The Minority Censors Get What They Want –3 More Years of Gag on Arthur Topham

B.C. man faces strict conditions after breaching sentence for anti-Semitic hate crimes

Judge prohibits Arthur Topham from publicly posting about Jewish people, the Talmud, Zionism and Israel

Betsy Trumpener · CBC News · Posted: Nov 23, 2020 3:42 PM PT | Last Updated: November 23

Arthur Topham enters the Quesnel, B.C., court house in 2015, where he was convicted of willfully promoting hatred during a jury trial. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC)

A B.C. man convicted of an online hate crime is facing strict new rules on his public expression after breaching his sentencing conditions.

Arthur Topham, who ran a publication from his rural home near the central Interior city of Quesnel, was convicted in 2015 of  communicating online statements that wilfully promoted hatred against Jewish people.

As part of his sentence, Topham was forbidden from publishing or publicly posting information about “persons of Jewish religion or ethnic origin.” 

But In October, a provincial court judge ruled Topham had breached that condition by creating new posts throughout 2018. 

Late last week, the judge sentenced Topham to a 30-day conditional sentence and three years probation for the breach, placing strict new conditions on Topham’s public posts.

“Justice has been served,” the B’nai Brith’s Ran Ukashi. “There’s a price to pay for these kinds of actions. (B’nai Brith/Contributed)

For the next three years, Topham is forbidden from  publishing or printing publicly any reference to or information about  the Talmud, Zionism, Israel, and  the Jewish religion, ethnicity or people.

Topham is also forbidden from publicly posting the names of people he knows to be of Jewish origin. 

According to court documents, he will still be allowed to publicly name his wife and her family, but not to mention their ethnicity or origin. During his original trial, Topham told the court his wife is Jewish.

In addition to the terms of his three-year probation, Topham will serve a 30-day conditional sentence, with a nightly curfew and a requirement to remain in B.C. He’s also prohibited from having weapons, liquor, or alcohol.

“Justice has been served,” said Ran Ukashi, National Director with B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group that’s been closely following the case.

“It serves as a deterrent for others, to realize there are consequences, there’s a price to pay,” said Ukashi.

Self-proclaimed “white nationalist” Paul Fromm contributed to Arthur Topham’s defence fund and travelled to Quesnel to attend Topham’s 2015 trial. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC)

“There are limits to … free speech and promoting hatred against identifiable groups is not on,” he said.”This person has been given opportunity after opportunity to not behave this way.”

A retired teacher now in his 70s, Topham was first charged in 2012. A website he produced featured frequent posts with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and demonized Jewish people, according to evidence at his trial.

Arthur Topham arrived at the Quesnel courthouse for sentencing on his hate crime conviction in 2017. He’s since been convicted of breaching the terms of his sentence. (Faith Fundal/CBC News)

At his original trial in 2015, Topham’s lawyer argued the posts were political satire, did not incite violence, and included materials that could easily be ordered on Amazon.

Topham’s case was the first hate crime prosecution in B.C. in almost a decade.

It drew support from the Ontario Civil Liberties Association, which champions free speech, as well as from self-proclaimed “white nationalists,” who attended Topham’s jury trial in the Quesnel courthouse, 700 km northeast of Vancouver. 

 Paul Fromm  helped to fund Topham’s defence and covered his trial through video blogs from Quesnel. Monika Schaefer, who served jail time in Germany for Holocaust denial, also attended court.

Open Letter to Canadian Government RE: CBSA Modern-day Book Burning

Open Letter to Canadian Government RE: CBSA Modern-day Book Burning

17FridayJan 2020

Posted by Monika in CanadaCBSAFree SpeechjewsSchaefer – MonikaUncategorized

≈ 25 Comments

I spent a few hours putting together a comprehensive list of all 338 Canadian Members of Parliament E-mail addresses, as well as over 100 Senators (the house of sober second thought), and sent them the following open letter on 2020 January 16. For background to this story, please see my last article from September 2019 here, and within that article are links to earlier articles about this Orwellian saga.

OIP

RE: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) theft of privately owned books at Calgary Airport

Background:

On 24 April 2019 upon my return from the USA to Calgary airport, five books were seized / stolen from me by the Canada Border Services Agency. I had been flagged, and was harassed and detained for three hours.

I wrote three letters, May 3rd, July 2nd, August 12th, 2019 plus an appeal October 18, 2019 to the CBSA, in an effort to get my books back.

Two out of five books were returned to me, and the others were deemed to constitute “hate propaganda”, prohibited under Customs tariff item 9899.00.00 pursuant to section 58 of the Customs Act.

The 3 books which are still in the possession of the CBSA are:

  • The Commission   by Richard Barrett
  • The Great Impersonation – The Mask of Edom   by Pastor Eli James
  • Mystery Babylon: New World Unveiled Vol. 1  by Eli James and Clay Douglas

The explanatory form that was sent to me had the following boxes checked off, indicating what the so-called “offence” was:

Alleging that an identifiable group:

  • is to blame for serious economic or social problems
  • manipulates media/trade/finance/politics/government to the detriment of society
  • is inferior/superior
  • weakens or threatens society

There was no indication that it mattered or not whether these forbidden allegations were grounded in truth. Truth is not relevant here. It only matters that certain things (the Truth?) are not allowed to be said or read.

Ultimately I was supposed to PROVE that the stolen books were NOT “hate” by providing evidence that they were not hate. The absurdity of the entire debacle reached a level not possible in a sane society. Allow me to quote from my third letter to the CBSA dated August 12, 2019.

First, the deadline for rebuttal is impossible to meet. Your letter, dated July 16, 2019, took 9 days to reach me.[…] Your letter stipulated that you must receive, by mail, my evidence and arguments within 14 days of the date on your letter[…]. If my letter took as long to reach you as yours to reach me, it would already have been too late, and would have allowed a negative amount of time for me to, in your words, ‘submit evidence, regarding the admissibility of the material […]’.

The more serious matter is that the onus of proof is reversed. You say I should provide evidence that these books do not constitute “hate propaganda”. If something does not exist, it is a moot point to prove it does not exist. If it does exist, then the person alleging that it exists should prove that it exists. The onus MUST be on the accuser to prove their accusation. Your logic is false.

The next flaw in your case against me is that you have stolen the evidence! You have taken away […] the books that you deemed offensive. How am I supposed to gather and submit evidence regarding the “admissibility of the material” when you have taken the allegedly-offensive books away from me???

I have not read the books. I do not have copies of these books in my possession. You seized them. Explain to me how I am to gather evidence about an object that you have stolen from me.  Would these books not be the very source of “evidence” with which I am supposed to prove that they are NOT something that you allege they are?

As any logical-thinking man or woman can see, it is an impossible situation. It is as sensible as breaking both legs of a runner and then telling him to go win that race. Would that be a fair race? Or is the outcome pre-determined.

I could avail myself of what appears to be the only option remaining, that of litigation against the CBSA. However, it is not worth my time and resources to participate in this game, a totally rigged system, to get my books back. I do not wish to feed the proverbial beast.

It would of course only be done on principle, as the books are worth far less money than the time and resources it would cost to litigate. As for winning, truth and righteousness are on my side, but the entire so-called justice system is so corrupted that my chances of success are about as good as the runner with the two broken legs winning his race.

The Canada Border Services Agency is de facto an arm of the government. It is at best a sign of moral and ethical bankruptcy and at worst it is treachery and treason for you, as so-called government representatives, to engage in such tyranny against the people who you are supposed to be serving. The government no longer serves the people, but is serving an enemy within.

It is interesting to note that the Talmud has not been stipulated as “hate propaganda”, yet this Jewish holy book calls the Gentiles cattle and calls for our total enslavement. This double standard on which books are “permitted”, demonstrates who you are really serving. Your “Act” which prohibits certain books (and thoughts and spoken words) is a modern day book burning.

I challenge every and any one of you government representatives to rectify this situation. Get rid of the “thought and speech laws”. Have my stolen books returned to me.

In the meantime, I can and have replaced the books through other channels. I am sovereign of my domain and can decide what I can and want to read or not.

I am compelled to publicize widely, this Orwellian act of treachery by an agency which represents Canada at our borders. We truly are living in interesting times.

Monika Schaefer