Musings —05.19.2015 10:40 PM
—In this week’s Hill Times: anti-Semitism and white supremacy, courtesy of Canada Post
Some say the material is anti-Semitic and racist. So why is Canada Post distributing it?
The publication is called “Your Ward News.” It has been distributed in Toronto for quite some time, and has always been on the fringes, promoting conspiracy theories and oddball political candidates. But, in recent months, the tabloid newspaper has veered sharply Right, and started promoting material that may offend Canadian hate laws.
Among the highlights contained in recent editions of the newspaper:
- Editorials railing against Jewish postal workers, “ZioMarxists,” “parasites,” and what the paper’s editor calls “the illegitimate Zionist apartheid state of Israel that holocausts Palestinians.”
- Advertisements promoting something called the “New Constitution Party,” whose membership cards feature Nazi salutes, and references to “88” – neo-Nazi code for “HH,” or “Heil Hitler.”
- Articles promoting Holocaust deniers Ernst Zundel, David Irving and Fred Leuchter – and denouncing “mainstream media lackeys” and “cattle” who sought to have Zundel charged with publishing Holocaust-denying propaganda.
- Articles promoting Holocaust denial and written by Gary Schipper, the former voice of the neo-Nazi Heritage Front, who now goes by the false name “Johnny Jensen.”
- A lengthy anti-Israel polemic describing the need for “Israeli Niggers to go home,” how the Jewish state “murders thousands” every year, that Zionists are “ZioFascists” and racists, that Israel forcibly sterilizes non-white immigrant women and practices Nazi-style eugenics – and repeats the old canard that Jews are not “true Biblical Jews,” a theory favoured by neo-Nazis for decades.
- Articles promoting “white nationalism,” skinheads, and the defunct neo-Nazi Heritage Front, in which the author – who describes herself as a “white woman” who favours “white pride” – talks openly about how “white people reserve the right to protest the rape and disfiguration of our country” by non-whites, and calls the New Constitution Party a vehicle for opposing “Racial Marxism.”
- A letters column mocking Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne for her sexual orientation, and attacking “homos” and “queens” – and a related editorial calling Pride “a freak show on parade floats.”
- An advertisement decrying “lies that the ZioMarxist-controlled mainstream media is feeding you about Adolf Hitler” – and calling for Jews to be “deprogrammed from anti-German propaganda.”
And all of that is contained in just one issue of “Your Ward News.”
The publication is controlled by a man calling himself Dr. James Sears. But Sears is not an accredited doctor.
According to court transcripts and records of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Sears has a dark past. He drank while on call as an intern, made “inappropriate” use of drugs, and had “inappropriate behaviour towards female staff members.” While admitted to Ottawa’s National Defence Medical Centre, Sears made ”numerous, random and obsessive telephone calls to women during which he would sometimes masturbate.”
In 1991, the College of Physicians and Surgeons finally suspended Sear’s licence after receiving complaints from female patients. The next year, Sears would plead guilty to two counts of sexual assault and he would be stripped of his medical licence for sexual impropriety.
Along with publishing a newspaper that promotes anti-Semitic and racist themes, Sears also has billed himself as “Dimitri the Lover” – and has claimed he could teach men who attend his “Toronto Real Men” workshops that he can teach them to make women “worship” them.
But the question remains: why is Canada Post distributing his newspaper? Bernie Farber, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, is among the many folks asking just that.
“The material in ‘Your Ward News’ is reminiscent of the neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic ravings of the now-defunct racist organization Heritage Front,” said Farber. “It’s frankly shocking that a federal government agency like Canada Post deems it appropriate to deliver this racist screed to Toronto households.”
Indeed it is. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has called the newspaper “hate mail.” But the corporation has merely shrugged, and said: “We do not have the right to refuse a mail item because we or our employees object to its content. The content is the sole responsibility of the publisher, who is clearly identified in the newsletter. Anyone who has concerns about the content should either contact the publisher or simply dispose of it.”
Bullshit. Your Ward News is hate propaganda – and Canada Post will pay a steep price for its indifference.
The best defense of hate laws is to read the harmful, toxic, terrorizing speech that violates it. Newsletters like this do real harm to the communities they target and puts them at real risk. It provides no intellectual value, and raises no worthwhile perspective. If we can say that fraud is a crime that is not defensible as “freedom of speech”, then certainly trying to promote nazism and anti-semitism would already be a crime.
Funny enough, the best argument against hate laws is to realize that a court case does more to publicize them than keeping them on the fringes. I worry that writing an article about this in the Hill Times — albeit well intentioned and something I totally agree with — does more to publicize these evil shitheads than it does to undermine them.
As much as I abhor this publication given these quotes, I’m not sure I’m going to fault Canada Post. I’m not convinced that the postal agency – this one or any one – should be in the business of adjudicating what is and what is not acceptable speech. Yes, even hate speech. We have a court system for that, and very strong (relative to other countries) hate speech laws. If something in insufficient to violate those laws, I don’t see what Canada Post should be imposing a more stringent condition on the types of acceptable speech than our legal system is imposing.
Hate speech is defined in law..if it fits (and it must given the garbage it extolls) then Canada post or anyone should not be able to distribute it. if your not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Also these haters need to be exposed .
a bad idea is one thing but distribution is everything.
business 101
not sure how to do this, but hopefully when a bureaucracy is dragged into court, you can target the actual bureaucrats personally instead of only the organization.
Canada Post is in the business of delivering the mail that has the proper amount of postage on it. Period. The fact that there are those (myself included) who find the contents of some of that mail objectionable does not enter into it. It would be better if any action were taken against the publication itself and not the deliverer. What a president it would set. I would ask Warren if he would like his private communications read by a bureaucrat to see if it was politically correct enough to send on to the recipient? Go after the originator of the material.
Canada Post shouldn’t be the one deciding what’s hate speech and what isn’t. I find the content abhorrent, but I’m against Canada Post imposing censorship. This is something better left with the courts.
Agree. The content is abhorrent but then again, I also find the Conservative 10% flyers repulsive. In both cases, CP is simply a utility delivering information not unlike an internet provider or phone company.
Kill the message, not the messenger.