“The National Enquirer for skinheads”

— 04.27.2017 12:42 PM

That’s the memorable (and accurate) description my colleague Andrew Tumilty – now cloistered in the Ontario budget lock-up – gave to Your Ward News.  Here’s a link to his HuffPo piece, and a snippet of his thoughts, below:

Your Ward News is dangerous hate propaganda that, up until last year, was being delivered to the homes of people in Toronto and communities as far away as Niagara Falls. It used racist slurs on every page; included images meant to demean or intimidate women; its publisher has called for the legalization of rape; and, in a particularly disturbing piece of Photoshop work, Your Ward News has depicted opponents in Nazi gas chambers. Think of it as the National Enquirer for skinheads, and you have the right idea.

We live in a free society, people are able to hold whatever disgusting, indefensible opinions they see fit. Defenders of Your Ward News say this is a free-speech issue, and their rights are being denied. They are completely wrong on both counts.

First, it isn’t a free-speech issue. Hate speech is not protected as a free expression of ideas, nor should it be. Targeting any group with this sort of malicious hatred is dangerous because it can and does lead to violence in the real world. The reason you can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theatre is that people can and will get hurt. Willfully cultivating hatred against specific groups has the same effect, and is not protected, either.

Second, no one’s free speech is being denied by Minister Foote’s decision. The publishers are free to post their malignant beliefs online, or print up copies of their filth and hand them out themselves — as they continue to do. The minister’s decision simply means that Canada Post will not be doing the distribution for them.


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O’Leary, Trudeau, alliterations and the obligatory Hill and Knowlton reference

— 04.27.2017 10:57 AM

From next week’s column. I’m rather enthusiastic about political alliterations, as Gerald Butts and Don Guy know too well:

But we’ll give you this much, Kev.  You were uncharacteristically candid when you withdrew from the race at one of those clichéd hastily-called press conferences.  You were honest.  You had reflected, you said, and you and your advisors had concluded you just couldn’t beat Justin Trudeau. (Parenthetically, you should have reflected on the fact, too, that your top advisor was at a soulless, Satanic “consulting firm” that, inter alia, cooked up the fake incubator babies story to justify the Persian Gulf War. But we digress.)

And it was true: you weren’t going to ever, ever beat Justin Trudeau.  He was going to put you – a bloviating blowhard, a misanthropic misogynist, a down-market Donald – through the political Cuisinart.  He was going to shred you to pieces, and make soup out of you, Sharky. 


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Where we were today

— 04.25.2017 10:59 PM

And we need your help! If you oppose hate showing up in your mailbox, get in touch!

Warren Kinsella shows some of the graphic images found in Your Ward News (Lorenda Reddekopp, CBC News)

Political consultant Warren Kinsella is one of the people complaining about the paper, which is edited and published by James Sears and Laurence St. Germaine.

“There’s the use of the n-word, there’s racism on every page, it is the most disgusting thing.”

To prove his point, Kinsella showed examples from old editions he photocopied. One image portrays a Jew as a dog; another shows an image of Jesus sexually assaulting a woman.

While the publication is based in the Toronto area, he says this review is important for all Canadians.

“We need to say Canada Post should not be distributing hatred; Canada Post should not be allowed to distribute racism.”


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