Tag Archives: Joseph Hickey

OCLA’s 2019 Year in Review

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OCLA’s 2019 Year in Review

Dear OCLA Supporter,

This email is to give you an update on the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA)’s work and activities in 2019.

2019 OCLA Civil Liberties Award – Kelly Donovan

Kelly Donovan, a police whistleblower and public-protection advocate, was this year’s recipient of the OCLA Civil Liberties Award.

Ms. Donovan is a former police constable and use-of-force instructor with the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Her efforts to report bias or arbitrariness of disciplinary measures against police officers who sought improvement or redress were met with gagging measures, further discipline, and publicly-funded tribunal litigation against her person. But she never gave up, and in 2019 as a self-represented litigant, she won a matter at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, reinstating her right to sue both the Board and the Police Chief.

Kelly was also recently awarded her litigation costs in both the appeal and the case in the lower court, a rare and important accomplishment for a self-represented litigant.

Full details about the award, including Kelly’s acceptance video, are posted on the OCLA’s website here, and an excellent media report in Brant.One is available here.

Research report “Geo-Economics and Geo-Politics Drive Successive Eras of Predatory Globalization and Social Engineering”

OCLA researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt authored a 78-page research report about the influence that two large-scale, post-WW2 geopolitical transformations had on individual rights, democracy, and societal organization in Western countries.

The report seeks to demonstrate how geopolitical and global economic conditions are at the root of many of the erosions of civil liberties that have been underway in Western societies during the past several decades.

The report can be read here, and a media summary published in CounterPunch is available here.

OCLA opposes the international campaign to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism

In June 2019, the OCLA endorsed the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)’s expressed opposition to the international campaign to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, and we issued our own public statement opposing the campaign.

The OCLA’s position, which can be read at the link here, repeats our previously expressed argument (detailed in our July 2018 letter to the Attorney General of Ontario) in opposition to the “hate speech” provisions of the Criminal Code.

OCLA interviews Tony Heller on social media censorship

One current area of severe censorship is any questioning of the “climate emergency” or of the dominant mediascape view of “climate change”.

OCLA researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt recently interviewed climate activist Tony Heller about the need for freedom of expression amid censorship by mainstream and social media corporations. The video interview is available here.

OCLA Executive Director earns PhD

OCLA Executive Director Joseph Hickey completed his PhD in Physics in 2019. His thesis, “A Complex Systems Study of Social Hierarchies and Jurisprudence”, studied simple models of the formation and evolution of social hierarchies, with implications for the role of individual freedoms in maintaining the stability of societies. The thesis also contains a statistical analysis of the citations between Canadian judicial decisions, which explores possible reasons for the explosion of family litigation that occurred in Canada in the 1990s.

Joseph’s thesis is available online here.

Media coverage

2019-07-04: “In Canada and elsewhere, freedom of speech is on the endangered list”, LawNow

2019-07-16: “Patients flagged as potentially violent wait months for appeal” London Free Press

2019-09-07: “Man under deportation order due to terrorist links to speak at University of Toronto” Canadian Jewish News

2019-09-25: “‘Nasty’ digital warnings from authorities putting chill on FoCo bashes”, London Free Press

2019-12-01: “Debate on the ‘Take Back the Toronto Public Library’ Protests”, Stranger Tides Podcast

How to stay connected and donate to the OCLA
Website: http://ocla.ca
Twitter: @oncivlib
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/110883345731728/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKqbht2j2BPu4Wb2epM4BKw

ONTARIO CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION BLASTS MONIKA DETENTION AS ILLEGAL & DEMAND CANADIAN GOV’T ACTION TO FREE MONIKA FROM HER “UNJUST & IMMORAL IMPRISONMENT ​” July 16, 2018 By Email Honourable Chrystia Freeland Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould Minister of Justice of Canada jody.wilson- raybould@parl.gc.ca Dear Ministers Freeland and Wilson-Raybould: Re: Imprisonment of Canadian Monika Schaefer in Germany for a video expressing a view about the Nazi holocaust The Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) advocates for civil and human rights, including the human right of freedom of expression, opinion and belief. The OCLA is concerned about an apparent unwillingness of Canada to come to the aid of a Canadian political prisoner in Germany, who is charged using a German criminal law that does not exist in Canada and that is categorically contrary to international law. Canada ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1976. As you know, General Comments (GC) of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) interpret and specify the ICCPR covenant and constitute international law. At paragraph 49 in General Comment No. 34 [CCPR/C/GC/34, 2011] the UNHRC determined: Laws that penalize the expression of opinions about historical facts are incompatible with the obligations that the Covenant imposes on States parties in relation to the respect for freedom of opinion and expression. The Covenant does not permit general prohibition of expressions of an erroneous opinion or an incorrect interpretation of past events. Therefore, the German law in issue, which criminalizes negative expression about the historical events of the Nazi holocaust, is a so-called “memory-law” (HRC term) that violates the human right of free expression. It carries a maximum jail sentence of five years. We have reviewed the reason given that Ms. Schaeffer was arrested, charged and detained in Germany when she travelled to that country. It is her -minute video titled “Sorry mom I was wrong about the holocaust”, which she made in Canada about Canada and published from Canada, and which the CBC embedded in its July 15, 2016 article entitled “Hate speech complaint filed against Jasper woman for Holocaust denial video”: https://archive.org/details/SorryMomIWasWrongAboutTheHolocaust_201709 In this way, the CBC participated in a criminal offence under German law (perpetrated in Canada), which is absurd. We ask you both to do everything you can to save Monika Schaefer from her on-going unjust and immoral imprisonment in Germany and that you tell your efforts in this regard publicly. Ms. Schaefer’s trial is in progress. In particular, we ask Canada to appoint a consular observer and direct contact for Ms. Schaefer immediately. Every day that Canada refuses to act or acts ineffectively is a day that Ms. Schaefer spends in a foreign jail. Therefore, we express the required urgency. Please let us know your responses so that we may report these on our website. Yours truly, Joseph Hickey Executive Director Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) http://ocla.ca 613-252-6148 (c) joseph.hickey@ocla.ca

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ONTARIO CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION BLASTS MONIKA DETENTION  AS ILLEGAL & DEMAND CANADIAN GOV’T ACTION TO FREE MONIKA FROM HER “UNJUST & IMMORAL IMPRISONMENT

 

​”

July 16, 2018

 

 

By Email

Honourable Chrystia Freeland

Minister of Foreign Affairs

of Canada

chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca

 

Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould

Minister of Justice

of Canada

jody.wilson-

raybould@parl.gc.ca

 

Dear Ministers Freeland and Wilson-Raybould:

 

Re: Imprisonment of Canadian Monika Schaefer in Germany for a video expressing a view about the Nazi holocaust

 

The Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) advocates for civil and human rights, including the human right of freedom of expression, opinion and belief.

 

The OCLA is concerned about an apparent unwillingness of Canada to come to the aid of a Canadian political prisoner in Germany, who is charged using a German  criminal law that does not exist in Canada and that is categorically contrary to international law.

 

Canada ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1976. As you know, General Comments (GC) of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) interpret and specify the ICCPR covenant and constitute international law.

 

At paragraph 49 in General Comment No. 34 [CCPR/C/GC/34, 2011] the UNHRC determined:

Laws that penalize the expression of opinions about historical facts are  incompatible with the obligations that the Covenant imposes on States

parties in relation to the respect for freedom of opinion and expression. The Covenant does not permit general prohibition of expressions of an erroneous  opinion or an incorrect interpretation of past events. Therefore, the German law in issue, which criminalizes negative expression about the historical events of the Nazi holocaust, is a so-called “memory-law” (HRC term) that violates the human right of free expression. It carries a maximum jail sentence of five years.

 

We have reviewed the reason given that Ms. Schaeffer was arrested, charged and detained in Germany when she travelled to that country. It is her -minute video titled “Sorry mom I was wrong about the holocaust”, which she made in Canada  about Canada and published from Canada, and which the CBC embedded in its July 15, 2016 article entitled “Hate speech complaint filed against Jasper woman for Holocaust denial video”:

https://archive.org/details/SorryMomIWasWrongAboutTheHolocaust_201709

 

In this way, the CBC participated in a criminal offence under German law (perpetrated in Canada), which is absurd.

 

We ask you both to do everything you can to save Monika Schaefer from her on-going unjust and immoral imprisonment in Germany and that you tell your efforts in this regard publicly. Ms. Schaefer’s trial is in progress. In particular, we ask Canada to appoint a consular observer and direct contact for Ms. Schaefer immediately.

 

Every day that Canada refuses to act or acts ineffectively is a day that Ms. Schaefer spends in a

foreign jail. Therefore, we express the required urgency.

 

Please let us know your responses so that we may report these on our website.

 

Yours truly,

Joseph Hickey

Executive Director

 

Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) http://ocla.ca

613-252-6148 (c)

joseph.hickey@ocla.ca