying central control, we regularly reach tens of thousands of students, researchers and educators, including people in countries such as France and Germany where revisionist materials are banned or severely restricted.

Recruitment in the School Yard

Despite the growth of the Internet, person-to-person recruitment remains important. The most prevalent type of recruitment takes place in the schoolyards of junior and senior high schools. Hate groups continue to target teenagers who are at a vulnerable stage of development. Recruitment by the Heritage Front, Northern Hammerskins, and other skinhead groups remains strong in Toronto and surrounding areas, especially in the regions of Durham, Halton-Peel, St. Catherines and Niagara. Charles Scott and the Aryan Nations continue to recruit actively in the interior of British Columbia. As the League points out in its “Is Your Child a Target?” pamphlet for parents and teachers:

Young people are more likely to accept at face value the racist ideology of the hate monger. They are often naïve and easily brainwashed by racist propaganda because they don’t have the experience or facts at hand to refute the lies and myths fed to them
Lonely, marginalized youth seeking a sense of belonging are both the most attractive targets for racists and their most useful tool once recruited (see Appendix for full copy).

Hate Propaganda and Holocaust Denial

Along with recruiting, the distribution and dissemination of hate material continues relatively unabated. Even materials on Revenue Canada’s list of prohibited imports seem to seep through Canada’s porous border. The high volume of imports makes effective control of the importation of hate material very difficult. However, in June, the League alerted Revenue Canada with the help of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Hate Crimes Unit, and succeeded in preventing the distribution of The Turner Diaries. In addition, heightened awareness raised by police hate crimes units has resulted in police forces making some headway in slowing the distribution of hate material. In November 1996 in Durham, west of Toronto, the regional police, with the assistance of Metro Toronto Police and the Ontario Provincial Police, arrested two individuals who were distributing hate propaganda in school yards and residential neighbourhoods. In British Columbia, police arrested an individual who was distributing material in the Lower Mainland. However, Ernst Zundel, based in Toronto, continues to publish and disseminate Holocaust denial material world-wide, both on the Internet and through the exports of his publishing house, Samisdat.

The Far-Right Against Anti-Racists

The far right has also begun to try to take advantage of legal means to thwart the efforts of anti-racist activists. Alan Dutton, Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Racism Education and Research Society based in Vancouver, is currently being sued by an outspoken radio commentator, Charles Maclean. This action followed complaints by Dutton to the CRTC, concerning comments made by a variety of right-wing guests (Paul Fromm, David Irving) on Maclean’s radio program. David Lethbridge, Director of the Salmon Arm Coalition Against Racism, is being sued for defamation by Eileen Pressler of the Council for Public Affairs. Such cases require significant amounts of money for legal defense. But the “libel chill” approach has not at all had the effect of silencing the critics of the far-right. If anything, it has strengthened the resolve of anti-racists to network more effectively with each other and to ensure a stronger legal position against racist hate mongers.