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Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
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Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
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There were 80 incidents of antisemitic hate propaganda reported in 1999 in Canada. Six of these incidents were reports of materials being distributed by identified white supremacist organizations such as the Heritage Front and Aryan Nations. However, much of the hate mail and other hate propaganda reported contains concepts that can be easily found on hate sites on the Internet or in other published white supremacist materials. Even though many people who distribute hate propaganda send it to more than one recipient, for the purposes of the Audit, we count multiple reports of receipt of the same piece of hate propaganda as one incident.
Holocaust denial continues to exist in Canada. In 1999 it was fuelled by an increase in European countries and companies taking responsibility for their roles in the Holocaust. A backlash occurred when Holocaust deniers used a number of negative cultural stereotypes against the Jews to gain an audience for their claims that the Holocaust wasn’t as serious as everyone thinks. A number of letters to the editor appeared along with many pieces of hate mail directed to individuals and Jewish organizations saying that Jews are whiny and should stop complaining about the Holocaust. Jews were written about as being demanding and money-grubbing for attempting to redress some of the wrongs of World War II.
A common way for Holocaust deniers to distribute their message is by e-mail. A number of targeted e-mails sent to vocal or prominent members of the Jewish community chastised them for, as one e-mail sent to a president of a B’nai Brith Lodge stated, “spreading the lies of the so called "holocaust"“. This one e-mail went on to say “We (the enlightened) have seen through this money extortion hoax a long time back.”
The much publicized Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in the case of Ernst Zundel has been postponed ’sine die’, pending the results of several Federal Court judicial reviews requested by Zundel’s lawyer, Doug Christie. The case has now dragged on for more than two years. Canadians are eagerly anticipating amendments to the Human Rights Code that will prevent so many loopholes and specifically deal with new technology like the Internet.
The extreme right in Canada is reflected by both groups and individuals. Neo-Nazi groups are showing themselves in Canada with two faces: that of right-of-centre political ideologues and that of skinhead groups. Meanwhile, individuals such as Paul Fromm, are trying to reach out to the average Canadian by trying to incite anti-immigration backlashes or trying to promote a vision of freedom of speech that grants complete license to Holocaust deniers, antisemitic conspiracy theorists, and others who engage in hate.
Fromm was an Ontario teacher who was fired after it became known that he spoke at a memorial symposium for a known white supremacist subsequent to receiving a warning by the Ministry of Education to stop engaging in activities contrary to the Peel Board of Education multicultural and human rights policies. The National Alliance, a virulently antisemitic and racist group based in the United States, sponsored the symposium at which Fromm spoke. Fromm continues his connections with the extreme right in his speaking tours across Canada, even as his appeal continues.
White supremacist organizations spread from coast to coast. Skinheads with neo-Nazi beliefs and connections were prominent in the news again this year with the sentencing hearing for the 5 skinheads found guilty of beating Nirmal Singh Gill to death in British Columbia. These 5 individuals were linked to a Nazi skinhead group called White Power and at least one proudly admitted that he still believes in the "divine providence of white men". Extraordinary evidence in the case suggested a wide network of Canadian skinheads hoping to incite what they call the “racial holy war” ostensibly to bring on the end of the world in time to coincide with the turn of the millennium.
In Ontario, right wing extremist groups have spread from the major cities to the smaller centres. London, Ontario found similar "New Order" business cards with the slogan “Save the White Race” placed in books and magazines in a major bookstore chain. Kitchener/Waterloo also has an active fascist movement evidenced by a number of confrontations between violent extremist right wing youth and anti-racism activists. It seems that these individuals are largely unaffiliated. With the mass of white supremacist and Nazi information on the Internet, they most likely are being fed their rhetoric from some larger, more organized group.
Toronto certainly has not been spared from activities by these groups. Although the more well known leaders of the far right such as Ernst Zundel, a Holocaust denial publisher, Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front, and Don Andrews of the Nationalist Party of Canada, are based in Toronto, they have largely been quiet over the past year. The only active neo-Nazi skinhead group is the Polska Skins out of Riverdale in Toronto. Several Polish youth who aren’t skinheads have also been spotted wearing neo-Fascist regalia such as Screwdriver t-shirts (a white supremacist rock band), RaHoWa patches (Racial Holy War) and COTC patches (Church of the Creator). Racist skinheads were in the press in 1999 with the continued coverage of the court case where protesters were being tried for the violent hate-motivated demonstration against Roma individuals living in Scarborough.
As described above, the white supremacist movement is growing in the Atlantic Provinces. Fuelled by anti-immigration rhetoric, reports have been made of increased recruitment activity by various groups such as the "Celtic Sons and Daughters" and the "Heritage Front" in P.E.I.
Although the organized hate movement in Canada did not seem to be that strong in 1999, we should not forget the power of the Internet to influence, to mobilize and to unite. Recruitment does not have to come from individuals any longer. Racist and antisemitic ideology and connections can spring up in any town where a resident has a computer and a modem.
Hate on the Internet continues to be an on-going problem. With more and more people having access to the World Wide Web, more people can fall under the influence of websites that preach antisemitism, racism, and bigotry of all kinds. With the Internet, hate-mongers can reach a previously unheard of number of people through their websites and by infiltrating chatrooms.
B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights, while monitoring hate on the Internet, does not document all antisemitic occurrences, as this would be impossible. The Audit does, however, include specifically targeted e-mails and threats. For example, a webpage complaining that Jews rule the world is not counted, while an e-mail sent to a specific person making the same complaint would be counted as an incident. When the same e-mail is sent to multiple parties, this is only counted as one incident.
During the past year, the League has had reports of a number of chatrooms that have been co-opted by hatemongers. These are particularly insidious, as the hatred that is spewed on these sites reaches unsuspecting people who sign on to talk about other issues altogether. Complaints to the hosts of these sites are often fruitless. Most identification in chatrooms is by nicknames; and even if a host decided to act responsibly and cut off an abusive or bigoted user, they can quickly sign on again using another nickname. The League alerted the search engine "Yahoo" to four virulently antisemitic users in a teenage chatroom, and their accounts were cancelled.
There have been occasions when a complaint has been lodged about antisemitic and racist activity and the complainant has been the one banned from the chat room. One example is a Vancouver, British Columbia woman who complained that the Social Issues chat room on MSNBC (a NBC based news and current affairs site) had become a site for dissemination of virulently antisemitic material and that some users are trying to recruit people to white supremacy groups such as Aryan Nations and the KKK. It seems that in their efforts to protect "free speech", MSNBC took away the freedom of the complainant to speak. This case and this chatroom continue to be monitored by the League in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League in New York.
Yahoo, a major search engine on the Web, also hosts a number of Jewish chatrooms which regularly draw antisemitic abuse and harassment. Users sign on as Hitler, Goering or other offensive names and engage in racist and antisemitic jokes, statements and threats, as well as Holocaust denial. The effect is that individuals who come to the chat-rooms to talk about being Jewish either leave in disgust and horror at the comments made or spend their energy arguing with the hatemongers.
Websites of white supremacists, hate mongers and extreme right-wingers continue to proliferate. This year the League has seen an increase in sites designed to recruit women and children. "Women for Aryan Unity" have a site identified as Canadian by Hatewatch (an educational resource combatting online bigotry). The site preaches a strict division of roles for men and women which will aid in the “fight against ZOG and other evils that impose their destructive ways upon us.” Sigfridia Publications runs another Canadian website published by “white women in the racialist struggle”. With columns such as Health, Fitness, Aryan Recipes and Baby Bulletin, this site has been designed to appeal to and recruit women to the white supremacy movement.
A chief concern for parents is that children will be exposed to inappropriate material while surfing the web. Certainly a child can easily stumble on white supremacy pages in innocent ways, such as while doing research for history assignments for school. Now children can find links to hate sites when searching for puzzles or games. Hate sites aimed at children are on the increase. Most major white supremacist organizations have sites specifically for children. Whether it is Stormfront for Kids or World Church of the Creator - KIDS, these sites feature puzzles, bright colours and drawings. Crossword puzzles feature clues such as “Niggers are ____” and “the White Race is the most ____ race”.
Marc Lemire continues to host the Freedom Site which houses a number of webpages for extreme right groups. The Heritage Front and the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee continue to spread intolerance and racism through their sites. CFIRC complains “Immigration is changing all portions of Canadian society, and thanks to Multiculturalism, what Canada once was is being perverted, changed and distorted”. As it can be assumed that they are not supporting a return to pre-immigration days when only the Aboriginal people were in Canada, it seems that a "White’s Only" Canada is their chief desire.
As a follow-up to the 1997 symposium B’nai Brith Canada, through its Institute for International Affairs and League for Human Rights, hosted the Second International Symposium on Hate on the Internet in March of 1999. The symposium drew on the latest expertise of international delegates in the areas of law, legislation, technology, education, human rights and community action. Approximately 150 delegates came from such countries as France, Sweden, Germany, Israel, England, Australia, Canada, and the United States to follow up on the previous 1997 recommendations and to co-ordinate methods of dealing with the global problem of Hate on the Internet. Please see Appendix B for the Executive Summary and Recommendations that resulted from this event.
This year in Canada we have seen an alarming trend. A few sensationalized cases have given rise to an abundance of racist views being expressed by right-of-centre politicians and members of the public, and white supremacists alike. Notably the cases of the Chinese nationals arriving in Canada by boat and the Supreme Court of Canada decision regarding Mi’kmaq fishing and hunting rights have made public an increasingly virulent form of racism. Even humanitarian efforts such as the sheltering of Kosovar refugees in Canada afforded racists the opportunity to spew racist opinions.
Since the summer, nearly 600 Chinese migrants arrived in Canada and claimed refugee status. Although this is a tiny portion of Canada’s annual 25,000 refugee claimants, the call has gone out by racists that this "wave" of refugees will turn Canada from a white country to one where you will never see a person of European heritage. Paul Fromm, in his adopted role of free speech advocate and immigration expert through his Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) and Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform (C-FAR), sounded the alarm that if Canada allows these individuals to stay today, then all of China will be at our doorstep tomorrow. Fromm and others use racist beliefs to pander to individuals’ basest fears that if Canada allows these refugees in then there won’t be enough money to take care of "real" Canadians. This type of fear mongering has been eaten up and digested by many in the general public and even mainstream media. Radio open-line shows and public opinion polls reflect a number of people who recite the types of views that Fromm proposes but, when challenged with real numbers and facts, they are unable to defend them.
In November of 1999, Michael Chessman, self-appointed leader of the fictitious Coalition for a Humanistic British Canada, took out racist and anti-immigration ads in most major newspapers in Canada. In his advertisements, which were fraudulently obtained and subsequently not paid for, he pushed for an increase in immigration from white European countries only. This desire, side by side with such notions as “an end to Canada’s multicultural policies” and “a requirement that mainstream cultural assimilation be carried as a matter of course” shows the true stripes of those who object to immigration of visible minorities as a matter of course. In addition, Internet sites abound with links between anti-immigration rhetoric and racist or white supremacist sites.
This fall’s Supreme Court of Canada decision to respect a Mi’kmaq fishing and hunting treaty gave rise to violence, arson, and theft mostly permeated with racist undertones. Once again, people rose up in outrage against a visible minority with the fear that they would take something away from the ’white’ majority. The arguments were being made that the Mi’kmaq would fish out the waters in the Maritimes and leave nothing for the non-Native fishers. Although the numbers and statistics showed that this fear was groundless, it was taken up as a rallying cry to spur hatred and violence against the Mi’kmaq. Even the humanitarian efforts to provide for the Kosovar refugees in Canada brought forth the fear that if one gives to outsiders there won’t be enough left for oneself. The efforts of organizations such as B’nai Brith, who worked to gather clothes and supplies, did not go unnoticed. While calls of support were received at the National office, there was also an upswing of hate mail and racist phone messages decrying the humanitarian work being done. In this situation as in the ones above, the common element is that minorities, refugees and immigrants are being seen as members of racial groups and not individuals with needs and human rights.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
| DEFINITIONS AND DATA COLLECTION
| SUMMARY OF DATA
ANTISEMITISM IN CANADA — REGIONAL CLIMATE AND TRENDS
| HATE IN CANADA: AN OVERVIEW
ANTISEMITIC BIAS AND SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION
| CONVERSION CRAZE — MILLENNIUM MADNESS?
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ANTISEMITISM AND HATE
| APPENDIX A: The Jewish Community in Canada — A Brief Overview
Table 1: NATURE OF ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS BY YEAR
| Table 2: GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF INCIDENTS
Figure 1: Nature of Antisemitic Incidents by Year
| Figure 2: Three Year Average of Incidents
| Figure 3: Antisemitic Incidents by Region