Arthur Topham

Publisher & Editor

The Radical Press

The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Centre Block

Suite 449S

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

Canada

K1A 0A6

I am writing to you regarding the above noted injustice which the foreign nation of Germany has perpetrated upon a dear friend and colleague of mine, Monika Schaefer, of Jasper, Alberta.

I am certain that by now you will have received a number of other emails from supporters of freedom of speech, both nationally and internationally and that you may already be aware of this travesty of justice that has taken place affecting an indigenous Canadian who has no criminal record and has been an exemplary example of someone standing up for all citizens of Canada who believe strongly in their country and the freedoms that it offers to its citizens; in particular, those which are enshrined in our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It is doubtless, given your distinguished position as Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, that you are fully aware of the contents of the Charter and, as concerns the matter which I am writing to you about, Section two, titled “Fundamental freedoms” which contains Sec. 2(b) and states that all Canadian citizens are guaranteed “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication”.

Given that on your official Facebook page you have chosen as your Cover Photo the following graphic (see below) which celebrates the 35th year since the enactment of the Charter I cannot imagine that your heart and soul are not deeply ingrained with these fundamental principles that make Canada what it is today.

As a strong supporter of one of Canada’s most cherished and fundamental human rights, i.e. freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, I can only assume that you, in the esteemed office that you now hold, will give your immediate attention to the plight of one of our fellow Canadians who has been wrongly arrested and incarcerated by German authorities for no other reason than that she exercised her rights as a Canadian citizen and expressed her thoughts, beliefs and opinions on a controversial historic matter.

We are aware that every sovereign nation has the exclusive right to determine its own laws and to enforce those laws upon its citizenry. But we are also cognizant of the fact that there are foreign nations who don’t honour and respect the values that we, as Canadians, do. That is why the vast majority of the world’s nations have endorsed International agreements such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which was adopted in 1948 and, like our own Charter, is celebrating its 70th Anniversary in 2018.

The UDHR, of which Canada is a signatory, states in Article 19. Freedom of Expression. “We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.”

That, in essence, Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, is precisely what Monika Schaefer did in her full and correct belief that, as a Canadian citizen, born on Canadian soil, she has the right to make up her own mind on questions of history (or whatever else she deems of importance to herself) and also the right to express what she thinks and to share her ideas with others be it via the written word, spoken word or the medium of video or the Internet.

Given the reality of the aforementioned documents and Canada’s intimate relationship with them it behooves you, Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, to look into this matter as soon as possible and do everything in your power to negotiate with the German authorities the immediate release from prison of Monika Schaefer and a guarantee that she will be able to freely leave Germany and return home to her native soil unharmed.

I believe that it is also in your power to instruct Canada’s Ambassador to Germany, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, to promptly and expeditiously begin negotiations with German authorities and resolve this tendentious breach of international justice as soon as humanly possible. With that in mind I shall also send a copy of this letter to the Honourable Stéphane Dion at his Berlin address. Concomitantly I will send copies of my letter to the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Germany’s Ambassador to Canada, Mr. Werner Wnendt.

In closing Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould I want to stress once again the importance of protecting our citizens from the unjust laws that presently exist in other sovereign nations around the world, especially laws of such a draconian nature that one normally only associates with the more violent, rogue regimes that still exist today. Please do the honourable thing for Canada and uphold our Charter for the sake of all Canadians. Free Monika Schaefer and bring her home.

Sincerely,

Arthur Topham

Publisher & Editor

The Radical Press

CC: Honourable Stéphane Dion, Honourable Chrystia Freeland, German Ambassador Werner Wnendt, assorted media outlets & concerned Canadians.