Tribute by Former Canadian Diplomat Ian V. Macdonald for Doug Christie Memorial, March 23, 2013

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Tribute by Former Canadian Diplomat Ian V. Macdonald for Doug Christie Memorial, March 23, 2013
Photo: Douglas Hewson Christie, RIP Keltie Zubko Douglas Christie April 1946 - March 11, 2013 Keltie Zubko I am heart-broken to say that Doug passed away this afternoon in Victoria Hospice. Cadeyrn, Kalonica, Doug's sister Jane, and I were all with him and able to say all that was in our hearts to say before he let go of the pain and suffering to leave us with the immense gifts of his love for us and the lessons of his life. Marc Lemire: Douglas Christie was a great man and will be missed by so many. He was one of my personal heroes! Dear Supporters of Free Speech: I just received these e-mails from Keltie Zubko, Doug's wife, and Marc Lemire, the intrepid challenger of Canada's notorious Sec. 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (Internet censorship). Doug was an immensely brave man and a towering presence in Court. His height and firmness of bearing made an impact on many a judge, and, I suspect, many a miscreant or liar under cross-examination. Other lawyers have told me that Doug was one of the most intimidating cross-examiners in this Dominion. As a former client, (my firing for my political views by the Peel Board of Education and the libel charge by Richard Warman for calling him a "censor") I can testify that Doug was demanding and unrelenting that his clients organize and prepare their material. My friend of more than 30 years was motivated by a deep love of freedom and a suspicion of government and authority. Perhaps, in the best of ways, he was a symbol of the '60s, an era we both grew up in. It was an era that, however faultily, sought freedom. Neither of us was part of the "tune out, turn on" ethos of the time, but both of us deeply valued individual freedom. Doug lived to see what used to be common political culture of a largely European Canada -- "I disagree with you, but you have a right to your opinion" -- become the prissy, prune-faced political correctness of Canada today: agree with the minority agenda or you shut up! One of his last legal acts was to review the catastrophic Supreme Court of Canada Whatcott decision, where a fervent fundamentalist pamphleteer was found guilty and fined by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission for passing out leaflets critical of homosexual teachings in public schools. Doug sadly concluded: "Free speech as we knew it in Canada, is dead." Having read this revolutionary decision, I, who at first dismissed the conclusion as the pessimism of a dying man, believe his grim view is right. Doug's unshakable courage in the face of press abuse -- he was once called a "perverted monster" by a Vancouver talk show host for having defended revisionist publisher Ernst Zundel -- put others in the legal profession to shame, Doug didn't just believe in a client's right to a full and proper defence, he really did believe in freedom of speech: that freedom of expression is the gift you must give to your worst enemy, he told a CAFE meeting in Toronto, December 2, 2012. Many other lawyers lost that belief. Terry Tremaine, later one of Doug's clients and another Richard Warman free speech victim, called on seven Regina law firms to represent him in a "judicial review" (appeal) against the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision finding him guilty of spreading "hate" on the Internet. Finding out that this was a controversial free speech case running headlong into political correctness, not a single Regina law firm would touch Mr. Tremaine's case. Murderers, child molesters, rape-kidnap-murder perpetrators like Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, or more recently accused murderer and butcher Luka Magnotta, had no trouble finding counsel. The media and other bien pensants would praise their lawyers as brave and creative lawyers. Yet, Doug Christie, who stood up for non-violent freethinkers assailed for having unpopular beliefs. was often reviled in the press and in the legal profession. The Doug I knew was a sensitive and proud man. He was a deeply moral man. He did not seek notoriety. He felt the rejections and condemnations deeply. Yet, Doug felt a higher imperative -- individual freedom and liberty. These had once been the values of our generation. But many of the free speech advocates of the 1960s had grown old and paunchy and grey and had been subverted into Frankfurt School political correctness. They had become the very repressive, narrow-minded Establishment they had once reviled. Doug never lost that youthful passion for freedom. Ranged, often with the highly talented legal researcher Barbara Kulazska at his side, against the endless money and batteries of lawyers of various repressive government bodies, Doug Christie was a one man Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke holding back the tidal wave of repression. His achievements were many. He singlehandedly got Canada's archaic "false news" law used to try to silence Ernst Zundel ruled unconstitutional. His persistence in the Terry Tremaine Sec. 319 "hate law" case got the charges stayed for undue delay, Doug's towering presence in the defence of freedom will be sorely missed. The would-be censors, the minority zealots who would silence any opinion but their own and those who hate the unfettered thoughts of free men and women whenever they deviate from the prune-faced, fussy little orthodoxy of political correctness may feel a little freer to pursue their repressive instincts tonight with the passing of this great man. Another important aspect of Doug Christie was his political life as an outspoken and often lonely champion of Western separation. I first met Doug Christie on a rainy late afternoon at the Vancouver television studios of the then famous Jack Webster Show. At the time, Doug apparently had something to do with the British Columbia provincial Conservative Party. Although a seemingly quiet man, as we exchanged a few words, I knew I had met a man with an imposing presence. we parted and I went in to do my interview with the irrascible Scot to promote my critique of foreign aid, the recently published book Down the Drain: A Critical Re-examination of Canadian Foreign Aid Policy. I next met Doug when I travelled to Red Deer for a meeting to support a thoughtful school teacher Jim Keegstra who was being charged under Canada's notorious "hate law", section 319 of the Criminal Code. By now, Doug Christie was famous as a champion of Western separation. The early 1980s were heady times. The arrogant Trudeau socialists had brought in the National Energy Programme. Alberta, devastated by a slump in oil prices, had ruined people walking away from their homes, on which they often owed more than what they were worth. Alberta was in near revolt. Doug Christie criss-crossed the West arguing for separation and independence. No longer should the West be bled dry by the East and held up with high prices for Eastern manufactured goods. He held up a vision of more populist and responsive government in a unilingual English country. State intrusion in ownership of guns would be reduced and, of course, anti-free speech laws would be abolished. The West would be a proud country of independent men and women, not a nanny state of Ottawa-controlled serfs. Doug Christie's message was a powerful one. He spoke to packed meetings in halls across Western Canada. He packed the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton with several thousand people. His party the Western Canada Concept contested a by-election in Alberta and the separatist candidate Gordon Kessler was elected. There were, of course, problems. The party tended to be run out of Doug Christie's briefcase. A flock of opportunists and not a few federalist agents joined the party. There was a lack of seasoned and experienced staff. Divisions followed and plagued the party. In 1984, the Mulroney Conservatives were elected with a large representation of Western MPs. They repealed some of the worst abuses of the NEP. However, with their many neo-Liberal policies, they left many real populists and conservatives feeling betrayed. There arose a new populist party, the Reform Party, with the slogan "the West wants in." It was well-funded and seemed to offer a less radical answer to Western grievances. Doug Christie soldiered on explaining his vision in the monthly Western Separatist Papers and later on the WCC website . The meetings were fewer and less well attended. The WCC ran a few candidates in each federal election, but the enthusiasm for separation had passed. In the past decade, the West has become rich. Saskatchewan, once an exporter of wheat and people, is now a "have" province. Alberta's oil sands are a job magnet. So, was Doug Christie's vision of an independent West wrong? Only history will tell. For much of the 140-year long struggle for Irish independence, those pushing for an independent state were for long periods of time treated, even by many Irishmen, as crackpots. But their day came as it may come for Western Canadian Independence. Whatever history's final judgement of Doug Christie's Western Canada Concept, he kept the faith and articulated a vision of a free and independent West with intelligence and dedication. Paul Fromm Director CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
Recognizing Doug Christie’s service to Canada:  Memorial Meeting, March 23, 2013
 
Thanks for the suggestion.  There will be so many tributes  that anything I could add would be redundant, but I have done a  short piece (below) based on a letter to Peter Milliken, former  Speaker of the House of Commons, suggesting that he would be the appropriate  person to nominate Doug for the Order of Canada,  an award long  overdue for which Doug has shown  himself to be better qualified than most  recipients to date.  Peter Milliken replied that nominations are  better made by people who were most familiar with the individual named, and that  he did not know Doug Christie (although surely he was familiar with his  good works).
 
I hoped to find a prominent alternative sponsor but  unfortunately time had run out, and apparently the Order of Canada is not  awarded posthumously.  Perhaps we can have an exception made in Doug’s  case.  In eny event, Doug’s service to the people of Canada deserves  national recognition, and it is up to us to argue for it.
 
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My lengthy friendship with Doug Christie began in the late  ‘eighties when I had almost run out of hope of finding a lawyer to contest my  1984 dismissal from a Federal Government  position and forfeiture of my paid-up pension. I approached all  the law firms in Ottawa who advertised competence in “unlawful dismissal”  litigation but, after initial enthusiasm, all declined when  they ascertained that the Jewish Lobby (which included the Israeli Embassy)  was the culprit.  In desperation, as the appeal deadline approached, I drew  up the appeal myself.  I sent a copy to Doug Christie, whom I  had  heard speak in Ottawa, to vet my handiwork.  He replied that he would  be glad to represent me, despite the distance from Victoria, if I could  find no other.
 
Since there were no legitimate grounds for dismissal, a  favourable outcome at Court seemed assured.  However,  as Doug began his examination of the Plaintiff, he was  interrupted by the Judge who told him he should think twice if he intended to  mention “Jews” or raise the subject of a “Jewish conspiracy” since to do so  would seriously jeopardize his chance of success.  Although  clearly the Jewish Lobby was behind the dismissal, Doug felt obliged  to comply and made a case  that, even without  the  Jews, was more than adequate, especially since the Department of  Justice lawyers presented no evidence.  Nevertheless, the Appeal  failed.
 
I asked an old friend, who had specialized in Public Service  law, how it was possible that I could lose.  He  asked the name of the Judge.  When I told him, he said the Judge was  an “old Liberal hack who knows how the game is played”.  Shortly  after, by chance, I ran into a former neighbour, the renowned Judge  John Matheson, at an Alumni Reunion at Queen’s and put to him the same  question.  He asked the name of my lawyer.  When I replied “Doug  Christie” he said “Well, that’s your answer – there’s no way they were going  to let him win the case”. 
 
More recently, I retained Doug in a defamation claim  against the CBC for permitting the egregious Warren Kinsella to state on  national TV that I was one of  the main sources of finance for  extreme right-wing terrorism in Canada.  The Judge found, in her  “Reasons for Judgement” that would have been no different had they been written  by the Canadian Jewish Congress, that the comments were not  defamatory, even to the slightest degree and, falsely, that in any event I  was out of time, giving credibility to Kinsella’s  ludicrous story and forcing me to pay the Defendants’ substantial legal  fees.  The decision was upheld on appeal.  A Supreme  Court application was denied.  Such is the quality of justice in  Canada. 
 
Aside from my own cases, I have followed Doug Christie’s fortunes  and misfortunes for many years and recognize him as being without par as  the epitome of all that is honourable and equitable in the practice of his  profession, combined with an empathy for ostracized victims of our  Politically Correct society who are shunned, condemned and punished,  however worthy and valid their opinions.  He is virtually unique in  Canada in his self-sacrifice on behalf of his victimized clients and in his  willingness share their distress, although it has cost him the  public esteem he might have earned in law and politics, and an  otherwise very profitable legal career.
 
It has cost him also his health, as he has been  struck down in his prime by a cancer that doubtless was  aggravated, if not induced, by the stress and  frustration of appearing before a hostile judiciary and  facing the wrath of venal law society zealots, covering  their shamelessness with invective, ad hominems and  baseless condemnation of an ultra-respectable man whose  Christian rectitude and respect for tradition are beyond their  comprehension.Photo: Ex-Diplomat Ian Macdonald Tells National Post Neo-Con Scribblers to Get Real About Canadian Sovereignty December 24, 2012 Editor NATIONAL POST Toronto Dear Sir Re: Protecting Canadian sovereignty The debate on how best to defend Canada becomes more and more unrealistic as it increasingly centres on military weaponry, notably the implausible F-35, while ignoring the real threat to our sovereignty of alien political, cultural and economic hegemony, menacingly accompanied and reinforced by an invasion from Sub-Saharan African and other Third World exploding-population regions. The influx, and concomitant displacement of traditional British/European immigrants, will ensure the demise of the nation as we know it, unless a timely remedy, including repatriation, can be found. What is it then that your columnists and others seek to defend? Seemingly, the status quo, although obviously it is just a way station on the road to oblivion for the founding races. What needs to be addressed, urgently, is not the "red herring" of an inconceivable bombing attack by a major power. It is the corrosive, corrupting subversion that already has enabled the "enemy within the gates" not only to dispossess traditional Canadians of their assets and their rights (esp. freedom of speech) but also to take effective control of the Federal Government, including the security services and judiciary, and of the mainline media that otherwise could have exposed and led to prosecution of the stealthy, incorrigably-avaricious occupiers, rendering them permanently harmless through massive restitution orders and incarceration. The tsunami of self-selected, unassimilable Africans and South Asians across our undefended borders, if not soon reversed, will have even more profound consequences. Unfortunately, the flow has now gained sufficient momentum to thwart effective control, let alone reversal, at least so long as the invaders' "rights" take precedence over those of their unwilling hosts - an outrageous anomaly that could exist only where government and media are under the full control of traitors and crass opportunists. As ever, Ian V. Macdonald Ex-RCAF, RNFAA, Foreign Service, rtd. Ottawa ON
 
He has many admirers who now seek to memorialize him for all his  good works as an outstanding Canadian, selfless Good Samaritan and proud  Scot who dedicated his life to the struggle for truth, freedom and justice  to a degree equaled by few if any others.  He deserves  formal recognition by the people of Canada.  It is up to his  friends and admirers to ensure his place in the history of the struggle for  freedom of speech and an honest judiciary in Canada.
 
Ian Macdonald
Ottawa, ON.