CAFE Participates in Weekly Victoria Freedom Rally in Front of B.C. Legislature
CAFE Participates in Weekly Victoria Freedom Rally in Front of B.C. Legislature
“|Victoria is now my 18th city,” said CAFE Director Paul Fromm as he joined the weekly Saturday Freedom Rally in front of the B.C. Legislature. “This is the 18th city, in two provinces, where I’ve joined End the Lockdown/freedom rallies since April, 200,” he added. Several CAFE associates regularly attend the Victoria rallies.
“It is such a joyous atmosphere. People hug old friends and complete strangers,” Mr. Fromm added. “And not a mask to be seen anywhere!”
Two carloads of people came down from Nanaimo. A Chinese man who is a strong supporter of Taiwan comes over every weekend form Vancouver. One man handed out peanut butter and jam sandwiches to anyone who wanted one.
Members of the same group picket the offices of CHEK, the local Fake News television channel, every Wednesday.
Submission by the Canadian Association for Free Expression to the Public Order Emergency Commission, Inquiry into the Invocation of the Emergencies Act
SUMMARY:
The Act is only to be invoked when all other measures have failed or when there are no other means or powers to solve a very serious emergency. The three week Truckers Freedom Convoy protest may have been a nuisance, an embarrassment, and affront to the Government but it was scarcely a dire crisis. It was a political problem which should have been solved by political means. These were never tried.
INTRODUCTION:
1. The Canadian Association for Free Expression Inc. (CAFE) is a non-profit educational organization incorporated under Letters Patent in Ontario in 1983. It’s brief is to promote the value of freedom of speech and to come to the support of those attacked for the non-violent expression of their political religious or artistic views. In pursuit of this goal CAFE has intervened in numerous legal and human rights cases over the years in Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick. http://cafe.nfshost.com
2. I wish to offer my observations on the freedom protests which led to the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy and which continue today in many cities across Canada, albeit with fewer numbers than before. This first hand and extensive experience may prove useful to the inquiry.
3. I am a veteran of close to 100 freedom protests in 18 different Canadian cities in two provinces from April, 2020 to the present. Those cities are: Ottawa (m), Toronto(m), Mississauga, Burlington (m), Hamilton (m), Brantford (m), Simcoe, London, Stratford, Niagara Falls (m), Niagara-on-the-Lake, Burlington (m), Kelowna (m), Penticton (m), Oliver, Osoyoos (m), and Vancouver. [(m) indicates many times.]
BACKGROUND TO THE END THE LOCKDOWN RALLIES & THE TRUCKERS’ FREEDOM CONVOY
4. The reactions of the federal, and the various provincial and territorial and municipal governments to the crisis caused by COVID (despite its 99.7% survival rate) resulted in the greatest restriction of the rights of Canadians at least since the Second World War.
5. At various times, gatherings were limited or restricted, businesses declared non-essential and ordered closed, persons forbidden to practise their faith by gathering to worship. For months, the Province of Quebec was placed under curfew.
6. People were compelled in many circumstances to wear masks. For months, people could not fly on Canadian airlines without showing proof of vaccination. A person’s right to determine what is introduced into his/her body (a vaccine) was negated. People were blackmailed into being vaccinated in order to keep or get a job. Thousands, including many medical people and civil servants were fired or put on unpaid leave of absence, if they wouldn’t take the vaccine or if they wouldn’t reveal their vaccination status [over 400 municipal workers in my home of Hamilton alone].
7. Pastors who felt a higher calling — to heed the Biblical injunction for the People of God to worship together communally — were, in some provinces, jailed or heavily fined. The Church of Aylmer Ontario Pastor Henry Hildebrandt was actually padlocked and chained closed by police.
8. Canadians who dissented from these measures as being wrong or an over-reaction to a virus were reviled in most the press and by most politicians as “conspiracy theorists” or selfish people who didn’t care if they killed grandma.
THE END THE LOCKDOWN PROTESTS & THE TRUCKERS’ FREEDOM CONVOY
9. Thus, starting in Vancouver in mid-March, 2020, spreading to Toronto the next weekend and then to cities and even towns across Canada was the largest mass protest in living memory. People frustrated by the various COVID restrictions and the deafness of most politicians gathered to stand up for their individual rights and freedoms. Theirs was very much a freedom protest.
10. At the July 1, 2020 Dominion Day rally on Parliament Hill, the sound of “”freedom, freedom” from a sea of Canadian flags and Red Ensigns was answered by “liberte, liberte” from a sea of Quebec blue fleur de lys flags and a few patriote flag from the rebellion of 1837. At a support rally at Queen’s Park in Toronto, the second Saturday of the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy gathering in Ottawa, I met a man wearing a Polish flag as a cape. We got talking and he explained his presence succinctly: “As a youth in Poland I marched with Solidarity for freedom; today, in Canada, I march for freedom in my new homeland. Both countries are threatened by totalitarianism.”
11. These protests became weekly events in cities across Canada and in many places continue to this day. There has grown a dedicated freedom movement from coast to coast. The weekly nature of these rallies and their persistence for more than two and a half years is unprecedented. There is outrage and dedication fuelling the freedom movement, outrage at the casual ways politicians and even bureaucrats and businesses have stomped on individual rights, and disillusionment with most politicians who were mute or went along with these violations as did most of the media.
12. In the 18 cities where I have attended these freedom rallies, I have never witnessed violence. Indeed, the atmosphere, as it was for much of the truckers’ three week protest in Ottawa, more resembled a 1960s era “happening”. People at these rallies, almost to a man or woman, were unmasked. Social distancing, of course, was not practised. People hugged and embraced complete strangers. Mary Lou Gutscher, a former leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada, greets all who attend the Sunday rallies in Penticton with a hug.
13. People revelled in practising the freedoms that had been banned. In Toronto, for months a Chinese lady brought her home baking and generously shared with one and all. Small groups of various faiths prayed together with their co-religionists. There might be brief speeches and often music and dancing.
14. These rallies brought together people from various points on the political spectrum. I encountered people who had voted Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green and People’s Party in recent elections. What united people was a deeply felt sense of the loss of their freedom and frustration at a dismissive and unresponsive political class and a largely sneering media which, when it wasn’t ignoring these protests, demonized and dismissed participants as conspiracy theorists or anti-vaxxers. It was more complicated.
15. The disappointment and anger at the loss of freedom was what united people. Some, like followers of Pastor Henry Hildebrandt whom I met a Toronto rallies, were dismayed at the trampling of their right to practise their faith. Others opposed the forced closure of businesses. Some opposed all vaccinations on religious or medical grounds. More were skeptical of the vaccines introduced in late 2020 which had been developed, as President Trump said, “at warp speed”.
16. Many in 2020 worried about forced vaccination. Prime Minister Trudeau had said vaccination would be voluntary, but people noticed how policies changed from day to day. Early in 2020, Dr. Teresa Tam had said masks were of little use. My late Spring, masks were advisable and by Autumn, in many places, compulsory. Many at the rallies feared the same would be the case for COVID vaccines and, indeed, their fears came true.
17. Most people at the rallies were Old Stock Canadians or quebecois de souche in Quebec. Nevertheless, the rallies attracted a number of native Indians, people from Asia, Blacks and some Sikhs. (Many Sikhs are involved in small trucking firms.)
18. Many people at the rallies were furthered in their doubts about the various restrictive mandates by the unequal way in which they were applied. They noted that Prime Minister Trudeau had ignored social distancing and taken a knee at a large Black Lives Rally in Ottawa in June, 2020. Perhaps, the ever-present danger of COVID had taken a holiday that day so that the large gathering could occur. The then Toronto Chief of Police took a knee in a large crowd in the lobby of Toronto Police Headquarters. In June, 2020, a family of London Muslims was run over by a man in a truck. Various federal and provincial politicians, including Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau, attended a large outdoor memorial, again in apparent defiance of mandates on the size of gatherings.
WHAT THE END THE LOCKDOWN FOLKS AND THE TRUCKERS’ FREEDOM CONVOY WANTED
19. When the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy began to take shape early in January, 2022, it was initially to oppose a new order to compel cross border truckers to be vaccinated. The convoy received enthusiastic support from dissenters across the country. It grew in size and its message was an end to all COVID mandates. At numerous rallies in January, I heard great enthusiasm for the convoy as the spearhead of the discontent with COVID restrictions.
20. People protest to get attention for their cause. There was a widespread disillusionment with being ignored by almost all politicians and most of the media when it wasn’t smearing the End the Lockdown and freedom rallies. It was hard to contact MPs. Few were available; many constituency offices were close. The universal excuse was COVID.
21. The goal of the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy was to be heard. They wanted the politicians in Ottawa to pay attention to them and to listen to their concerns.
22. One criticism made as the truckers converged on Ottawa was that they wanted to overthrow and replace the Trudeau government. Allegedly, they hoped to get the Senate and protest representatives with the Governor General to depose Justin Trudeau and form a new government. This foolish plan was the brain child of a tiny faction. Few people at the support rallies I attended had even heard of it and no one agreed. It was obviously unconstitutional and wildly impractical. There was no evidence even one senator agreed. The Governor-General is a creature of Ottawa politics and the federal civil service. That she would so rock the boat as to be part of such a plan is preposterous. Virtually nothing more was heard of this after the truckers arrived in Ottawa.
23. Along the way, from coast to coast, people rallied to feed and cheer the convoy on its way. Mostly, it was bitter cold. The crowds were huge. In Hamilton, a welcome rally was planned for Thursday morning, January 27. It was brutally cold. I expected the organizers would be lucky to muster 200 people to greet the convoy coming up from Niagara. In fact, almost 2,000 people lined roads and snow banks cheering and singing and waving Canadian flags. Station wagons drove up and gave boxes of food and bottled water to the truckers. I followed the convoy along the Queen Elizabeth Way to Mississauga. On every overpass, there were between 30 and 300 people, sometimes even coming down the ramp to the highway, waving flags and cheering the convoy. They had waited for over an hour in what was a frigid wind tunnel. Others told me this was the pattern all to way to Ottawa. There was huge grassroots support for the convoy.
THE REACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT
24. There has long been a rift in Canada between what is sometimes called the Laurentian Elite — the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto Axis and much of the rest of the country, especially small town-rural-small city Canada. Many in the latter group believe they are looked down on as unsophisticated, backward people who must be directed and led, for their own good, of course.
25. The demarcation lines are not perfect, of course. Many of the freedom protesters came from big cities, like Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.
26. Perhaps, a hint of the reaction of much of Canada’s political class occurred in the wake of the first End the Lockdown ally in Toronto in late March, 2020. Premier Doug Ford dismissed the protesters as “a bunch of yahoos.” He had headed the populist Ford Nation and ridden to victory in the 2018 provincial election on a wave of populism. Ford Nation was to die from the totalitarian restrictions and lockdowns imposed by the premier is response to COVID.
27. As the convoy gathered and headed toward Ottawa, the reactions of the government were hostile and abusive. This was not very astute nor fair, passing judgments on people the Prime Minister had never met. Surely, in Canada’s system of representative government an MP must listen to his/her constituents and attempt to represent their views as best as possible, but at the very least the MP should respectfully listen. The same obligation falls upon the First Minister, who spectacularly did not listen.
28. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who refused to meet the truckers, denounced them as a “fringe group”, with “unacceptable” views, who were “misogynistic” and racist and adherents of unscientific ideas. These accusations were made before the convoy even got to Ottawa. This was quite a blast at a group he hadn’t met! There was also much fretting about “violence”. There was much talk of bigotry and “hate”, although the issue of the truckers and their supporters was regaining freedom and an end to government mandates.
29. These accusations were false. As I have indicated, I noticed no violence or threats of violence at the close to 100 freedom rallies I’ve attended. Police testimony already before the Inquiry indicates there was remarkably little violence resulting from a three weeks protest by such a large crowd.
30. Representative government is imperilled when only certain views are deemed “acceptable” to even be heard. Similarly, whether an opinion is that of the majority or a minority (hence, perhaps, “fringe”) it should be heard. The government is loud in its loyalty to “diversity” and “inclusion”. [It even has a Ministry of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion.] One might hope that diversity and inclusion would apply to ideas as well.
32. The smear of “misogyny” was especially offensive and ludicrous. Women played a key role in the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy. One of the major organizers was Tamara Lich, who raised over $10-million in a Go Fund Me appeal within just a few weeks in January. It was subsequently stolen [that is, all but about $1-million, by a judge’s order did not go to the intended recipients, the truckers.] Women were often the majority at End the Lockdown rallies. Indeed, David Lindsay leader of the weekly C.L.E.A.R.-BC freedom protests in Kelowna said to me in the Fall of 2020: “Where are the guys? Seventy per cent of our supporters at these rallies are women.”
33. It would seem that the Prime Minister, much of the political class and many in the media sought to marginalize the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy with a torrent of baseless weaponized words.
34. The Prime Minister, instead of being open to hearing the convoy’s concerns, refused to meet with them and oozed a visceral disdain and contempt for them. In July, 2021, during the federal election the Prime Minister made a startling remark in French that was not reported in the English language press until January of 2022. The Toronto Sun (January 6, 2022) reported his comment: ““They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice in terms of leaders, in terms of the country. Do we tolerate these people?”So, far from negotiation, the Prime Minister questioned whether COVID dissenters should even be tolerated. With such visceral rejection we may see why the Emergencies Act was invoked to smash the uprising of people he saw, in Hillary Clinton’s words, as “deplorables.”
35. Further to the Prime Minister’s mindset, in an article entitled “Convoy was no ‘occupation'”, Ottawa writer Rupa Subramanya says: “In the ultimate analysis, the narrative tone was set from the outset by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and it continues to this day. Commenting on the actions of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Trudeau praised Ford for ‘standing with the people of Ottawa, of Ontario and of Canada, and not others.’ Unless the prime minister believes, contrary to the evidence, that members of the Freedom Convoy came from Mars, or at any rate from outside Canada, he’s quite literally “othering” fellow Canadians. Trudeau is no longer even bothering with the pretence that he governs for all Canadians, and not just the minority (not even a plurality) who voted for him.” (National Post, October 29, 2022)
36. With the exception of a small number of Conservative MPs who met with and greeted the truckers, Ottawa’s political class was decidedly frosty and unwelcoming in its approach. Former Liberal Cabinet member Catherine McKenna called for censorship of the Internet: “Time for Canada to regulate social media companies so they stop promoting violence and hate.” (National Post, February 1, 2022) The then Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole flip flopped. At first, he refused to meet members of the convoy but eventually agreed to meet some truckers but away from Parliament Hill. Why, as if they were some disreputable people who could not be seen publicly in decent company? Still, he had to scold those he hadn’t even yet met: “There are other groups using the plight of truckers to bring division, hatred, and we need to call that out and stamp it out,” said O’Toole, with no specifics as to what hatred or who those groups were. (CBC January 27, 2022) NDP leader Jagmeet Singh leads a party that for generations has billed itself as the voice of the workingman. He, too, would not meet with these workingmen and women. Sounding a lot like Trudeau and O’Toole, he said that “some of the people behind the demonstration are pushing ‘false information’ through ‘inflammatory, divisive and hateful comments.'” (CBC, January 26, 2022)
NEGOTIATIONS: THE ROUTE NOT TAKEN
37. The main goal of the convoy and its supporters was to the heard by the politicians and especially by the government, to be treated respectfully and seriously. This would have been a reasonable political solution. The government might have invited the convoy to send a delegation of spokesmen to sit down with the Prime Minister and/or a team of Cabinet ministers to discuss their concerns with a view to ending the protests. This was never done.
38.The Inquiry has heard testimony from then-Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson that he had, in fact, negotiated with the Convoy leadership to begin moving their vehicles out of residential neighbourhoods and that the agreement held. “In a statement released on Sunday, the Freedom Convoy Board said it agreed with the mayor’s request to begin moving operations out of residential neighbourhoods.
‘We have made a plan to consolidate our protest efforts around Parliament Hill. We will be working hard over the next 24 hours to get buy in from the truckers. We hope to start repositioning our trucks on Monday,’ reads a letter from the board.” (Global News, February 15, 2022) The conclusion is clear: Negotiations — that is a political settlement — were indeed possible.
39. In early 2020, just before COVID hit, radical Indians and radical environmentalists occupied several railway lines. The most critical was the CN line across the top of Lake Ontario. The two week blockade cost over $300-million in losses for delayed deliveries. The government’s reaction to these manifestly illegal blockades was very different from its approach to the truckers. There were no angry denunciations. In the end, there were negotiations. Note the non-judgemental and conciliatory language used by Minister Marc Miller in regards to the blockades: “Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says there is a clear ‘path forward’ to defuse the ongoing tensions caused by protests that have hamstrung the country’s transportation network, despite some Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs refusing to meet until the RCMP leave their territory.
‘I know that the recent events in B.C. and in various places across the country are deeply concerning to all Canadians. It is a very difficult situation for everyone — for those people who are non-Indigenous but especially if they are Indigenous,’ said Miller during an emergency debate in the House of Commons Tuesday night. ‘All of Canada is hurting, and we are all hoping and working for a peaceful resolution.'” (CBC, February 19, 2020)
40. Although the demands by the Indian and environmentalist blockaders might well be seen as extremist or fringe, there was no such denunciation in the minister’s language.
41. Similarly, while the Black Lives Matter protests in Canada during June and July, 2020, were mostly peaceful, their demand for defunding the police could be viewed as “fringe” or “extreme” but the Prime Minister was glad to greet BLM in Ottawa, meet with them and take a knee.
CONCLUSION
42. There was a political solution to the three week protest in Ottawa. An early meeting with the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy leaders might well have ended the protest after the first weekend. It is clear the truckers were amenable to negotiation and were reasonable. Their main goal was to feature their grievances in a mass protest (in that they succeeded) and to get the attention of the nation’s political leadership, especially the government. In that they got the equivalent of the bloody cavalry charge unleashed on peaceful protesters in 1905 in St. Petersburg by the Czar, at least as portrayed in the 1960s movie Dr. Zhivago.
The Prime Minister’s remarks, even before the convoy arrived dripped with hostility and contempt, as did much of the media coverage. This was politically clumsy at best.
The Emergencies Act is meant to be used as a last resort in a dire emergency In our submission, the peaceful Truckers’ Freedom Convoy may have been an annoyance and disruption but it was not a dire emergency. The federal government had not tried other means, especially political negotiations, to resolve the situation Instead, their response was to reach for the nuclear weapon of responses — the freedom stealing, money thieving Emergencies Act.
Prime Minister Trudeau has, on occasion, expressed admiration for the Communist Chinese system because, being a dictatorship, it can make decisions quickly and take action quickly, without the messy interference of Parliament or laws. That may be their system but it is not the Canadian way!
Truth and Justice for Germans & Brian Ruhe Present Alfred and Monika Schaefer, July 30, 2022 in conjunction with the 2022 George Orwell Free Speech Award presented to Alfred and Monika Schaefer in Vancouver.https://www.bitchute.com/video/jXCtxrHYVFD2/
Ian Verner Macdonald (January 19, 1925 – June 28, 2022) R.I.P.
Canada lost an outstanding free speech warrior, historical revisionist and free thinker, June 28 with the death of Ian Verner Macdonald, well into his 99th year. Ian was the son of the late John A. and Katherine Macdonald. He was one of the first to be born in the newly-built Ottawa Civic Hospital on January 1925 and grew up in Old Ottawa South with summers spent in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia where both of his parents were born. A true patriot all of his life, he served in the RCAF and RN Fleet Air Arm during WWII and had a lifelong love of aviation. With degrees in economics from Queen’s University and University of Toronto, he wrote the Foreign Service Exam, placing second nationwide, and then went on to a career as a trade diplomat that took him officially to over 50 countries.
His numerous unprecedented accomplishments in this career made him arguably the most productive trade official then in Canadian history. Always a Canada Firster, in the mid-60s he urged taking advantage of trade opportunities with the increasingly wealthy Arab world. After six foreign postings, on five continents, he was appointed Chief of Planning and Policy for export development from which position he was able to propose programmes and policies based on practical experience that would greatly improve the efficacy of government assistance to Canadians seeking to do business abroad. In the mid-‘sixties, he strongly recommended cultivation of the lucrative and receptive Arab markets where he had been assured by top-level officials and businessmen that Canada, because of its perceived independent, non-partisan foreign policy, was their trading partner of choice. Much to his dismay, Canadair reported that the sale he had negotiated for supply of jet trainers to the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force (SOAF) had been vetoed by Foreign Affairs, an affront to Sultan Said bin Taimur that cost Canada heavily in prospective earnings. More importantly, his high-level discussions to train and equip the embryo Saudi Air Force, for which a $400 million down payment was offered, failed to receive support in Ottawa and was never consummated.
To add to the folly, his Middle East and North African trade policy proposals, no matter how astute and prescient, were opposed furiously by an influential foreign-affiliated lobby (with several moles in the Department and the ear of the Minister) who intervened to have the policy advisor summarily dismissed from the Foreign Service for his audacious devotion to duty. He was tricked out of an easily-won appeal of his “wrongful dismissal” by a false promise of reinstatement “as soon as the heat from the Jewish Lobby dies down” – on condition he not appeal nor seek outside assistance. Because of his well-founded suspicion of foreign intrigue, he contacted RCMP Security (and subsequently the Canadian Security Intelligence Service), only to find that they were “not interested”. So ended his chosen career.Betrayed, deceived and rebuffed, deserted by intimidated colleagues, but undaunted, he searched for alternative opportunites in government and soon landed a job, in overseas project marketing, that suited his talents. He brokered Canadian construction of a major luxury resort project at Cayo Sabinal, Cuba, by raising $171 million in Canadian financing for the American sponsors but the project was stalled by the imposition of U.S. sanctions. After a decade of forming Canadian consortia and globe-trotting on their behalf in search of project opportunities, he again ran afoul of the Lobby and again was fired – this time for successfully negotiating major concessions and joint ventures agreements in Libya worth billions of dollars and a $700 million agricultural project in Saudi Arabia, unprecedented accomplishments that were condemned and vetoed by his furious titular superiors as “contrary to instructions”.
Meanwhile, in his spare time, he founded different ventures including manufacturing vinyl-based dental plastics, opening a feldspar mine, establishing a downtown gallery in Ottawa, building Marrakesh, a lavish-decor Hollywood-theme restaurant, etc. As a WWII veteran with rich diplomatic experiences and advanced news writing training at Wayne State University in Detroit and as an amateur historian, he was drawn to study the history of the war. He produced hundreds of iconoclastic treatises on WWII and Middle Eastern issues. He wrote numerous published articles and was the subject of articles written by others on his outspoken patriotism and unflagging efforts to expose subversion and corruption in government.
In the spring of 1987, on behalf of the Government of Libya with which he had kept contact since 1972 through Libya’s UN Ambassador, he recruited a 96 member Canadian delegation to an International Peace Gathering called by Col. Muammar Ghaddafi to commemorate the previous year’s U.S. attack on Tripoli and Bengazi, in which the President’s two year daughter was killed. The conference was infiltrated by Libya’s enemies intending to stage an “ugly incident” to discredit the proceedings, the main feature of the proposed incident to be the high-profile organizer of the Canadian delegation. When Ian was able to evade the planned assassination thanks to a tip, the only journalist on the mission (the perceptive, insightful young Christoph Halens from the Ottawa Citizen, a graduate of the Carleton University School of Journalism eager to make his mark by covering the Conference) tragically became the alternative victim. With the Libyan outrage in mind, the Ian vigorously petitioned the Commissioner of the RCMP, the Foreign Affairs Department and the Belgian Embassy to investigate the subsequent murder by Israel of Canadian scientist and inventor Dr Gerald Bull (who had contracted his services to the Government of Iraq) but without effect, despite the availability of the prime witness (VictorOstrovsky, former Mossad agent ) in Ottawa. He continued to be the victim of attempts to impoverish him and otherwise dampen his spirit including death threats, none of which campaigns has been wholly successful, however disconcerting. Two of his houses were destroyed by arson, and a third seriously damaged. He felt Canada had been betrayed again as cabalistic power-brokers and venal politicians trash our priceless British-French heritage and compete to sacrifice the country’s birthright and sovereignty for sordid political advantage and personal gain. He feared that Canada today is no longer a respected, confident, homogeneous, independent, Christian union but is becoming increasingly a dispossessed, demoralized, turbulent, unstable, lobby-driven, multicultural, multiracial, Godless, leaderless, confused, disintegrating, Americanized polyglot, essentially without national character, without cohesion, without historical integrity, without pride and without common purpose.
He was an avid musician leading a dance band while at Queen’s University, forming his own Swing band while living in South Africa, and playing trombone with various bands up until he was 92. He strived to make every minute count in all his varied endeavours, and he excelled at everything he did – as the Manager of the Queen’s Brass and Pipe Bands, as the top-performance trade diplomat, as an ardent Ottawa heritage promoter, as an ambitious entrepreneur, as an insatiable writer and reader. As an undaunted truth defender and great Canadian patriot, he remained true to his integrity and principles to the very end of his life.
Ian Macdonald wrote thousands of crisp, well documented letters-to-the-editor on forbidden topics like Zionist influence in public policy, Canada’s failed immigration policies and a reconsideration of Canada’s role in WWII. Almost none appeared in Canada’s “free” press. They have been circulated on the Internet and many will appear as part of a book about to go to press just before Ian died. On January 14, 2010, the Canadian Association for Free Expression gave him a freedom award at a luncheon in Toronto, citing his “lifetime of dedication to freedom of speech and the preservation of our people.”
Intellectually active to the end, Ian Macdonald practised Rudyard Kipling’s advice to his son “to fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.”
Tributes have begun to pour in as people around the world learned of Ian’s death. Among the first to arrive was from Mark Weber, Director of the Institute for Historical Review in Orange County, California: ” ’m grateful to have known this extraordinarily curious, productive and compassionate man. I remember Ian most vividly from the unforgettable days in May 2012 when he and Lydia welcomed me, my wife and step-son as guests at his rambling, museum-like home in Ottawa. I remember well our wide-ranging conversations, and how much I appreciated what he told me about his tumultuous life.”
“Rescind the Grant, Withdraw the Bigotted ‘Anti-Hate’ Booklet,” CAFE Tells Somali “Diversity” Minister Ahmed Hussen
Weston, July 5, 2022. Supporters of the Canadian Association for Free Expression picketed the constituency office of “Diversity” Minister Ahmed Hussen, a Somali refugee and dual citizen, this afternoon. They demanded that he rescind a recent grant to the anti-free speech lobby group, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network for the production of a booklet to combat “hate” in the schools but which is really of guidebook for suppressing politically incorrect ideas among students, even urging kids to rat on other kids.
As people from neighbouring stores and houses gathered around and largely agreed with the protesters, an employee locked the office door and fled. CAFE left its press statement and a few placards for the employee when she feels safe to return.
“Diversity” Minister Ahmed Hussen has given the militantly anti-free speech Canadian Anti-Hate Network $268,400 to produce a book for schools to fight hate. The book is sloppy and contains not a word about radical Islam. “Hate” has a specific meaning in the Criminal Code. Virtually none of the groups or views they smear as “hate” has ever been charged let alone found guilty under the law. “Hate” really means views or opinions the Canadian Anti-Hate Network hates. Those include the Red Ensign and Donald Trump.
“It is outrageous Ahmed Hussen who was welcomed as a refugee would so repay Canadians by funding this bigotted attack on free speech,” said CAFE Director Paul Fromm. The booklet lists opinions the Canadian Anti-Hate Network finds unacceptable and urges teachers and students to try to suppress them. For instance, Gay Pride, Black Pride, Latino Pride are all good, but Euro-Pride of White Pride are “hate” and to be banished from schools
“Listing the Red Ensign as a “hate” symbol, the flag Canadian soldiers fought under in two world wars — this included my parents who both served under this flag — is an insult to Canadian history,” Mr. Fromm added/ “We will demand:
1. That the grant be rescinded
2. That the booklet be withdrawn and not distributed to educators
3. That the minister apologize for the smear against the Red Ensign that was our country’s flag. Whether this smear was made out of ignorance or malice toward Old Stock Canadians, HOW DARE HE?’ Mr. Fromm concluded
The crest on Hussen’s sign (the crest of Canada) is the SAME crest on the Red Ensign he and the anti-free speech Canadian Anti-Hate Network say is a “hate symbol”.
CAFE Joins 50 END ALL MANDATES Protesters in Hamilton Rally
WHEW, super windy as 50 END ALL MANDATES protesters rallied this afternoon near Eastgate Mall in Hamilton. CAFE had a strong presence. Rally was joined by Burlington People’s Party Candidate/organizer Mike Bator
CAFE SUPPORTED POLITICAL PRISONER DR. JAMES SEARS & PICKETED TORONTO SOUTH DETENTION CENTRE, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021
On February 3, former political prisoner and editor of the satirical tabloid YOUR WARD NEWS Dr. James Sears was arrested at gunpoint in the parking lot having just seen his parole officer for his regular visit. He is charged with “breach of probation”, but has not yet (as of February 12) received the particulars or the paperwork. He will have a hearing by telephone on February 17.
As part of our mission to support freedom of speech and the victims of tyrannical censorship laws, the Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) held a protest outside the Toronto South Detention Centre located at 160 Horner Ave, Toronto, ON M8Z 0C2, Sunday afternoon, February 13. Whew, it was cold.
The website of the poisonous taxpayer-funded Canadian Anti-Hate Network suggests that the issue may be comments he made in jest about Teresa Tam in his talk after CAFE gave him the George Orwell Free Speech award soon after he got out of jail. We have a strong suspicion we know which liberty-hating individual in Ottawa made the complaint. Those of us who cherish freedom owe it to our values to demonstrate and support Dr. Sears. These protests matter. Guards told him last fall that they knew for a fact that CAFE’s protests — six in all last year — were a factor in his being granted early parole.
* Amnesty International defines a “prisoner of conscience” or political prisoner as a person punished solely for the non-violent expression of their political, religious or cultural views. Both Dr. James Sears and Leroy St. Germaine are political prisoners — jailed because they criticized politically powerful minority groups. Free speech activist Raychyl Whyte has been lobbying Amnesty to adopt Dr. Sears as a “prisoner of conscience”
* A lasting disgrace is that only one mainstream media writer has criticized this attack on freedom of the press, which they regularly condemn if it occurs in Hong Kong or the Philippines. FREE POLITICAL PRISONER, DR. JAMES SEARS
PLEASE SEND POSTCARDS OR LETTERS OF SUPPORT TO ONE OF OUR MEN BEHIND THE WIRE.
Dr. James Sears, Political Prisoner, Toronto South Detention Center, 160 Horner Ave, Toronto, ON M8Z 0C2 CANADA _______________________CAFE (The Canadian Association for Free Expression)P.O. Box 332,Rexdale, ON.,M9W 5L3 416-428-5308 http://cafe.nfshost.com
CAFE Director Paul Fromm at today’s rally to support the truckers & an end to all mandates
Over 100 freedom fighters joined by CAFE, which supports the truckers convoy & the call for an end to all repressive mandates, rallied outside Hamilton City Hall today. It was cold but the coffee brought by volunteers was warm..
Time to Renew (for 2022) & Help CAFE Survive Financially
Canadian Association for Free Expression
Box 332,
Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3
Ph: 416-428-5308
Website http://cafe.nfshost.com
Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director
November 11, 2021 CAFE supporters welcome Dr. James Sears on his release from prison
Dear Free Speech Supporter:
Time to Renew (for 2022) & Help CAFE Survive Financially
It’s Remembrance Day and we recall with respect the bravery and sacrifice of Canadian men and women who fought and sometimes perished in war — wars ostensibly for freedom (but that’s another story). As I shall explain a bit later, those freedoms have been vacuumed away and, sad to say, many Canadians just don’t care. We have a monumental job to nudge more Canadians into caring. I am asking you to renew your subscription to the Free Speech Monitor (still just $20.00) and to send us a special Christmas gift donation. Quite frankly, CAFE is hanging on by a thread. Many of you have suffered financially because of the COVID lockdown hysteria — jobs lost, businesses closed. One of our key sources of income is meetings across the country. We see our supporters and they donate or buy books or videos. For much of the past 19 months meetings have been impossible. For instance, we have held just two in Toronto this year. Thus, a special Christmas donation to CAFE would be a huge help.
Good News: Political Prisoner Dr. James Sears Free on Early Parole
First, some good news. Dr. James Sears, the editor of the wickedly satirical YOUR WARD NEWS, was freed from the South Toronto Detention Centre — too late for Thanksgiving — on October 14, in early parole, having served four months of a 12-month sentence (the maximum) for “wilfully promoting hatred” against radical feminists and Jews. He emerged gaunt but smiling and unbroken. CAFE played a role, we are told, in his release. CAFE, from the start, has supported victims of Canada’s notorious hate laws. We staged six protests outside the prison for Dr. Sears. He became an immediate celebrity among both the prisoners and the guards. One guard sneered after one of our protests to Dr. Sears: “There were only 11 of your supporters at the protest.” Another guard retorted: “But that’s 11 more than any other prisoner has ever had here!” The protests also informed astonished prisoners and guards what Dr. Sears’ crime was — satire, jokes, the written word — not assault or theft or DUI. Many came to know Canada’s hypocrisy. We selectively preach about human rights but still toss dissidents in jail. We also contributed to Dr. Sears’ canteen or prison account. However, best of all, in the mysterious alchemy involved in parole decisions, apparently our protests had a positive effect. “Believe me, those protests helped you get early parole,” a guard told Dr. Sears. His co-accused, publisher Leroy St. Germaine also received a year in prison, but, because he was of Metis ancestry, got to serve his time under house arrest. Nevertheless, although 80 years old and not in the best of health Leroy came out to several of our protests in support of his old friend Dr. James Sears.
Freedom of Speech — Many Canadians Just Don’t Get It & Just Don’t Care
If you haven’t already done so, please read the lead article in the Free Speech Monitor (October, 2021) which accompanies this letter. Entitled “Freedom of Speech: Many Canadians Don’t “Get” It”, it references a recent Leger poll that found that 40 per cent of Canadians felt we had less freedom to discuss controversial topics today than a decade ago. Good, but only 40 per cent? With protests and public gatherings even religious gatherings banned or severely restricted for months over the past two years, with protesters fined and pastors heavily fined or jailed, how can only 40 per cent even see there’s a problem? What should be done about “hate speech”, whatever that is, on social media like Facebook and YouTube and Twitter — outlets, unlike most of the mainstream, largely Fake news media that remain open to dissident voices? Pathetically, 46 per cent of those surveyed felt the government should regulate or ban content it “considers hate speech” and 69 per cent supported social media monitoring (spying) and banning content they considered “hate speech”. In January, 65 per cent of Canadians said they’d support a nightly curfew — that’s house arrest, punishment without charge or trial — to fight COVID, even though they doubted the effectiveness of curfews! (Canadian Press, January 19, 2021)Now, that’s some special kind of stupid! Interestingly, the same poll found that 21 per cent said their own mental health was bad or very bad. [It shows!] Perhaps, many Canadians had been scared witless by the relentless media and government fear mongering about an illness with a 99.7 survival. The dangerous thing is that, if substantial numbers of Canadians don’t cherish or care about their liberties, governments which are full of control freaks won’t either. Also, implicit in all this is that our freedoms come from the government — they can stingily dole them out a little, when we’re good, and yank them back when we’re bad. THAT’S NOT THE NATURE OF OUR ANGLO-SAXON LIBERTIES! These liberties are inherent to our nature and, if you’re Christian, they are intrinsic to your nature as a human being, a child of God.
Well, the Charter and the Courts Will Protect Us from The Theft of Our Rights?
It’s a fond thought that Trudeau I’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, crippled by a weasel clause as it is, will protect your rights to freedom of speech, freedom to practise your religion, freedom of assembly. Thus far the Charter has proven as useful as a wet piece of Kleenex in a puddle during this pandemic. In several cases, the courts have said: “Well, yes, the restrictions imposed by the Medico-Stalinists violate your rights, but it’s all in a good cause. So, there!” Law Professor Bruce Pardy warned: “Ten days ago, the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench was the latest court to rebuff a constitutional challenge to COVID restrictions on civil liberties. Chief Justice Glenn Joyal ruled that provincial public health orders were constitutionally justifiable, joining courts from around the country in embracing the official COVID narrative and defending the authority of the pandemic state. [The case, argued on behalf of several religious groups by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms introduced 2,000 pages of academic testimony and four qualified expert witnesses, including the former Chief Medical Officer of Health of Manitoba. They challenged the scientific validity of the very basis for the COVID case count so lovingly cited by lockdown proponents — the PSR test.] Over the past 19 months, lockdowns, masking rules, traveller quarantines, closed borders, business restrictions, and now vaccine mandates have made Canadians less free than they have ever been. Yet so far, Charter challenges to COVID rules have been spectacularly unsuccessful. During COVID, the Charter has been useless!” (National Post, November 3, 2021)
Cancel Culture Where Dissent Can Get You Fired & Your Life Ruined On A Mere Complaint
Canadians like to think of themselves as “nice” people: We are polite and always apologizing. This self-congratulatory view is often wrong. All too frequently many Canadians are vicious, destructive nasty people. This is the environment we live in. Consider the Lavallee sisters and a boyfriend: ” Two Ontario sisters have been awarded $100,000 in a defamation suit against an activist who started a social media campaign against them, alleging a Snapchat video they made mocked the murder of George Floyd. The sisters, Shania and Justine Lavallee, were both fired from their respective jobs at Boston Pizza and Canada Border Services Agency in the spring of 2020, shortly after the social media campaign began. The Ontario Superior Court decision by Justice Marc Smith said that Solit Isak, who identifies as Black, initiated a ‘brutal and unempathetic campaign to destroy the lives of two young women.’ According to the ruling, Isak made dozens of posts about the sisters after viewing a screenshot of a Snapchat video made by Shania Lavallee, which were quickly amplified by social media and the news media. The screenshot showed Justine being pinned down by her boyfriend, who had his knee on her back and was holding her arms back. Isak viewed the image shortly after Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer—setting off a summer of protests about racial injustice—and believed the Snapchat post mocked his death. In the court ruling Isak admitted she never saw the video, and the sisters said the video was just play fighting, and they had no intentions of invoking Floyd’s death. … The court also never saw the video, as it was deleted by Snapchat, but accepted the word of the sisters and two of their friends who saw the video that there was no attempt to mock Floyd.” What exactly does it mean that Isak ‘identifies as Black’? Is she Black or is she a blue-eyed redhead who wishes she was Black? Her lobbying also got the boyfriend fired. Terrible as her behaviour was, equally vile were the reactions of those businesses and government bodies that blithely fired these people on mere complaints. There was no due process. Oh, and the big irony: Despite the French sounding name, the Lavallees are Eskimos! We have much to do to try to claw back some of our lost liberties!
The Challenge
Doug Christie prophetically warned us after three decades battling for free speech in Canadian courts: “Don’t look to constitutions or bills of rights or charters of rights and freedom for the liberties you have. You only have such freedoms as you are prepared to fight for.” Since 1983, CAFE has been in this fight, promoting freedom of speech by assisting the victims of censorship, by publishing our monthly newsletter, the Free Speech Monitor, by presenting daily, timely information on our website http://cafe.nfshost.com, by holding meetings (COVID crackdowns permitting) and rallies and by producing numerous videos like these recent ones:
I thank you in advance and gratefully wish you and your family a Very Merry Christmas. You might want to consider buying some of the historic Doug Christie dvds on the back of the enclosed coupon and using them as Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Fromm
Director
CAFE, Box 332, Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3
The Wuhan Flu has cramped CAFE’s operations, especially holding meetings, as we do across Canada. This has slashed our income. Nevertheless, we have maintained our publishing schedule, bringing out the Free Speech Monitor each month and, of course, maintaining our very active website — http://cafe.nfshost.com. Can you help make up the financial shortfall? Send CAFE a Christmas gift. Make your cheque payable to CAFE.
__ Orders from the other side of this coupon for Christmas gifts & stocking stuffers. $____.
___Please renew my subscription for 2022 to the Free Speech Monitor ($20).
___ Wuhan Flu or not, I am one of Canada’s tiny band of free speech freedom fighters. Here is my donation of $______ to assist in CAFE’s work so that more people “get it” about the importance of freedom of speech in these times of fear, hysteria and power grabs by control freaks.
