Freedom of Speech in Canada? No way! Hockey Coach Fired for Pro-National Socialist Facebook Comments
Free to hold controversial views? Not in politically correct Canada!
Doug Christie often warned: “It doesn’t matter what is written in constitutions or Charters of Rights and Freedoms. You only have those rights you are prepared to fight for.”
Freedom of speech and freedom of thought are very much in peril in Canada today. Many people just don’t get it.
Christopher-Maximillian Sandau posted some of his historical views on his Facebook page. He expressed doubts about the 6-million claim — an article of faith more sacred in political correctness than the divinity of Christ is for Christians. He felt German World War II villainy is exaggerated.
The Langley, BC man’s main love in life is coaching amateur hockey. He never tried to indoctrinate the young hockey players. However, when the contents of his Facebook page became known, the local hockey league promptly dismissed him.
So, the man is fired for nothing more than the non-violent expression of his political/historical views on his own time. Some anonymous (of course!) parent even pontificates: “ You can’t be a Nazi and coach kids hockey.” Well, what if you’re a communist, a homosexual activist, or a Zionist? Mr. Sandau denies being a supporter of National Socialism, but, even if her were, so what?
More than ever, CAFE and free speech supporters have our work cut out for us in convincing Canadians of the sacred importance of freedom of thought and freedom of speech.
“A minor hockey coach in British Columbia has been fired for posting pro-Nazi content on his Facebook page, conceding to one local reporter following his dismissal: ‘I get it, it’s a really touchy subject.’ Christopher Maximilian Sandau was formally relieved of his duties on Saturday, after the North Delta Minor Hockey Association discovered his online activities. He was coaching teams with players the age of middle school students.
‘Hockey has been my life,’ Sandau told The Surrey Now, a paper headquartered about an hour’s drive east of Vancouver. ‘My view on the history basically got me canned. A lot of people have no idea about the other side of the story.’
‘The posts contained extreme and objectionable material believed to be incompatible with an important purpose of our minor hockey association: ‘To promote and encourage good citizenship,’ association president Anita Cairney said in a release. ‘The (hockey association) requires that our coaches present themselves as positive role models for our children athletes.’ …
The Surrey Now quoted an unidentified parent: ‘You can’t be a Nazi and coach kids hockey.’
A Facebook page under Sandau’s name was pulled down late Wednesday afternoon. Before it disappeared, it was a curated library of sympathetic Nazi images and commentary. One of the most recent posts had been made on Tuesday, featuring a photograph of an undated Nazi rally under the caption: ‘Not too many speakers get the attendance of over a million people from far and wide…’
‘I was doing a good job and I wasn’t trying to impose my political beliefs or anything on anyone,’ Sandau told CTV. “From the time I stepped onto the parking lot of the arena to the time I left, I was all about hockey and trying to help the kids get better.”
Sandau, a 33-year-old resident of Langley, B.C., told The Surrey Now he considered himself ‘a big history buff,” and claimed of the Holocaust: ‘There is no such plan, there was no idea.’
‘These people died from typhus,’ he told the paper. ‘The Germans were actually doing their best to save these people. These people were not that evil as we’re told.'” (National Post, November 5, 2014)
Paul Fromm
Director
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
Screengrab/Twitter/@ChrisMaxSandauChristopher Sandau was removed from his role with the North Delta Minor Hockey Association over the weekend.
