Tax Rebel Jack Klundert Speaks at Doug Christie Memorial in London
LONDON, March 24, 2013. At the second of four memorials for free speech lawyer Doug Christie, tax rebel Jack Klundert of Windsor, Ontario paid tribute to his long-time lawyer and friend. The memorials are being organized by the Canadian Association for free Expression: Toronto, March 23; London, March 24; Edmonton, March 25; and Vancouver, March 26.
“In 1992,” Mr. Klundert recounted, “I heard from Murray Gauvreau that the Income Tax Act was illegal. I was advised to get a copy of Canada’s Constitution. Believe it or not, the Queen’s Printer didn’t have one. I finally got a copy from Ron Gostick.”
“In 1994, I decided to challenge the Income Tax Act. In 1997, I went to court and won,” he said. “In fact, we’ve been to court four times and won three times, However, the Federal Court always overturned our lower court victories. It has been over 17 years of battle” and Doug Christie was his lawyer throughout.
“And the presence of that fine man was the only reason,” he added, “why I had any success at all in fighting the oppression of our freedoms under the repressive Income Tax system. I was seeking freedom in a different way,” the Windsor optometrist explained.
“Doug Christie had a great heart for freedom and for justice,” Mr. Klundert explained. “He is the man God sent me. Every case we vowed to fight for freedom and for justice and to do God’s will. It is difficult to stand day after day getting flack because you don’t believe in political correctness.”
Doug “bought his cowboy hat to celebrate after winning a case in the expectation of being paid. He wasn’t but he continued to wear it as a celebration of freedom and the unpredictable nature of the life of a lawyer.”
Also speaking at the meeting was another Doug Christie client, Malcolm Ross from Moncton, New Brunswick. He lost his teaching position after the Supreme Court upheld a New Brunswick Human Rights Commission finding that his writings and very presence in the classroom created “a poisoned environment” even though he never taught the girl who had complained and she had not even attended the school where he taught.
Meeting chairman Paul Fromm noted that Doug Christie sometimes felt despondent about the threats to free speech in Canada and felt that he had accomplished little. Mr. Fromm reminded Mr. Christie on occasion and has told many audiences across Canada that Doug Christie is a legal giant. He had been to the Supreme Court at least nine times. “He appeared before the Supreme Court so often they had to give him his own dressing room,” Mr. Fromm quipped. “Most lawyers never go to a court of appeal let alone the Supreme Court.”
“Doug Christie got rid of Canada’s arcane ‘false news’ law in the Zundel case, when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1992,” Mr. Fromm noted. “Also,” he added, “Doug Christie gutted the ‘war crimes law’ in the Finta case which went all the way to the Supreme Court. Canada would no longer be able to try people who had not been Canadian citizens for action committed in a foreign country against people who were not Canadians,” he added. “At least this aspect of German-bashing and Slav-bashing, brought in by Brian Mulroney at the behest of the Jewish lobby was overturned.”
“And, while Doug Christie did not live to see the demise of Canada’s notorious “hate law” — Sec. 319 of the Criminal Code — he did develop arguments about Internet communication advanced in the Terry Tremaine case, that may, in future cases. limit this law’s use to hobble free expression on the Internet,” Mr. Fromm concluded.