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

1998 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents

HATE IN CANADA: AN OVERVIEW

The State of the Neo-Nazi Right in Canada

During the last few years, since many of Canada’s neo-Nazi leaders have been involved in legal battles, and since there has also been an ideological shift to "leaderless resistance", there has been a decline in organized hate crime activity in Canada. However, during 1998, some of the familiar leaders of the Canadian far right were again in the news, leading to an upsurge of antisemitic activity in some regions.

Prior to 1998, George Burdi (aka Reverend Eric Hawthorne), former Toronto leader of the now-defunct Church of the Creator, had moved to Windsor to operate his hate record company, Resistance Records, which was based in Detroit to circumvent Canadian hate laws. His company became one of the leading suppliers of hate rock music in North America. Burdi is facing charges of inciting racial hatred since his arrest last May.

In August of 1998, Resistance Records was sold and it seems that this hate label is no longer under Canadian ownership. The new owner is alleged to be Willis Carto, the wealthy publisher of Spotlight Magazine, one of the most antisemitic publications in America. Carto was a founder of the Institute for Historical Review, one of the world’s leading distributors of Holocaust denial. Willis Carto’s purchase was seen as insulting to many of his old disgruntled Holocaust denying colleagues at the IHR to whom he owes money after the IHR was awarded a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit against Carto. It seems that Carto has added Resistance Records to his collection of antisemitic propaganda vehicles.

Don Andrews, a Nazi sympathizer and convicted hate monger, was back in the press in 1998. In 1994, Don Andrews’ organization, the Nationalist Party, had launched a campaign for European Heritage Day. Vaughan, Halifax, Charlottetown and Victoria agreed to endorse the event but when it was realized that the event was spearheaded by a neo-Nazi organization, the cities quickly revoked their decision. In subsequent years, alerted by B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress, several other municipalities turned down the Nationalist Party’s request.

In 1998, Andrews tried a new tactic by attempting to get a European Heritage Week declared in London, Ontario, under the auspices of the European Heritage Week Committee. The attempt at passing European Heritage Week by neo-Nazi sympathizers was recognized, an emergency vote was held by the municipal government, and European Heritage Week was rescinded. Martin Weiche, (who, according to the London Free Press in the 1970’s and 80’s made local headlines for his support of Nazi causes and held a Ku Klux Klan-style cross-burning at his home west of Hyde Park), has filed papers to take the London Ontario Municipal Council before the Human Rights Commission. Ironically this is not the first time Mayor Dianne Haskett and Council have gone before the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In 1995 the Ontario Human Rights Commission found against the Mayor and Council, which it said discriminated against London’s Gay community when they refused to proclaim a Gay Pride Week. The Mayor and Council subsequently relinquished the decision for such proclamations to a committee. It might very well have been London’s political climate after its refusal of a Gay Pride Week that promoted the European Heritage Week Committee to try to get its proclamation of a European Heritage Week passed there. Weiche insists he is not filing suit on behalf of the European Heritage Week Committee but as a civilian who feels discriminated against because he is of European descent. There is still a long process involved before this case goes before the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and it seems unlikely that the Commission will find merit in Weiche’s case.

Since his termination as a teacher from the Peel Board of Education, Paul Fromm (one of the founders of many fringe right organizations, including the Edmund Burke Society, Canadians for Foreign Aid Reform (C-FAR) and Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFÉ) has been traveling across Canada attempting to organize speaking engagements in cities throughout the country. Fromm was fired from the Peel Board on February 27, 1997 following exposure by the League for Human Rights, based on reliable evidence, that Fromm was continuing to flaunt Board policies and the Ministry of Education warning to cease open activities that contravene Board policies. The League supplied the Board with a video tape of Fromm speaking at a memorial symposium for known white supremacist, Revilo P. Oliver, sponsored by the National Alliance, a virulently antisemitic and racist group based in the United States. This occurred after Fromm received a warning from the Ministry of Education and was ordered by the Board to end his association with such groups and individuals who propagate the hatred of immigrants, non-whites, Jews and other minorities. Such activities are against Board policies, and therefore have been deemed to undermine the employer/employee relationship. In 1997 Fromm challenged the Peel Board’s termination by filing a grievance through the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. His challenge continued through 1998 and is presently at arbitration.