CAFE Condemns Ban on Blood & Honour as Trivializing “Terrorism”
REXDALE. July 2, 2019. Canada’s leading free speech advocacy group, the Canadian Association for Free Expression, today slammed the Canadian government’s recent decision to ban two White rights groups, Blood & Honour and Combat 18 as terrorist groups, making membership in them illegal from now on.
“Ralph Goodale, the Minister of Public Safety is playing fast and loose with the term ‘terrorism’ and is trivializing a real terrorist threats that do exist,” charges Paul Fromm, Director of CAFE. “Blood & Honour, beyond a few street level punch ups, has acted as a political and group identity organization in Canada,” he added. “For several years, they had a club house on the outskirts of Calgary and held meetings and music concerts. To group them with ISIS and Boko Haram is obscene.”
The 1985 Canadian Security and Intelligence Service Act clearly defines threats to national security and, therefore, what constitutes terrorism. It reads, in part, threats to national security are “activities within or relating to Canada directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective within Canada or a foreign state.” It then adds, lest there be no misunderstanding that this “does not include lawful advocacy, protest or dissent.”
Actually, the Government’s announcement makes it quite clear that it is the beliefs or ideology of Blood & Honour, not violent actions, that have earned it the terrorist tag, The National Post (June 26, 2019) reported: The banning of “Blood and Honour, ‘an international neo-Nazi network whose ideology is derived from the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany,’ according to Public Safety Canada’s website. … Goodale said [the group has] ‘a presence in various places across the country,’ and said the government has been examining how to respond to white supremacist groups over the past couple of years.”
“So, clearly, the target is an ideology,” says Mr. Fromm. Minister Goodale is cheapening the term ‘terrorism’.”It’s other words, Goodale is seeking to criminalize dissent.”
“I am not surprised at this latest high handed move,” he adds. “This is the same Ralph Goodale who misnamed the 43,000 plus illegals his government has allowed to pour into this country since late 2016 ‘irregular migrants.’ You can’t solve a problem, if you can’t name it,” Mr. Fromm explains.
The Trudeau government is “morally lost. It promotes a culture of death. To be a Liberal MP or candidate you must be a supporter of abortion. Two summers ago, many Christian groups were denied Youth Employment Grants — their taxpayers’ money — for humanitarian projects because their religious beliefs opposed abortion. The present government has an obsession with promoting and indulging the LGBTQ sexual fringe. It’s not surprising that a government that gave ex-terrorist Omar Khadr $10.5-million and now welcomes home former ISIS terrorists can’t get national security right. This government is panicking in part because of the widespread protests and opposition to its failed immigration and border security policies,” he explained.
And, Mr. Fromm added, the government seems to ignore the real terrorist threat posed by anarchists and groups like Antifa, masked cowards, who attack opponents like the Yellow Vest rallies and have damaged private property in Hamilton and Montreal.