![Photo: Douglas Hewson Christie, RIP
Keltie Zubko
Douglas Christie
April 1946 - March 11, 2013
Keltie Zubko
I am heart-broken to say that Doug passed away this afternoon in Victoria Hospice. Cadeyrn, Kalonica, Doug's sister Jane, and I were all with him and able to say all that was in our hearts to say before he let go of the pain and suffering to leave us with the immense gifts of his love for us and the lessons of his life.
Marc Lemire:
Douglas Christie was a great man and will be missed by so many. He was one of my personal heroes!
Dear Supporters of Free Speech:
I just received these e-mails from Keltie Zubko, Doug's wife, and Marc Lemire, the intrepid challenger of Canada's notorious Sec. 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (Internet censorship).
Doug was an immensely brave man and a towering presence in Court. His height and firmness of bearing made an impact on many a judge, and, I suspect, many a miscreant or liar under cross-examination. Other lawyers have told me that Doug was one of the most intimidating cross-examiners in this Dominion. As a former client, (my firing for my political views by the Peel Board of Education and the libel charge by Richard Warman for calling him a "censor") I can testify that Doug was demanding and unrelenting that his clients organize and prepare their material.
My friend of more than 30 years was motivated by a deep love of freedom and a suspicion of government and authority. Perhaps, in the best of ways, he was a symbol of the '60s, an era we both grew up in. It was an era that, however faultily, sought freedom. Neither of us was part of the "tune out, turn on" ethos of the time, but both of us deeply valued individual freedom. Doug lived to see what used to be common political culture of a largely European Canada -- "I disagree with you, but you have a right to your opinion" -- become the prissy, prune-faced political correctness of Canada today: agree with the minority agenda or you shut up!
One of his last legal acts was to review the catastrophic Supreme Court of Canada Whatcott decision, where a fervent fundamentalist pamphleteer was found guilty and fined by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission for passing out leaflets critical of homosexual teachings in public schools. Doug sadly concluded: "Free speech as we knew it in Canada, is dead." Having read this revolutionary decision, I, who at first dismissed the conclusion as the pessimism of a dying man, believe his grim view is right.
Doug's unshakable courage in the face of press abuse -- he was once called a "perverted monster" by a Vancouver talk show host for having defended revisionist publisher Ernst Zundel -- put others in the legal profession to shame, Doug didn't just believe in a client's right to a full and proper defence, he really did believe in freedom of speech: that freedom of expression is the gift you must give to your worst enemy, he told a CAFE meeting in Toronto, December 2, 2012. Many other lawyers lost that belief. Terry Tremaine, later one of Doug's clients and another Richard Warman free speech victim, called on seven Regina law firms to represent him in a "judicial review" (appeal) against the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision finding him guilty of spreading "hate" on the Internet. Finding out that this was a controversial free speech case running headlong into political correctness, not a single Regina law firm would touch Mr. Tremaine's case.
Murderers, child molesters, rape-kidnap-murder perpetrators like Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, or more recently accused murderer and butcher Luka Magnotta, had no trouble finding counsel. The media and other bien pensants would praise their lawyers as brave and creative lawyers. Yet, Doug Christie, who stood up for non-violent freethinkers assailed for having unpopular beliefs. was often reviled in the press and in the legal profession.
The Doug I knew was a sensitive and proud man. He was a deeply moral man. He did not seek notoriety. He felt the rejections and condemnations deeply. Yet, Doug felt a higher imperative -- individual freedom and liberty. These had once been the values of our generation. But many of the free speech advocates of the 1960s had grown old and paunchy and grey and had been subverted into Frankfurt School political correctness. They had become the very repressive, narrow-minded Establishment they had once reviled. Doug never lost that youthful passion for freedom.
Ranged, often with the highly talented legal researcher Barbara Kulazska at his side, against the endless money and batteries of lawyers of various repressive government bodies, Doug Christie was a one man Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke holding back the tidal wave of repression. His achievements were many. He singlehandedly got Canada's archaic "false news" law used to try to silence Ernst Zundel ruled unconstitutional. His persistence in the Terry Tremaine Sec. 319 "hate law" case got the charges stayed for undue delay,
Doug's towering presence in the defence of freedom will be sorely missed. The would-be censors, the minority zealots who would silence any opinion but their own and those who hate the unfettered thoughts of free men and women whenever they deviate from the prune-faced, fussy little orthodoxy of political correctness may feel a little freer to pursue their repressive instincts tonight with the passing of this great man.
Another important aspect of Doug Christie was his political life as an outspoken and often lonely champion of Western separation. I first met Doug Christie on a rainy late afternoon at the Vancouver television studios of the then famous Jack Webster Show. At the time, Doug apparently had something to do with the British Columbia provincial Conservative Party. Although a seemingly quiet man, as we exchanged a few words, I knew I had met a man with an imposing presence. we parted and I went in to do my interview with the irrascible Scot to promote my critique of foreign aid, the recently published book Down the Drain: A Critical Re-examination of Canadian Foreign Aid Policy.
I next met Doug when I travelled to Red Deer for a meeting to support a thoughtful school teacher Jim Keegstra who was being charged under Canada's notorious "hate law", section 319 of the Criminal Code. By now, Doug Christie was famous as a champion of Western separation.
The early 1980s were heady times. The arrogant Trudeau socialists had brought in the National Energy Programme. Alberta, devastated by a slump in oil prices, had ruined people walking away from their homes, on which they often owed more than what they were worth. Alberta was in near revolt. Doug Christie criss-crossed the West arguing for separation and independence. No longer should the West be bled dry by the East and held up with high prices for Eastern manufactured goods. He held up a vision of more populist and responsive government in a unilingual English country. State intrusion in ownership of guns would be reduced and, of course, anti-free speech laws would be abolished. The West would be a proud country of independent men and women, not a nanny state of Ottawa-controlled serfs.
Doug Christie's message was a powerful one. He spoke to packed meetings in halls across Western Canada. He packed the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton with several thousand people. His party the Western Canada Concept contested a by-election in Alberta and the separatist candidate Gordon Kessler was elected.
There were, of course, problems. The party tended to be run out of Doug Christie's briefcase. A flock of opportunists and not a few federalist agents joined the party. There was a lack of seasoned and experienced staff. Divisions followed and plagued the party.
In 1984, the Mulroney Conservatives were elected with a large representation of Western MPs. They repealed some of the worst abuses of the NEP. However, with their many neo-Liberal policies, they left many real populists and conservatives feeling betrayed. There arose a new populist party, the Reform Party, with the slogan "the West wants in." It was well-funded and seemed to offer a less radical answer to Western grievances.
Doug Christie soldiered on explaining his vision in the monthly Western Separatist Papers and later on the WCC website . The meetings were fewer and less well attended. The WCC ran a few candidates in each federal election, but the enthusiasm for separation had passed. In the past decade, the West has become rich. Saskatchewan, once an exporter of wheat and people, is now a "have" province. Alberta's oil sands are a job magnet.
So, was Doug Christie's vision of an independent West wrong? Only history will tell. For much of the 140-year long struggle for Irish independence, those pushing for an independent state were for long periods of time treated, even by many Irishmen, as crackpots. But their day came as it may come for Western Canadian Independence.
Whatever history's final judgement of Doug Christie's Western Canada Concept, he kept the faith and articulated a vision of a free and independent West with intelligence and dedication.
Paul Fromm
Director
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION](https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/c13.0.403.403/p403x403/598674_152995591533356_1541327197_n.jpg)
![Photo: Ex-Diplomat Ian Macdonald Tells National Post Neo-Con Scribblers to Get Real About Canadian Sovereignty
December 24, 2012
Editor
NATIONAL POST
Toronto
Dear Sir
Re: Protecting Canadian sovereignty
The debate on how best to defend Canada becomes more and more unrealistic as it increasingly centres on military weaponry, notably the implausible F-35, while ignoring the real threat to our sovereignty of alien political, cultural and economic hegemony, menacingly accompanied and reinforced by an invasion from Sub-Saharan African and other Third World exploding-population regions. The influx, and concomitant displacement of traditional British/European immigrants, will ensure the demise of the nation as we know it, unless a timely remedy, including repatriation, can be found.
What is it then that your columnists and others seek to defend? Seemingly, the status quo, although obviously it is just a way station on the road to oblivion for the founding races. What needs to be addressed, urgently, is not the "red herring" of an inconceivable bombing attack by a major power. It is the corrosive, corrupting subversion that already has enabled the "enemy within the gates" not only to dispossess traditional Canadians of their assets and their rights (esp. freedom of speech) but also to take effective control of the Federal Government, including the security services and judiciary, and of the mainline media that otherwise could have exposed and led to prosecution of the stealthy, incorrigably-avaricious occupiers, rendering them permanently harmless through massive restitution orders and incarceration.
The tsunami of self-selected, unassimilable Africans and South Asians across our undefended borders, if not soon reversed, will have even more profound consequences. Unfortunately, the flow has now gained sufficient momentum to thwart effective control, let alone reversal, at least so long as the invaders' "rights" take precedence over those of their unwilling hosts - an outrageous anomaly that could exist only where government and media are under the full control of traitors and crass opportunists.
As ever,
Ian V. Macdonald
Ex-RCAF, RNFAA, Foreign Service, rtd.
Ottawa ON](http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/c115.0.403.403/p403x403/735129_122499431249639_905947542_n.jpg)
Terry Tremaine’s Sentence – A Spitting, Spiteful Nasty Condemnation of a Dissident
The Canadian judicial system seems to have an awesome deference for serial complainer Richard Warman, whom Doug Christie roundly lambasted at the sentencing hearing in Vancouver, October 10 saying: “Mr. Warman has made a career people who are marginal. Some, like Terry Tremaine, end up in mental hospitals. Mr. Warman now wants costs assessed against a man who cannot even hold a janitor’s job. At the behest of Mr. Warman, he was prosecuted under the Criminal Code.” And all this, said Mr. Christie, “to eliminate a political ideology Mr. Warman does not agree with.” Judge Harrington was not impressed: “Mr. Warman had every right to complain to the Commission with respect to material which appeared to violate Section 13(1) of the Act. It is ludicrous to attempt to portray him as the villain. The villain is Mr. Tremaine.” Being called a villain especially irks Mr. Tremaine who told CAFÉ: “None of my many Internet posts were made for material gain or social benefit. I was trying to expose the shit storm we find ourselves in.”
Judge Harrington as much as admits that Mr. Tremaine is being hounded for alleged contempt of an order under a law already repealed by the House of Commons: “Although the House of Commons did repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, the matter has yet to go before the Senate. In any event, the Bill did not purport to have retroactive effect.” No matter, on to the punishment anyway. “Mr. Tremaine has clearly intended to flout the law, to demean the Tribunal and this Court, and has not apologized. In fact, he had apologized before the Tribunal hearing had commenced, but later withdrew it as the apology was made in a moment of weakness. I do not expect Mr. Tremaine to apologize. He is a true believer. He is free to flout the order I am about to issue; but he must remember that freedom has its price.” A statement and threat the Red Chinese would appreciate: “He must remember that freedom has its price” – financial burdens and prison! When Terry Tremaine apologized to the Tribunal in 2005, the case should have ended. He’d agreed to remove the posts. It was the vindictive CHRC and Richard Warman who would not end the matter and insisted proceeding to a Tribunal with its guaranteed penalties – the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal then had a 100% conviction rate, making even North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il, or whatever the weirdly quaffed tyrant there was called, green, or would it be, yellow with envy.
The Canadian judicial system seems to have an awesome deference for serial complainer Richard Warman, whom Doug Christie roundly lambasted at the sentencing hearing in Vancouver, October 10 saying: “Mr. Warman has made a career people who are marginal. Some, like Terry Tremaine, end up in mental hospitals. Mr. Warman now wants costs assessed against a man who cannot even hold a janitor’s job. At the behest of Mr. Warman, he was prosecuted under the Criminal Code.” And all this, said Mr. Christie, “to eliminate a political ideology Mr. Warman does not agree with.” Judge Harrington was not impressed: “Mr. Warman had every right to complain to the Commission with respect to material which appeared to violate Section 13(1) of the Act. It is ludicrous to attempt to portray him as the villain. The villain is Mr. Tremaine.” Being called a villain especially irks Mr. Tremaine who told CAFÉ: “None of my many Internet posts were made for material gain or social benefit. I was trying to expose the shit storm we find ourselves in.”
Judge Harrington as much as admits that Mr. Tremaine is being hounded for alleged contempt of an order under a law already repealed by the House of Commons: “Although the House of Commons did repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, the matter has yet to go before the Senate. In any event, the Bill did not purport to have retroactive effect.” No matter, on to the punishment anyway. “Mr. Tremaine has clearly intended to flout the law, to demean the Tribunal and this Court, and has not apologized. In fact, he had apologized before the Tribunal hearing had commenced, but later withdrew it as the apology was made in a moment of weakness. I do not expect Mr. Tremaine to apologize. He is a true believer. He is free to flout the order I am about to issue; but he must remember that freedom has its price.” A statement and threat the Red Chinese would appreciate: “He must remember that freedom has its price” – financial burdens and prison! When Terry Tremaine apologized to the Tribunal in 2005, the case should have ended. He’d agreed to remove the posts. It was the vindictive CHRC and Richard Warman who would not end the matter and insisted proceeding to a Tribunal with its guaranteed penalties – the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal then had a 100% conviction rate, making even North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il, or whatever the weirdly quaffed tyrant there was called, green, or would it be, yellow with envy.
Continuing with the sentence, Judge Harrington proclaimed: “I shall order that Mr. Tremaine either personally, or through counsel, approach Stormfront.org with the request that his postings thereon, as identified by the Tribunal in its decision, as well as those exhibited to the affidavits of Mr. Warman dated February 12, 2009 and March 19, 2010 be removed, as well as his posting of 22 July 2009 at 11:20 p.m. entitled “Human Rights” Contempt Hearing (July 23, 2009), a vicious untrue diatribe about Madam Justice Snider, among other things, which was identified as exhibit Tremaine 5 at the contempt hearing. Although not part of the show cause order, at the sentencing stage I can certainly order that other offensive material be removed.” This was Mr. Tremaine’s statement of defence in which, inter alia, he noted that the Federal Judge who had rejected his request for judicial review of the Tribunal decision was listed as a major contributor to the Canadian Jewish Congress, surely, giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias. She should have recused herself. Judges certainly are very protective of one another.
Here the judge goes even further in seeking to erase Mr. Tremaine’s writings than the prosecution demanded. Agreeing with the CHRC and Richard Warman, the Judge was intent on flinging the dissident in jail: “As far as I am concerned, obeyance of this order is not sufficient to purge his contempt. In the event that he obeys this order, he shall nevertheless be imprisoned for 30 days commencing 15 days after service by the Commission of the order upon him. Should he not obey the order, he shall be imprisoned for a further period of six months, or until he complies with the order, whichever is less.” Remembering that Sec. 13 has been repealed by the House of Commons, it is extraordinarily vindictive and harsh that, while the judge acknowledges that Mr. Tremaine “does not have the wherewithal to pay”, he nonetheless crushes him with costs to benefit the well-off persecutors: “The Commission is entitled to its costs. Mr. Warman, in his capacity as a subpoenaed witness, is entitled to his reasonable disbursements, to the extent they have not been paid by the Commission” – a burden of many thousands of dollars for a man with no resources.See
Dissident Terry Tremaine Headed for Jail, but Just Not Yet
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