Canada
Canada is a constitutional monarchy with a federal parliamentary form
of government (operating at federal and provincial levels) and an independent
judiciary. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party is the dominant
party federally, with a majority government. Two regional parties, the secessionist
Bloc Québecois and the western-based Reform Party, form the bulk
of the opposition.
Smaller groups are the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Progressive Conservative
Party (PC); the latter historically has been one of the country's two leading
parties. With the exception of Quebec, governments in the nine provinces
are currently led by Liberals, PC or NDP. The predominantly French-speaking
Quebec is governed by the Parti Québecois (PQ). Following the defeat
of a referendum on independence at the end of 1995, the Quebec government
remained committed to finding a way to persuade a majority of the province's
voters to opt for separation in the next referendum, which may be held towards
the end of the 1990s.
Meanwhile, the federal government, led by the Liberal Party, looked for
ways to undermine the separatist thrust and preserve a united Canada. After
his intemperate post-referendum remarks, Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau
resigned. His PQ chose the charismatic Lucien Bouchard as its leader; he
automatically became premier as well. A federal election is expected in
1997, to be followed by a Quebec election, possibly in 1998. It is unlikely
that another referendum will be held before 1999.
Most of the provinces were getting their deficits under control in 1996,
mainly by slashing spending. The leaders in this regard were Alberta and
Ontario. Voters in British Columbia re-elected the NDP. The year featured
moderate economic growth with very low inflation. Nevertheless, unemployment
remained above 10 per cent.
In post-referendum Quebec there were disturbing signs of the emergence of
antisemitism through a series of unrelated incidents which, when examined
in their totality, appeared to indicate a pattern of the legitimation of
antisemitic expression. The delicacy of the situation was exacerbated by
the prominence of Jews in many of the grassroots pro-federalist groups that
sprang up in the province after the close call of the referendum. This led
to calls for Jewish community organizations to rein in such people, suggesting
that they were operating in their capacities as Jews rather than as ordinary
citizens.
Thus there were a number of situations in which the Jewish community as
a whole was criticized as being opposed to "Quebec's aspirations"
or felt that it was singled out for antagonistic treatment. The atmosphere
certainly contributed to the decisions of some Jews to move out of Quebec
(usually to other parts of Canada), though it is too soon to attempt to
quantify such migration.
While the first Jews came to Canada in the eighteenth century, the bulk
of the community is descended from twentieth-century immigrants, from Eastern
Europe and Russia in the first half of the century and, more recently, from
North Africa and the Middle East. In the last few years, the community has
been absorbing Jews from South Africa, Israel and the former Soviet republics.
The government's refusal to admit Jewish refugees from Nazism before and
during the Second World War is well documented. A book published in 1994,
Sanctuary Denied, examined Newfoundland's refugee policy during the
Nazi period, when it was a separate British colony and not part of Canada.
Out of more than 5,000 requests from refugees during this period, not one
person was admitted.
Until the 1970s, Montreal was the most important Jewish centre in Canada.
However, the threat of Quebec separatism that emerged in the mid-1970s motivated
tens of thousands of Quebec Jews, who were predominantly Anglophone, to
move into other areas, principally Ontario. Today, Toronto has replaced
Montreal as the home of the largest Jewish community in Canada.
During the last fifty years, there has been a noticeable improvement in
the status of Jews in Canadian society. Jewish community organizations have
worked with the government to develop legislation in such fields as combating
hatred against identifiable groups and prosecuting war crimes committed
abroad.
There was ongoing concern about racism in the military. During a civilian
inquiry the Airborne Regiment was accused by the Canadian Jewish Congress
(CJC) of tolerating swastika tattoos on troops. According to Sgt-Major Bud
Jardine, the tattoos were not a symbol of racism, nor did they undermine
discipline. Also, in August, the army dismissed two soldiers from the base
at Petawawa, British Columbia, for neo-Nazi activities.
In British Columbia, the Greater Victoria Public Library allowed a private
meeting of the Canadian Free Speech League, a racist group connected to
the well-known lawyer Douglas Christie, to take place in its building in
October. In a similar matter, CJC asked Quebec cities to be vigilant with
regard to the rental of public buildings to extremist groups. The move was
in response to a rock concert of three neo-Nazi bands held in April in a
school gymnasium in Bécancour. The event was advertised in a skinhead
newspaper with links to the Heritage Front (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS).
A study published by York University in January found that white residents
of Toronto do not generally harbour racist views. The survey showed that
85 per cent of white respondents agreed with the statement that "visible
minorities have made an important contribution to the cultural life of Canada"
and 81 per cent agreed that "it should be against the law to treat
visible minorities as different from other Canadians". Critics of the
report complained that the definition of racism in the survey was too limited;
the term was used only to signify those people who hold blatantly bigoted
views.
According to the US department of state annual report on human rights, during
1996 there was a continuation of indigenous people's disputes over issues
such as land claims, self-government and alleged harassment by the police.
Indigenous people continued to be under-represented in the workforce and
over-represented in the welfare system, with higher rates of suicide and
poverty than other population groups.
A report of the Commission on Systematic Racism in the Ontario criminal
justice system showed that blacks and other racial minorities are more likely
to be charged and imprisoned than whites in Ontario, and recommended training
and education to deal with the problem.
In October, immigration minister Lucienne Robillard announced that there
would be no increase in the number of immigrants allowed into Canada in
1997. She quoted an opinion poll on immigration levels and said that there
was fear of a social backlash if the number was raised. B'nai Brith Canada
(BBC) expressed alarm that immigration policy was based on polls, "when
the government knows that the public's perception of the economic effects
of immigration is wrong . . .", and that if Ottawa continued this policy,
"it could again lead to a day when Canada shamefully slams its door
shut on desperate refugees as it did prior to World War II."
The well-known far-right movements maintained a low profile during the
year, presumably in response to heavy government pressure in previous years.
Organizations such as the Heritage Front, the Nationalist Party of Canada
(NPOC), the Church of the Creator (COTC), various Aryan groups and assorted
skinheads continued to exist in relatively small numbers but had little
impact. With their small size, many of the groups prefer to operate in cells,
increasingly following the organizational tenets of "leaderless resistance"
(see United States of America).
The Heritage Front, founded in 1989 in Toronto, was one of the largest and
most active Canadian far-right groups, claiming at its peak nearly 2,000
members. In recent years the Front has experienced financial difficulties
and leadership problems, first with the exposé of a Canadian security
intelligence service "mole" within its ranks, and then with the
group's leader, Wolfgang Droege, facing repeated prosecution (see LEGAL
MATTERS). The group's newsletter, Up Front, has not been published
since 1995.
The COTC is a violent and virulently racist group based in Toronto with
several branches around Canada. In the past it had close links to the Heritage
Front. It is in a similar situation to the Front, with its one-time leader,
George Burdi, serving a prison sentence for racist activity. Burdi is the
former lead singer of the neo-Nazi band RaHoWa (Race Holy War) and the founder
of Resistance Records (see United States of America).
The Iron Guard, whose ideology blends mystic nationalism, high religiosity,
antisemitism and anti-communism, is reported to have been recruiting members,
particularly among Romanian immigrants, in Hamilton. The group, which is
also known as the Legion of the Archangel Saint Michael, has in the past
been linked to murders in North America (see Romania).
In the midst of a general decline in skinhead activity in Canada, there
has been a rise in activity among Polish skinheads, known as Polskas. There
are an estimated 80-100 Polskas in the Toronto area alone. The skinheads
retain links with skinhead bands such as Konkwista 88, Sztorm 68 and Deportacja
in Poland, and a large number of magazines for fans of the bands are available
in Canada. They contain antisemitic images and lyrics (see Poland).
The Reform Party, with over fifty seats in parliament, continued to be plagued
by accusations of connections to far-right and neo-Nazi groups, despite
efforts by its leader, Preston Manning, to cleanse the party of such relationships.
There remains a direct link on the Internet between the Reform Party's web
site and the Heritage Front's home page. In addition, CJC's Pacific chair,
Michael Elterman, charged that Reform MP Herb Grubel had participated in
a conference in British Columbia with known American militia supporters.
A Reform MP also sponsored a panel discussion that included two other MPs
and journalist Doug Collins, who in 1995 published an article denying the
Holocaust.
In the post-referendum atmosphere in Quebec, Jews were particularly sensitive
to any actions that might single them out for dis- criminatory attacks.
It is true that the majority of Quebec Jews oppose independence, but so
do other minority groups, as well as a minority of French Québecois.
Nevertheless in recent years, particularly in 1996, Jews stood out as leaders
of the pro-federalist forces and even as spokespersons for the English Quebecers.
The issue that attracted the most attention during the year was the "matzahgate
affair", in which government language inspectors pressured food markets
to remove certain Passover foods from their shelves just before the holiday
because they lacked French labels. In general, food products sold in Quebec
must have French labels, though for years exceptions had been made for Passover
products imported from the USA. Neither the producers nor the importers
found that they could afford the cost of French labelling for such a small
market. The highly visible government crackdown, which appeared to be arbitrary
and clumsily handled, was perceived with deep suspicion within the community.
The action by the Office de la langue française (OLF) was widely
condemned.
After five months of negotiations, the CJC and the OLF finally agreed to
guidelines that would permit kosher food without French labels for a period
of about nine weeks at the time of Passover, thereby formalizing what had
been tacitly done for years pursuant to existing legislation. The accord
created a certain amount of dissension within the Jewish community.
The treatment of businessman Howard Galganov was another matter that created
unease within the Montreal Jewish community. Galganov, acting alone or with
political groups that he organized, led protests and encouraged civil disobedience
against Quebec's restrictive language laws, urged merchants to use English
to the extent permitted by the law, and used public-relations methods to
try to undermine the provincial government's drive for independence. As
a result, Galganov quickly emerged as a prominent and controversial public
figure in Montreal. This led to demands from nationalist quarters that the
Jewish community distance itself from him, even though the fact that he
is Jewish was irrelevant to his political activities. In addition, some
of Galganov's critics revealed that in the 1960s he had belonged to the
Jewish Defense League (JDL) and tried to discredit his current actions because
of that affiliation with a group headed by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. A
reporter, Gilles Paquin, wrote in La Presse that "the man who
has set himself up as the defender of anglophone rights and denounces furiously
the 'ethnic nationalism' of Quebecers went to school in the JDL, an outlawed
racist movement in Israel". The CJC Quebec region executive director,
Jack Jedwab, found it "despicable" that Paquin had tried to "transform
this into a Jewish question". On the other hand, the Communauté
sepharade du Quebec (CSQ) did denounce Galganov as an "extremist"
and blamed the media for giving him an opportunity to "exacerbate again
social tensions between francophones and anglophones".
The issue of Jews opposed to separatism was framed in an inflammatory statement
by Raymond Villeneuve, the former Front de libération du Québec
activist. Writing in September on the eve of Yom Kippur, in La Tempête,
the newsletter of his marginal Mouvement de libération nationale
du Québec, he complained about the attitudes of anglophone Jews towards
Quebec nationalism. Villeneuve warned them that after the achievement of
sovereignty by Quebec, nationalists would remember how they had worked against
the cause of independence and that there might be retaliation. He specifically
targeted Ashkenazi Jews: "With the latest escapades of Galganov, it
is too much. It is necessary to dare to denounce their inexplicable and
incomprehensible hostility toward our people and its right to self-determination."
In addition to Galganov, Villeneuve singled out Montreal Gazette
publisher Michael Goldbloom, lawyer Eric Maldoff, BBC's Quebec executive
director Robert Libman, and the writer Mordecai Richler. CJC called for
the police to charge Villeneuve under the anti-hate statutes, citing additional
evidence from a radio interview in which he appeared to encourage violence,
specifically bombs or Molotov cocktails, against certain individuals.
Attempts to deal with Villeneuve politically were unsuccessful. Although
Premier Bouchard denounced his remarks, his party prevented the adoption
of a national assembly resolution unless Galganov was included in it. Moreover,
the PQ refused to expel Villeneuve. Villeneuve himself later issued a statement
in which he admitted that "it was unfair to implicate all anglophone
Jews". However he insisted that "many individuals [e.g. the leaders
of CJC, BBC, and Messrs Richler, Libman, Galganov] of that community have
transformed themselves into the shock troops for a system of neo-colonial
type exploitation and domination, that they can give moral support to the
negation of the right of a people to existence . . . "
Another unsettling incident for the Montreal Jewish community took place
in August at the Jewish General Hospital. French nationalists held a demonstration
in front of the institution to back their contention that patients could
not get treated in French, an allegation that was untrue and was based on
a misunderstanding involving a particular patient. Some Jews viewed the
vigil as an additional provocation in the context of escalating tensions
over language, ethnic groups and attitudes to independence, especially since
the OLF had referred to the patient's encounter as an isolated incident
that did not reflect the usual procedures at the hospital.
Former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau, who was forced to resign after blaming
the defeat of the 1995 referendum on "money and the ethnic vote",
wrote a lengthy essay for Montreal's Le Devoir one year later. Again
he blamed the "No" victory on a massive vote by minorities, alluding
to the campaign of a coalition of Greek, Italian and Jewish associations.
Jewish spokespersons were quick to respond, with the CJC's Jedwab pointing
out that "there is a very stark similarity between his views and the
Quebec ethnic nationalism of the 1930s". Robert Libman, Jedwab's counterpart
at BBC, considered Parizeau's ideas to be "mean and spiteful".
These events, while not part of any grand design, in retrospect appear to
form a pattern of increasing pressure on Jews in post-referendum Quebec.
Such developments did not go unnoticed outside Canada. For example, the
US congressional committee that monitors compliance with the Helsinki agreements
on human rights wrote to the Canadian ambassador in Washington, Raymond
Chrétien, to express concern over possible violations of Jewish and
other minority rights, especially with reference to the "matzahgate
affair" and the revival of the Quebec language police. The first letter,
in April, asserted that the actions with respect to Passover foods "had
the effect of violating Canada's international Helsinki obligations by denying
religious Jews living in Quebec the ability to abide by Jewish dietary laws
during the holy days".
A Quebec superior court judge, Jean Bienvenue, who in 1995 had gratuitously
insulted the memory of Holocaust victims in comments from the bench, decided
to resign in September following a Canadian judicial council recommendation
that he be removed from his post. The council's 22:7 vote backed the finding
of a five-member inquiry committee. In its report the council found that
Bienvenue "has shown an aggravating lack of sensitivity to the communities
and individuals offended by his remarks or conduct". Bienvenue, superior
court judge since 1977 and a Quebec finance, immigration and education minister
before that, was the first federally appointed judge to be recommended for
dismissal by a public inquiry.
In an embarrassment to the federalist cause, it was revealed in November
that Jean-Louis Roux, the lieutenant-governor of Quebec (the Queen's representative),
had worn a swastika during a demonstration in 1942 and had been involved
in antisemitic activities at the time. As a result of the ensuing furore,
Roux, who by all accounts had lived an exemplary life since that episode,
was forced to resign. After the revelations, he met officials of the CJC,
BBC and the CSQ to apologize for his actions. The Jewish leaders in turn
regretted that separatists had used the incident to further their cause
(by forcing Roux to resign). They also stressed that these events underscored
the need for Quebec to come to terms with the pro-Nazi sympathies that were
common among the élite before and during the Second World War.
Historical issues involving a Nazi sympathizer with high connections in
Quebec were raised in Yves Lavertu's "The Bernonville Affair: A French
War Criminal in Quebec After World War II" (1995; original French edition
1994). Jacques Duge de Bernonville, who was a commander of the pro-Nazi
Milice in France during the Second World War and also worked to implement
the antisemitic policies of the Vichy regime, came to Quebec in 1946. He
gained support for his efforts to avoid deportation, even though he had
been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Toulouse. Among those
who took up his cause were intellectuals, officials of the Catholic church,
journalists and politicians such as Montreal mayor Camillien Houde, many
of whom saw Bernonville as a victim of leftist-dominated revenge trials
in France after the war. The Quebec government even gave money to a Bernonville
defence committee. Camille Laurin, later to be the father of Quebec's language
laws as a cabinet minister, was one of 143 prominent Québecois to
sign a 1950 petition demanding that the deportation order be annulled. Eventually,
in 1951, Bernonville left the country of his own accord.
According to the BBC 1996 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents there
was a total of 244 antisemitic incidents reported to the League for Human
Rights in 1996. This represents a decrease of 26.3 per cent from the 331
incidents in 1995, which had been the highest number reported in fourteen
years of documentation. It is estimated, however, that only one in ten incidents
is ever reported.
There were eighty-one reported cases of antisemitic vandalism, a level similar
to previous years. Antisemitic harassment dropped to 163 reported incidents
(259 in 1995), a decrease of 35.1 per cent. Although this includes the distribution
of hate propaganda, it does not include antisemitism on the Internet.
Of the reported incidents, 40 per cent occurred in the Toronto area. The
trend of the past four years, where there has been a more random pattern
of antisemitism in the country, continued. Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal
all experienced a decline in the number of incidents, although smaller communities
in Ontario experienced an increase. It seems that as police units clamp
down on hate crime in the cities, far-right groups go further afield to
recruit members.
In April, a letter-bomb exploded at the office of the Jewish National Fund
in Calgary. The secretary of the centre suffered minor injuries and the
bomb appeared to have malfunctioned with only the detonator exploding. No
one has claimed responsibility.
In June a bomb exploded in Charlottetown. It was linked to a previously
unheard-of group, Loki 7. Vandals broke into a Toronto home in June on the
eve of "Aryan Fest Day" and scrawled numerous antisemitic slogans
and swastikas on the inside walls. The Jewish owners were away at the time
(see LEGAL MATTERS). Also in June, the Jewish cemetery in Victoria was desecrated.
Six headstones were toppled and several others damaged. Those responsible
have not yet been caught.
The case against Malcolm Ross, a teacher from New Brunswick, was concluded
in April 1996. Ross had been removed from the classroom by the province's
human rights commission because of his antisemitic views and toleration
of an intimidating atmosphere in his classroom. Ross was well known in the
Moncton community for his books and pamphlets warning about the threat to
Christian civilization from a global Jewish conspiracy (see LEGAL MATTERS).
Ross did retain his position as a school librarian.
The Peel Board of Education near Toronto was asked in December by the League
for Human Rights of B'nai Brith to determine whether teacher Paul Fromm
had violated the board's multicultural policies by associating with racists
and Holocaust-deniers. There was also evidence that Fromm promoted materials
by Ross. This follows the conclusion of the case against a third Canadian
teacher, James Keegstra of Alberta. Keegstra had told his students that
the Holocaust was a hoax and that the Jews were evil masterminds of economic
depressions, anarchy and war. These cases underscore the importance of teachers
as role models (see LEGAL MATTERS).
There were two complaints concerning the web site of the notorious Toronto
antisemitic publisher Ernst Zundel, one from the mayor's committee on race
relations and the other from a Holocaust survivor, Sabina Citron. The Canadian
Human Rights Commission (CHRC) asked a tribunal to ascertain whether in
fact Zundel had posted hate material on the Internet, specifically if he
had promoted hatred or contempt of Jews through Holocaust denial. The inquiry,
by focusing on the Internet, may set new legal precedents, especially since
Zündel's web site was reportedly based in California and not in Canada.
The CHRC's inquiry was at an early stage by the end of the year.
In July the Fairview Technology Centre, a small Internet provider in the
Okanagan area of British Columbia, faced economic pressure from local business
groups when it was made public that it provided access to white supremacist
and hate groups. Among the web sites that it carried were Marc Lemire's
Freedom-Site and Skin-Net.
In November a Canadian software company temporarily halted sales of a computer
program in Germany. Corel Draw contained illegal Nazi imagery including
drawings of Adolf Hitler and a swastika.
A National Geographic article about Toronto ignited controversy in
May, when it reproduced racist remarks made by Zundel. The generally laudatory
article about the city included a short interview with Zundel in which he
aired his opinions about immigrants in the country. The mayor of Toronto,
the CJC and BBC complained to the magazine. Ellen Cole of the community
relations committee at the CJC wrote that politicians "would have been
more appropriate to speak with credibility on immigration matters. Your
choice to utilise Mr Zundel gave him undeserved credibility and is a stain
on your magazine's good name."
Several issues involving antisemitism arose in the Quebec media during the
year. One involved an initiative by BBC to have the name of the Lionel Groulx
(spiritual father of modern Quebec nationalism) metro station in Montreal
changed because of evidence of his antisemitism. In an interview on the
subject on a Montreal radio station in December, Michel Vastel, a prominent
columnist with Quebec City's newspaper Le Soleil, suggested that
B'nai Brith's request amounted to asking the people of Quebec to apologize
collectively for its history, which would be comparable to asking today's
Jews to apologize for killing Christ. Vastel contended that the Québecois
cannot be asked to "erase their memory, to repudiate it, simply because
it displeases a few people". He added: "I don't think it was right
what the Jewish people did in crucifying Jesus Christ . . . So I will not
put the Jewish people on trial for that and they can lay off our Lionel
Groulx."
In a newspaper column in September 1996, Vastel gratuitously referred to
Galganov (see MAINSTREAM POLITICS) as "this English-speaking Jew from
Montreal". In addition, in a comment on Michel Gauthier's (leader of
the Bloc Québécois (BQ, Quebec Bloc)) request that congress
dissociate itself from Galganov, Vastel wrote that "if the Congress
had to dissociate itself from all the followers of the Jewish religion who
speak ill of Quebec, there would be no more Congress!"
The well-known Montreal radio talk-show host Gilles Proulx also singled
out Jews for their opposition to the Quebec independence movement. On his
show on 27 November he complained about a group of Jewish women, described
as "pigs", who stole napkins, cream and sugar from the restaurant
in which he had overheard them. They "were wagging their tongues about
the violence and fascism of the Quebec government. These people without
memory don't recall that Menachem Begin planted bombs, and still he became
prime minister." He went on to say that "that community is always
spitting on the government, in any case. I'm forgetting to say that they
have their terrorists . . . So, before throwing stones, I think they should
control themselves."
Pierre Foglia, one of the top columnists in Montreal's La Presse,
denounced the CJC for demanding explanations and apologies from Jean-Louis
Roux for his 1942 activities, even though the separatists, led by Premier
Bouchard, were the most prominent among those calling for Roux's resignation
in November (see MAINSTREAM POLITICS). Foglia wrote that "we've had
it with the Great Permanent Tribunal of Antisemitism". He threatened
the CJC with "absolutely disastrous consequences" if it did not
change its tactics. Another writer, Victor-Levy Beaulieu, upset about Roux's
public apology to the Jews, compared the CJC to the Inquisition.
In a column attacking Galganov in Le Journal de Montréal,
the well-known separatist Pierre Bourgault frequently raised Jewish issues,
even though Galganov's activities were carried out in his capacity as a
private citizen. Bourgault reproached the CJC for defending Galganov "without
impugning his ideas" and for over-reacting by trying to silence people
like the Nation of Islam leader (NOI), Louis Farrakhan (see United States
of America )for "the slightest offensive word". Bourgault mentioned
Jews and Israel repeatedly in his column.
In an article in La Presse in September, Gerald Leblanc listed a
number of prominent people, including Galganov, Libman, Maldoff and Goldbloom,
along with McGill University principal Bernard Shapiro and Suburban publisher
Michael Sochaczevski, presumably because he thought that they were all opposed
to Quebec nationalism, and pointed out that they were all Jewish. Leblanc
added that "one can tell our compatriots of recently arrived stock
that it is never easy to see the leaders of Montreal's ethnic minorities
go to the front to defend English . . ." Leblanc later said that he
was trying to explain to his readers why people who were not of British
origin would be defending the English language.
The CJC, concerned over the increasing incidence of what it termed the "antisemitic
diatribe" in the Quebec media, requested the intervention of the Quebec
human rights commission. In a letter to the president of the commission,
congress expressed its anguish that media figures such as Vastel, Proulx
and Foglia "have been casting the Jewish community in a pernicious
manner".
NOI leader Farrakhan was able to enter Can-ada to make a speech, despite
CJC efforts to have the government bar him as a hatemonger. He addressed
about 3,000 people in September at Toronto's Westin Harbor Castle Conference
Centre.
In December, before the Jewish festival of Chanukah, the Toronto Star
ran a full-page advertisement from the messianic group Jews for Jesus.
The advertisement was headlined "A great miracle happened there"
and featured a dreidel (a festive spinning top), Hebrew letters and
a coupon asking respondents to identify themselves as Jewish or gentile.
Both the CJC and BBC wrote letters of protest. The Toronto Star admitted
that it had breached its advertising guidelines that "no advertising
will be accepted which identifies one religious faith and urges its adherents
to adopt different views or faiths".
Distribution of Holocaust-denial material continued unabated in 1996.
The high volume of imports, even material on Canada's lists of prohibited
publications, appeared to seep through, making effective control very difficult.
In June, the B'nai Brith League for Human Rights and the Toronto Police
hate crimes unit were successful in preventing the distribution of a new
American edition of William Pierce's The Turner Diaries in Canada.
They also alerted Revenue Canada to place the book on the list of banned
imports.
Bill C-41 requiring increased sentences for the perpetrators of hate-motivated
crimes was enacted into law in September 1996. The law recognizes the increased
victim impact of crimes directed at minority communities and provides penalties
that reflect the hate-motivated nature of these offences.
James Keegstra's fourteen-year involvement with the Canadian judicial system
came to a conclusion in 1996. In February the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously
reversed the Alberta court of appeal decision and reinstated his 1992 conviction
for wilfully promoting hatred against Jews. The highly significant decision
made it clear that the anti-hate laws are constitutional and can be used
as a tool to contain the activities of the antisemitic right. In September
an Alberta court sentenced Keegstra for his crime: a fine of Can$3,000,
one year of probation in lieu of a one-year jail term that would have been
imposed had his case not dragged on so long, 200 hours of community service,
and an order not to preach hatred of the Jewish people even under the guise
of historical research.
Toronto's Holocaust-denying publisher Ernst Zundel remained in the legal
limelight, this time with his application for Canadian citizenship. Zundel,
an immigrant from Germany, successfully challenged a decision that his case
require a hearing before the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC)
to establish whether he was a security risk. Federal court judge Darrel
Heald concluded that there was reasonable apprehension of bias, since the
SIRC had earlier issued a report essentially characterizing Zundel "as
a radical right-wing racist". The ruling did not directly undermine
the government's attempt to deny his citizenship application, though it
was a setback from the perspective of the Jewish community. The government
decided to appeal against the decision. Eventually it may try to deport
Zundel.
Earlier in the year, in March, the attorney-general of Ontario decided to
drop charges against Zundel of conspiracy to promote hatred and of publishing
defamatory libel targeting several Jews, because of a lack of evidence.
The charges resulted from a private complaint initiated by Sabina Citron,
co-founder of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association. The decision
provoked considerable criticism from within the Jewish community. In March,
Oliver Bode, a friend of Zundel, was deported to Germany after authorities
became aware of his twelve convictions for hate crimes in that country.
Bode was represented by Zundel at the hearing when the deportation order
was made.
In February, Wolfgang Droege, the leader of the Heritage Front (see PARTIES,
ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS), was brought to court from a Toronto jail where
he is serving sentences for aggravated assault and possession of firearms,
to answer to charges that he was in contempt of an order against offering
hateful messages on the telephone. The case was launched by the CHRC, who
alleged that Droege and another Front 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. The
offending message, which was recorded on the Front's answering machine in
February 1995, referred to the prosecution of war criminals and accused
the Jewish community of vengeance. In April a federal court judge dismissed
the contempt charge because of inadequacies in the evidence.
In February, Charles Scott, the 1995 "Aryan of the year", was
also ordered to shut down a hate-line. The CHRC argued that the use of telecommunications
to promote hatred violates the Canadian human rights code.
In March, a Winnipeg teenager known on the Internet as "inbred Jed"
was arrested and charged with uttering threats to kill and possession of
dangerous weapons. The youth allegedly sent death threats directed at homosexuals
by e-mail and was thus traced. He also provided information on how to produce
bombs. Police discovered Nazi and anarchist paraphernalia at his home. They
were examining his computer contents to determine if more charges could
be laid. The trial was postponed three times, but was due to go ahead in
May 1997.
In Quebec in April, the CJC filed a complaint with the Quebec Chamber of
Notaries, alleging that one of its members, Rolland Bouchard, had helped
organize a concert of neo-Nazi bands and had also attended an Aryan Nations
convention in Idaho and a white supremacists' meeting in California (see
United States of America), thereby bringing disrepute on his pro-fession.
Also in April, the case against Malcolm Ross, a teacher from New Brunswick
(see EDUCATION) closed. As a result of his antisemitic views, Ross was removed
from the classroom by the province's human rights commission. After the
New Brunswick court of appeal had held that the ban violated his rights
to free expression and freedom of religion, the case was appealed to the
supreme court. It concluded in April that any infringement of Ross's rights
was justified because of the possible effect that he might have on the children.
In the opinion of the court, "young students are especially vulnerable
to the messages conveyed by their teachers. They are less likely to make
an intellectual distinction between comments a teacher makes in the school
and those the teacher makes outside the school. They are, therefore, more
likely to feel threatened and isolated by a teacher who makes comments that
denigrate personal characteristics of a group to which they belong."
Ross did retain a non-teaching position with the education board.
In June the Ontario crown employees' grievance settlement board found that
the ministry of education had failed to take steps to stop harassment suffered
by employees who worked in a mail room, including racist threats, verbal
abuse and physical assaults. The board suggested the ministry "had
done little, if anything, to address the racist culture that had existed
in the mail room for years". Charles Chan had raised a complaint about
the harassment suffered by himself and other employees at the hands of two
employees and a manager who used racist insults. According to Chan, the
manager "made no secret of his intense antisemitic views . . . He often
stated at work as well as outside that 'Hitler was the greatest man that
ever lived'." The board criticized an internal investigation sponsored
by the ministry as inadequate. Following the complaint, the government instituted
anti-harassment and reporting measures, but anti-racist training was stopped
owing to a lack of funding.
In Sarnia, Ontario, in October, two sixteen-year-old skinheads were convicted
of vandalism for spray-painting swastikas and SS insignia on a road and
on the home of Holocaust survivors on the eve of "Aryan Fest Day".
They were sentenced to two months of house arrest, 18 months of probation
and 100 hours of community service.
Two men in the Oshawa area were charged in November with distributing racist
material in 1994. Their flyers and stickers attacked Jews and blacks and
included NSDAP/AO material (see United States of America Guy Mayne and Ted
Beavis were accused of wilfully promoting hatred and conspiracy to promote
hatred. The trial was set for early 1997.
The legal process of dealing with alleged war criminals who entered Canada
on false pretences continued to move forward slowly, which was a source
of consternation to the Jewish community. In April, the justice minister,
Allan Rock, admitted that barring changes in the law it would be "virtually
impossible" to convict former Nazis or Nazi sympathizers of war crimes.
Rock promised amendments to the law but gave no timetable, despite urgings
from Jewish groups to act speedily. The situation is complicated, in Rock's
view, by the need to draft legislation that would cover war crimes committed
more recently, as well as those from the Nazi period. On the other hand,
Canada took virtually no action over alleged Nazi war criminals between
1948 and 1985 and has only minor accomplishments since announcing a determined
effort to deal with the matter.
In November the Jerusalem Post broke a sensational story about Steve
Rambam, a private investigator from New York, who tracked down 157 alleged
Nazi war criminals currently residing in Canada. Professor Irving Abella,
chair of the war crimes committee of the CJC, said that Rambam's revelations
"bring home to the rest of the world that despite some action, Canada
has been delinquent" in pursuing the suspected Nazis. Rambam personally
visited about sixty of the suspects, even clandestinely tape-recording confessions
from several. Seven actually admitted participating in the killing of Jews
while others confirmed their activity in units that had committed atrocities.
Antanas Kenstavicius of Hope, British Columbia, who in 1996 fought deportation
for lying about his involvement in the detention, arrest and mass execution
of thousands of Jews in Lithuania, described for Rambam in graphic detail
how some of the mass murders were carried out by shooting. Kenstavicius
admitted his role in rounding up some 6,000 Jewish victims. He died of cancer
in January 1997. Rambam believes that some 2,000 to 3,000 Nazi war criminals
have found refuge in Canada. He turned over some of his evidence to the
CJC, which will in turn transmit it to the federal government for action.
Earlier in the year, BBC vice-president David Matas characterized the Canadian
justice system as a "laughing stock" for murderers and hatemongers
because of the government's inability to conclude actions against them.
The government's main alternative to criminal prosecution has been to attempt
to strip war criminals of their citizenship and then deport them on the
grounds that they lied about their wartime activities when they immigrated
to Canada. The high-profile case against Helmut Oberlander, Erichs Tobiass
and Johann Dueck ran aground on a technical issue arising from a March meeting
between the assistant deputy attorney-general and the chief justice of the
federal court, in which the former was urging the court to accelerate the
process. Judge Bud Cullen decided in July that the meeting hopelessly compromised
the proceedings as a breach of judicial independence. Therefore he ordered
a permanent stay of proceedings against the three. The decision, against
which the government appealed, was widely criticized by spokespersons for
the Jewish community, including Irving Abella, who described it as "appalling"
and "an Alice in Wonderland judgment". David Matas added that
"the outcome of this decision is that Canada has de facto become
a haven for accused Nazi war criminals . . ." A September report by
retired judge Charles Dubin criticized "inordinate delays" in
such cases. He also criticized the official whose meeting with the judge
had led to the legal difficulties.
The case of Josef Nemsila moved forward during the year as Judge James Jerome
of the federal court rejected Nemsila's contention that because he had Canadian
domicile he could not be deported. Jerome held that if the domicile was
obtained fraudulently it was not valid. Nemsila appealed against that ruling
in October. Thus the case against the former member of the Hlinka Guard
in Slovakia was not able to proceed. Nemsila's appeal against Jerome's judgment
was due to be heard in February 1997.
Another deportation case involved Konrads Kalejs, who served during the
Second World War as a lieutenant in the notorious Arajs Kommando in Latvia.
Testimony before an immigration adjudicator continued throughout the year
from a number of witnesses. Evidence about his presence during a number
of massacres of civilians by his unit was offered. In the past, Kalejs tended
to blame the Russians for many atrocities and for framing him. On the stand
he rejected a US court finding that he had killed women and children. He
also denied membership in the Kommando despite extensive evidence on that
subject, but had difficulty in reconciling his testimony with transcripts
from earlier proceedings in Canada and the United States. In essence Kalejs's
story consisted of accusations that he was framed by the Soviets, that witnesses
had been pressured to lie about him and his activities, that transcripts
of earlier proceedings in three countries are inaccurate, and that in any
event he had not killed Jews. In December the government summarized its
case, contending that units under his command engaged in the slaughter of
Jews in the Riga area in 1941. A decision was expected in 1997.
In July proceedings were initiated against Wasily Bogutin, who was accused
of being a member of a collaborationist police detachment in Ukraine who
had participated in killing a Jewish family in 1941. Bogutin in response
claimed that he worked in a warehouse and was not a member of the auxiliary
police unit.
The government named two more alleged war criminals in November and initiated
proceedings against them. Vladimir Katriuk was accused of being part of
an SS battalion in Ukraine and Byelorussia (now Belarus) who participated
in murder operations. He claimed that the KGB had framed him and that he
was totally innocent. Ladislav Csizsik-Csatary was alleged to have been
a member of the Royal Hungarian Police in Kassa, Hungary, during the war
and was involved in the internment and deportation to concentration camps
of thousands of Jews. He denied the allegations of war crimes. Proceedings
to strip the two men of their Canadian citizenship were due to begin in
1997.
Two anti-racist web sites in the French language were set up in Quebec,
one involving the CJC, the World Anti-Fascist League and the Quebec League
for Human Rights, who received financial support from the Quebec government
for three years; the other is run solely by the Canadian Anti-Fascist League.
Those involved, realizing that there is little that can be done to bar racism
from the World Wide Web, believe that much is to be gained if at least the
anti-racist messages are also available. Ken McVay's Internet project, Nizkor,
also con-tinued its attempt to counter Holocaust-denial material on the
Internet throughout 1996.
In a brief to the Quebec government's commission on culture in October,
the CJC urged that the criminal law be modified to cover the dissemination
of hate propaganda through the Internet: "We are particularly concerned
with the emergence of deviant, hateful and violent content . . ." Some
of the proposals included in the brief were legislation to define legal
"spheres of responsibility" between Internet users, owners and
providers, perhaps involving international agreements, the encouragement
of self-regulation by home site providers, financial support for anti-racist
sites, and the development of new technology to filter out undesirable material.
BBC planned to host an international symposium on hate on the Internet in
1997.
The United Church of Canada's British Columbia conference, meeting in May,
called upon its members to encourage "firm and positive attitudes"
towards Jews, especially in the light of the history of antisemitism within
Christianity. A unanimous resolution made a number of suggestions on how
to improve relations between Christians and Jews.
During 1996, the BBC League for Human Rights published and distributed Anti-Semitism
on Campusp;A Handbook for Student Action. The handbook complements
the league's hotline for reporting and advice on antisemitic and hate incidents.
The unfolding political situation in Quebec has produced some disturbing
evidence of antisemitic and anti-minority attitudes among some political
actors and in the media. Frustration among nationalists over their failure
to win the 1995 referendum has found an outlet in an attempt to blame someone
for the defeat. Insofar as Jews have come to occupy an increasingly visible
and important leadership role among federalists and as champions of English
rights, they have also become a target for various kinds of attacks. If
they were simply attacked for their views or for the causes that they espouse,
that would be within the range of normal political discourse. But when the
fact that they are Jewish is constantly highlighted, when Jews as a group
are threatened, when the organized Jewish community is asked to repudiate
various prominent Jews because their political activities offend some people,
then there is ample cause for concern about antisemitism becoming a factor
in the Quebec political struggle.
During the latter part of the year, a number of observers, both Jewish and
non-Jewish, have pointed out the sharp increase of incidents in which Jews
are depicted as a, if not the, major opponent of Quebec nationalism. The
implication is that if the Jews would only drop what Raymond Villeneuve
described as their "inexplicable hostility" to the Quebec independence
movement, that cause might be able to triumph. There certainly does not
appear to be a conspiracy to blame the Jews and to put pressure on them,
but the occurrence within a fairly short period of the following events
requires one to ask just what is happening: demands that the community dissociate
itself from Galganov, a language complaint against Schwartz's restaurant,
the demonstration at the Jewish hospital, Villeneuve's rants, the "matzahgate
affair", Parizeau's statements, Vastel's radio interview, articles
or columns by Foglia and Leblanc. Despite few problems on an individual
basis, Montreal's Jews as a community were concerned by the sudden rise
of activity that was often blatantly antisemitic and which was not dealt
with convincingly by the mainstream of Quebec's political, civic, intellectual
and religious leadership.
The combination of fears of the possible consequences of secession, an unhealthy
economic climate, and public expressions of antisemitism is likely to lead
to another significant movement of Jews from Montreal, similar to that in
the years following the separatists' first electoral victory in 1976. At
this time it is difficult to assess just what the impact on the Jewish community
might be, but Montreal's Jews already have a skewed age distribution toward
the elderly and are feeling the loss of productive age cohorts from previous
population movements.
The other main concern of the Canadian Jewish community was the agonizingly
slow pace of the proceedings against rapidly ageing accused Nazi war criminals.
Despite some evidence of a renewed determination on the part of the federal
government to push forward, legal problems continued to arise, placing one
block after another on the way to a speedy resolution of these cases. And
a major error by a government official threatens to undermine the proceedings
against three of the accused altogether.
Aside from the ominous incidents in Quebec, antisemitism was not a major
problem in Canada during the year. There were few major antisemitic manifestations.
By all accounts, most of the far right were being kept in check. And the
denouement of the Keegstra case did legitimize criminal prosecutions for
promoting hatred against groups. But the real challenge for the moment is
to establish clearly that Jews, as do any other citizens, have a right to
pursue their interests politically without fear of retaliation against themselves
or their community as a whole. For the moment that appears to be a message
that is not getting through to some opinion-makers in Quebec.
© JPR 1997