{"id":1869,"date":"2017-07-15T02:18:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T06:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1869"},"modified":"2017-07-15T02:18:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T06:18:40","slug":"you-owe-us-an-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1869","title":{"rendered":"YOU OWE US AN APOLOGY"},"content":{"rendered":"

YOU OWE US AN APOLOGY<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Canadian Association for Free Expression<\/strong><\/p>\n

Box 332,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ph:\u00a0<\/strong>905-566-4455<\/strong><\/a>; FAX:\u00a0<\/strong>905-566-4820<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liz Braun, Columnist, \u00a0lbraun@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

TORONTO SUN<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Ms, Braun:<\/p>\n

Your article “Don’t Blame Library for Hate Gathering” (Toronto Sun,<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0July 13, 2017) is a disgrace. Of course, I agree with your conclusion that the library should not discriminate among various political or historical views.<\/p>\n

However, you heap defamation and smears on the attendees at the Memorial for lawyer Barbara Kuazska. First, you were not there. You are relying on conjecture or, worse, the lies of mortal enemies of freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Your headline is a lie. The memorial was NOT a “hate” gathering. Hate, sadly is a criminal offence in this country. No one at that meeting was charged let alone convicted for anything said that night. The meeting was to celebrate the life of a brave diligent woman. It wasn’t about hating anybody.<\/p>\n

You describe the attendees as ”\u00a0pathetic anti-Semitic\/anti-black\/anti-female\/homophobic\/Islamophobic\/etc. garden variety bigots” Nothing at the meeting was said criticizing \u00a0Blacks, women, \u00a0homosexuals or Moslems. Indeed we were honouring a woman!<\/p>\n

As for Jews, the truth is that major Jewish lobby groups (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Friends of the Simon Weisenthal Centre, and former Canadian Jewish Congress spokesman Bernie Farber) were in the forefront of those trying to arm-twist politicians and the library into cancelling the memorial.\u00a0 We know many Jews support free speech but these official free speech haters give the Jewish community a bad name.<\/p>\n

Too bad you were not there, Liz. You might have seen several coloured folks in our ranks honouring Barbara Kulazska. I suppose they were White supremacists too!<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Sun<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0owes us an apology and its readers the truth.<\/p>\n

Paul Fromm<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Blame Library For Hate Gathering<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Liz Braun, The Toronto Sun<\/p>\n

July 13, 2017<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.torontosun.com\/2017\/07\/13\/toronto-public-library-reviewing-policy-after-event-with-ties-to-racist-groups<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nDon’t blame library for hate gathering<\/a><\/p>\n

www.torontosun.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The city is up in arms over a memorial held\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0for a lawyer whose name was synonymous with hate groups.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

TORONTO –\u00a0The city is up in arms over a memorial held\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0for a lawyer whose name was synonymous with hate groups.<\/p>\n

The usual suspects \u2014 white supremacist types Paul Fromm and Marc Lemire \u2014 gathered at Richview Library in Etobicoke to honour Barbara Kulaszka, who provided counsel over the years to Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, Nazi rocket scientist Arthur Rudolph, accused war criminal Imre Finta and others of that ilk.<\/p>\n

Kulaszka\u2019s thing was freedom of speech cases; it is a widely held view that she was philosophically on-side with many of her clients.<\/p>\n

At any rate, people were aghast, and rightly so, that any such meeting of hate-mongers was permitted at a branch of the library. Advocacy groups (such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) were outraged that persons with known neo-Nazi ties were allowed to book space at the library, and even the mayor waded into the controversy saying he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the gathering.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Toronto Public Library says they will be reviewing their policy. They did not endorse the event, a library spokesman said, but they were legally unable to get out of it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest here. The person who rented this space for Kulaszka\u2019s memorial probably had no idea who and what was involved. A group of old white people? That could be anybody in that part of Etobicoke. These pathetic anti-Semitic\/anti-black\/anti-female\/homophobic\/Islamophobic\/etc. garden variety bigots could only raise 25 people to gather on behalf of Kulaszka, and far more of them codgers than boogie men.<\/p>\n

Could we please not blame the library? The libraries in our fair city are increasingly the drop-in-centres-of-last-resort, trying to keep the world literate even as they deteriorate into ad hoc old folks\u2019 homes, psychiatric waystations, homeless shelters and day-care alternatives. Libraries are among the few places left where those on the fringes of society may freely enter, and that\u2019s what happened\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0night when a group of old nutcase hate advocates gathered to swap yarns of fear and ignorance.<\/p>\n

As we enter a new dark ages, racism and hatred are on the rise globally, fuelled by stupidity and liberated by the anonymity of social media. And those who gathered on behalf of Kulaszka are representative of all that, but the library is not responsible.<\/p>\n

Wayne Sumner, a University of Toronto professor emeritus specializing in ethics and freedom of expression, has already said that the library did well to err on the side of free speech. He told CP that barring such events as the memorial, \u201craises disturbing possibilities of picking and choosing among points of view and what sort of speech is allowed and what sort of speech is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

If things deteriorate into hate speech? That\u2019s a police matter, said Sumner, not a library issue.<\/p>\n

The library did its best by having a staff member monitor the meeting.<\/p>\n

This led one memorial attendant \u2014 who wished to remain anonymous, as these sad-sacks always do \u2014 to complain that there was a spy in their midst.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of country are we living in?\u201d she asked, to which a librarian might have answered, \u201cThe kind in which people know their history, particularly if it involves book burning.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

lbraun@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YOU OWE US AN APOLOGY Canadian Association for Free Expression Box 332, Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3 Ph:\u00a0905-566-4455; FAX:\u00a0905-566-4820 Website:\u00a0http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director Liz Braun, Columnist, \u00a0lbraun@postmedia.com TORONTO SUN Dear Ms, Braun: Your article “Don’t Blame Library for Hate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[66,1038,1036],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}