Crist versus jel

| other hand

THE attack on those
who dare to speak out
proceeds unabated.

North Vancouver's Lionel
Kenner has attempted to pin
Coun. Ernie Crist to the
wall for standing up for free
speech and got more than he
bargained for.

‘There’s nothing new in
Kenner’s campaign. For years

_he has devoted himself to
seeing your man Doug
cleared off the lot, beginning

7 with his vicious but unsuc-
cessful campaign to get m
Canada 125 Medal Encelled

‘in 1992.

~ What makes this particular
incident unusual is that a
politician is not only standing
up for principle but punching
back. Usually, our leaders
. mumble, cringe, or collapse
when a politically correct
enemy takes aim at them. _

’ Not so with Crist. If there
were more like him the
NDP"'s Human Rights
Gestapo would be history.
But at the higher levels
silence has reigned. When the
Great Heresy Trial was going
on, for instance, not a sing!e
opposition MLA in Victoria
had a word to say about it.

From Liberal leader
Gordon Campbell on down,
discretion was the better part

- of valor. What a throng of
jellyfish! =

"Kenner is a retired Jewish
professor whose philosophy
suffers from serious warping.

Ina letter to Crist, he

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

favor of the B.C. Human
Rights Act under which the
News and I were charged on
account of my Schindler’s List
column.

It is neither a threat to
democracy nor indeed a
threat to anything. And he
has every confidence in Nitya
lyer, the judge, jury and
Prosecutor in the case.

Isn’t she a law professor at
URC? What more could we
ask?

Never mind that the B.C.
Human Rights Act has been
condemned from coast to
coast as a serious attack on
free expression, even by those
who think I am crazy.

Such critics are misguided.
Kenner demanded that
Crist explain himself for hav-
ing started the municipal ball
rolling on the freedom of

specch issue.

The councillor obliged. In
writing.

Under the terms of the
B.C. Human Rights Act, he
stated, any person or group
condemning human sights
violations by the State of
Isreel against the Palestinians
could be laying themsclves
open to charges of “foment-
ing hatred against the Jews.”

In effect, too, he accused
Jewish organizations of trying
to hijack the Second World
War.The Jews, he pointed
out, were not the only vic-
tims.

The barbaric Holocaust,
said Crist, was not exclusive-
ly directed against the Jews.
Slavs, Gypsies and Jehovah
Witnesses were also on the
list, as were the millions of
Russian prisoners who died
from starvation.

*T find it distastetit!,” he
wrote in reference to what |
called Swindler’s List “that in
this Hollywood version of the
Holocaust, a Nazi oppor-
tunist who enriched himself
at the expense of Jewish slave
labor is portrayed as a hero.

intelligent enough to under-
stand that it was more prof-
itable ro have living slaves
rather than dead ones? And
this at a time when millions,
including tens of thousands
of Germans, paid with their
lives for opposing Nazism?

“I find it interesting,” he
continued, “that 2 man like
Doug Collins... (modesty
compels me to leave out his
next words) is being perse-
cuted by the Canadian Jewish
Congress for speaking the
truth as he sees it.

“The question is, who will
be next? Will it be Councillor
Crist for attempting to set
the record straight, or for
trying to stop the Canadian
Jewish Congress in its
attempts to liquidate
Democracy and Freedom of
the Press, beginning with the
North Shore News?

“As seen from this per-
spective,” wrote Crist, “is it
not logical to construe my
attempts as being ‘anti-
Semitic,’ fostering hatred or
causing pain to a group of
people?”

After all, he pointed our,
quering the Act, “No person
shail publish..any statement
(etc.) that is likely to expose
anyone to hatred or con-
tempt.”

And what about the
politicians? he asked. “Are we
not being subjected to criti-
cism, ridicule and contempt,
or are those cartoons [ see in
the newspapers cach and
every day mere figments of
my imagination?”

Crist gave Kenner a for
more instruction on the sub-
ject, starting with the 1994
U.N. Hemispheric

aA

f Lube, oi! & filter change
Reg. $28.95 Pennaoll 10W30

To the thousands of
St. John Ambulance
Volunteers:

lyfish

Conference on Freedom of
Speech and Freedom of the
Press, and ending with the
Canadian Charter of Rights.
But J doubt that Kenner
will be able to take it in. He’s
a professor, you know, Of
philosophy. st.

St John Ambulance

contoct your local
— The North Shore News John Ambuence branch.

believes strongly in freedom of
speech and the right of all sides
tn a debate to be heard. The
colummists published in the
News present differing points of
view, but those views are not
necessarily those of the newspa-
per stseif.

wriciibox

The cheque
is in the mail
Dear Editor:

PH be brief. The CJC said,
“Speech can, and does, cause
harm to individuais and
groups.” While this may be
truc, the loss of freedom of
speech (and with it the loss of
debate, democracy, liberty
and justice) can and does
cause even more serious harm
to everyone.

U often don’t agree with
Doug Collins’s views and ?’m
not a fan of his style, but [
defend his right to his opinion
and your right to print it. I
suppert your defence against
those too ignusant of history
to know what they are doing.

My cheque ( please believe
me) is in the mail.

Dave Riope!
driopel @dircct.ca

you ore Inte, ested in becoming c

made it clear he was all in “Why? Because he was

A

4
i

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