{"id":898,"date":"2015-08-18T23:51:33","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T03:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=898"},"modified":"2015-08-18T23:51:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T03:51:33","slug":"edmonton-hate-squad-are-now-book-critics-target-veterans-today-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=898","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton “Hate” Squad Are Now Book Critics — Target Veterans Today Author"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Edmonton “Hate” Squad Are Now Book Critics — Target Veterans Today Author<\/span><\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Being a member of one of Canada’s ignominious “hate squads” means snooping on the Internet looking for “hate” — views your political masters or noisy minority thought police don’t like. It means hassling skinheads. But all of this is pretty thin stuff to justify your pay cheque when your colleagues are out on patrol and actually facing danger investigating violent people or unpredictable drug addicts.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
So now the “hate squad” has taken up literary criticism.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
One of CAFE’s associates attended an August 16 lecture in Edmonton by Kevin Barrett editor of U.S.-based website Veterans Today. Our colleague reported that he noticed a Negro from the Edmonton Police “hate squad” and his female sidekick in the audience. Comically, the Negro our friend reported, “was\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0dressed like a hip hop follower.”<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Apparently, the thought police at B’nai Brith had complained and sicked the “hate squad” dress-up \u00a0artists on the visiting U.S. conspiracy theorist. Here is a more complete report from\u00a0Veterans Today\u00a0<\/span>(August 18, 2015)<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Paul Fromm<\/span><\/div>\n
Director<\/span><\/div>\n
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/h1>\n

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Canadian police target conspiracy theorists<\/h1>\n

By\u00a0Kevin Barrett<\/a>\u00a0on August 17, 2015<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Hate Squad cracks down on book talk<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

by\u00a0Kevin Barrett<\/a>,\u00a0Veterans Today Editor<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0with\u00a0Anthony Hall<\/a><\/p>\n

Edmonton, Alberta<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Edmonton Police Department\u2019s \u00a0Hate Speech Squad has launched an investigation of a scholarly book that questions\u00a0the War on Terror.<\/p>\n

\"BANNED-IN-CANADA\"<\/a>On August 16th, two undercover EPD officers attended a book talk at the\u00a0Rossdale Community League Hall in downtown\u00a0Edmonton. The officers were investigating \u00a0We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo: Free Thinkers Question the French 9\/11<\/a><\/em>, which has apparently elicited complaints from B\u2019nai Brith Canada.<\/p>\n

Out of uniform and posing as ordinary audience members, the Hate Police officers watched\u00a0my\u00a0book talk<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0During the intermission between my lecture and the\u00a0subsequent presentation by University of Lethbridge professor Anthony Hall, the officers flashed their badges and identified themselves as members of the Hate Speech Squad. They said they had received a complaint referencing \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d and\u00a0\u201canti-Semitism.\u201d (How a scholarly book that includes essays by several highly accomplished and reputable Jewish contributors, as well as one by\u00a0an even more\u00a0Semitic Arab Muslim, can be called \u201canti-Semitic\u201d is a mystery.)<\/p>\n

The lead officer told me:\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t see any problems with anything I heard during your lecture.\u201d On behalf of the Department, he accepted an autographed copy of\u00a0We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo<\/a><\/em>\u00a0dedicated \u201cTo the Edmonton Police Department Hate Speech Squad \u2013 thank you for thinking freely.\u201d The officer said the book will be placed in\u00a0the Departmental Library.<\/p>\n

The Edmonton PD\u2019s\u00a0We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo<\/a><\/em>\u00a0investigation raises interesting questions. Are Canadian police departments now charged with giving a \u201cthumbs up\u201d or \u201cthumbs down\u201d to books and book talks? Are Hate Speech Squad officers getting training in literary criticism, investigative journalism and historiography so they can serve as competent peer reviewers and censors? Had the officers disapproved of the lecture, could they have arrested us? If they later read the book and dislike it, will it be banned in Canada? Conversely, if they like it, might they offer a blurb: \u201cTerrific stuff! Certified 100% hate free by the Canadian hate police!\u201d<\/p>\n

But seriously, folks: Doesn\u2019t\u00a0the policing of books and book talks have a chilling effect on freedom of speech and academic freedom? And how and why did this particular book draw the attention of the Hate Police?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person who stated you were involved in hate crimes is Amanda Hohmann\u201d emailed Joanne David,\u00a0the Edmonton event organizer, to Anthony Hall. Amanda Hohmann is the Coordinator of the\u00a0B\u2019nai Brith Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Professor\u00a0Hall was outraged: \u201cThey call themselves the B\u2019nai Brith\u00a0Audit<\/em>\u00a0of Anti-Semitism. Auditing! We live in an era of auditing fraud. The banksters are experts in disguising what\u2019s going on through creative bookkeeping. It\u2019s interesting that the concept of audit is now being applied to policing people\u2019s ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

So who was responsible for sending the Hate Police to our book talk? Anthony Hall was unable to get a straight answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cI called the B\u2019nai Brith office but wasn\u2019t able to speak to Amanda Hohmann. I asked to speak with\u00a0CEO Michael Mofton and Senior Legal Counsel David Matas. I indicated it is a serious matter and that I have never been associated with a hate speech crime. So I want to know who complained, what is the nature of the complaint, is there \u00a0a text involved? It seems that someone\u00a0said that our speaking was going to somehow be a violation of some hate speech principles. I wanted to know what the rules are, if there are any rules. Are people just free to snitch anonymously? Can people turn in their partner because they\u2019re mad at him or her? It gets to the whole essence of the Global War on Terror,\u00a0that people are subject to these repressions. They don\u2019t know what they\u2019re accused of, who is doing the accusing. There\u2019s no due process. It\u2019s an authoritarian police state atmosphere, an East German Stasi type of worldview. And this is creating maximum dissension, distrust and suspicion of one another. And this seems to be the agenda of neocon tyranny. Here we are right in the midst of an election. These issues are front and center. Bill C-51, now the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015, is like the Canadian Patriot Act. (Bill C-51 was\u00a0passed in the wake of\u00a0Canada\u2019s 9\/11, the Ottawa shooting of 10\/22\/2014<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

As of this writing, B\u2019nai Brith has not returned Professor Hall\u2019s phone calls asking for an explanation. Neither, for that matter, have the Edmonton Hate Police:<\/p>\n

\u201cI called the Edmonton Police Department. I couldn\u2019t even find out the name of the officers. They gave me the phone number of the Hate Speech Unit. I called and left a message, but they haven\u2019t gotten back to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Awid, manager of the Rossdale Community Center in Edmonton, said there had been several complaints asking him to cancel the event. The complaints were apparently vague and unsubstantiated. Awid, to his credit, stood his ground and allowed the book talk to proceed.<\/p>\n

\"En<\/a><\/p>\n

The Edmonton talk was the final episode of my five Canadian events with Anthony Hall. Two days earlier, our talk in Jasper was introduced by a forceful disclaimer disassociating the owner of the venue \u2013 the United Church of Canada \u2013 from the event.<\/p>\n

Anthony Hall writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience we went through in Jasper and especially in Edmonton seem to be a prelude to the kind of relationships \u00a0we can expect with the police, the government, and one another. This kind of thing is going to make the university as we\u2019ve known it impossible. I can foresee security clearances for classes and Hate Police officers sitting in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s Orwellian world, it seems that critical inquiry\u00a0is being redefined as hate speech, radicalization, or even \u00a0terrorism.<\/p>\n

The B\u2019nai Brith Canada website states: \u201cIn the future, the League will explore further use of legal means to halt or disrupt the operations of known terrorist organizations with representatives in Canada. The B\u2019nai Brith legal department will play a key role in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are scholarly books now considered a form of terrorism?<\/p>\n

Anthony Hall adds: \u201cI find it very troubling that there is this notion of \u2018radicalization,\u2019 that everyone just nods their heads assuming it means something. Are universities being defined as agents of radicalization, and professors considered their representatives?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edmonton “Hate” Squad Are Now Book Critics — Target Veterans Today Author \u00a0 Being a member of one of Canada’s ignominious “hate squads” means snooping on the Internet looking for “hate” — views your political masters or noisy minority thought … 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":[366,395,396,394],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"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=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":899,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}