Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International

British Columbia Man Stands Trial For The Crime Of Criticizing Jews On His Blog

nicubunu_open_mouthimages3We have been discussing the alarming erosion of free speech in Canada in the last few years — part of a trend in the West. Those concerns have been rekindled by the trial of Roy Arthur Topham, who was charged with promoting hatred against Jewish people through his website RadicalPress.com. He was arrested by the RCMP Hate Crimes Unit in 2012.

While these postings would be viewed as distasteful and hateful in the United States, they would be fully protected under the first amendment. However, in Canada, the indictment charges Topham with two counts of “communicating statements, other than in private conversation, that wilfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, people of the Jewish religion or ethnic origin.” In the articles Topham accused “World Jewry” of starting World War II, controlling the media and planning for world domination. He also used the phrase “Synagogues of Satan.” Topham wrote a long statement on his blog in response to his arrest.

The government argued in court that all of this is untrue and that “[t]here is no global conspiracy. There is no secret kabal of Jews wanting to control the world.” However, that misses the point. Few people would take these arguments seriously but that does not change the fact that he has a right to articulate such views. If the government witnesses want to prove him wrong, they can exercise the same free speech rights to denounce him and his views.

This trial comes in the same month as the conviction of 12 people in France for merely protesting Israeli products as a form of hate speech. It is all part of the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in England and Canada ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws.

A few examples from our cousins in the North are quire chilling:

• Comedian Guy Earle was found guilty of violating the human rights of a lesbian couple after he got into a trash-talking session with a group of women during an open-mike night at a nightclub.

• Marc Lemire, the webmaster of a far-right political site, was punished for allowing third parties to leave insulting comments about homosexuals and blacks on the site. Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that “the minimal harm caused . . . to freedom of expression is far outweighed by the benefit it provides to vulnerable groups and to the promotion of equality.”

• “The Rev. Stephen Boission and the Concerned Christian Coalition for anti-gay speech, censured future speech that the commission deemed inappropriate.” While the Human Right Commission found “no direct victim . . . has come forward,” it still ordered damages paid to a college professor to brought the complaint and ordered the defendants to stop any future such “disparaging remarks.”

• In 2008, right-wing publisher Ezra Levant investigated by a tribunal for his publication of the Danish Mohammed cartoons for “advocating hatemongering cartoons in the media” and allegations from a Muslim that he was “defaming me and my family because we follow and are related to Prophet Mohammed.”

• In 2008, Maclean Magazine was charged with hate speech for publishing an article written by Mark Steyn entitled Why the Future Belongs to Islam. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, demanded answers on why a few pages of the book were viewed as derogatory by complaining Muslims.

These cases represent more than a lack of support for free speech. They represent a comprehensive assault on free speech.

The problem with free speech is that you often have to support the claims of people you may find hateful and even disgusting. We do not need free speech to protect popular speech or speakers. However, once we place ourselves on the slippery slope of speech regulation (as has Canada), the result is the diminishment of all of our rights.

What do you think?

Source: CBC

56 thoughts on “British Columbia Man Stands Trial For The Crime Of Criticizing Jews On His Blog”

  1. Dear Jonathan,

    I appreciate your coverage of my recent trial here in British Columbia and also the feedback from your readers.

    I would have to concur with Eve Mykytyn’s assessment of the case in that the guilty verdict was based upon a satire which I did of Theodore N Kaufman’s classic hate fest against the German people prior to the USA entering the war in 1941. Granted that book, Germany Must Perish! didn’t precipitate America’s entry but rather, the Zionists had to wait for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour, nonetheless it is likely the most hateful piece of literature aimed at a nation of people as a whole ever written. The Crown though, from the moment of my arrest on the Sec. 319(2) CCC charge, maintained that I had written an actual “book” with the title, Israel Must Perish!.

    As my expert witness Gilad Azmon pointed out to the jury, had it not been for the fact that he read my satire he would never have known of the actual book, and upon reading the original source of the satire he maintained that it was a stroke of genius (as others have also stated) on my part for not only did it expose the hypocrisy of those (Canada’s Jewish lobbyists) who had filed the initial complaint but it also, (in Atzmon’s words) held up a mirror to the Jewish people so they might reflect upon their own behaviour as seen in the actions of the state of Israel toward the Palestinian people. In this regard Atzmon maintained that the satire was not only good for the non-Jews but also for the Jews.

    When we are critical of the Jews one has to be clear about their own identity and that is where Gilad Atzmon’s scholarly work on this topic becomes critical for anyone who has the courage to broach the subject. I highly recommend Atzmon’s seminal work on Jewish identity politics, The Wandering Who? You can find it on Amazon.com.

    As for #MichaelBenchforUSprez45’s cheap shot, “Topham is a moron for backpedaling what concrete truths he believed he was promoting.” coupled with his admission ” I haven’t read his views….” I can’t see any need to respond to such a critique given his lack of knowledge on the subject of my own views and the issues which I was able to have entered into the court records in Canada. Such ad hominem attacks are atypical of the Zionist mindset.

    One final point regarding the guilty verdict. It now opens the way for a challenge to the legislation itself based upon Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, sec. 2b which deals with the issue of freedom of expression. The case will now likely move from the B.C. Supreme Court to the federal Supreme Court. If it is successful it will then form the basis for the repeal of this specious piece of Orwellian legislation. That, ultimately, is what the case is all about.

  2. Mr Turley, your article title is misleading. It should read something like “British Columbia Man Stands Trial for the Crime of Conspiracy Theories Against Jews.” Your title implies that mainstream critique against Jews like “Israel is an apartheid state” is illegal when in fact it is quite encouraged. In any case, I agree it shouldn’t be illegal behavior.

  3. Speech codes are products of the fascist left. We see it on many posts. In this post, all of the limits were on right wing speech. There was a time, in my youth, where the left were the proponents of free speech. Now, they are the Storm Troopers against it.

  4. Does Canada have a Constitution or a Bill of Rights with a First Amendment equivalent? I know that they did not rid themselves of Queeny like we Americans did. I know that there is no Constitution in England or a First Amendment right to free speech. They still worship their 90 year old plus Queeny. I know one thing though. They have a better medical care system than we do.

  5. Then for consistency, surely someone has been arrested for printing hate speech against ISIS and other Muslim groups.

  11. All the U.S. invasions are Wars of Aggression – War Crimes
    These are the same crimes the Nazis committed
    Divided Loyalties inside the Pentagon
    “Not only do these foreign Wars of Aggression violate the Geneva Conventions but constitute Crimes against Humanity under International Law besides being completely Illegal and Unconstitutional.”
    “The Pentagon High Command has worked very hard with the Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM), the Administration and Congress to contain these terrible deep dark secrets and prevent the American masses and American Military from finding them out. To learn of the specifics of either of these secrets is usually a mind-boggling shock to the system for anyone that finds out, especially the second secret.
    1.) The first dark secret is that the Pentagon High Command has been infiltrated and hijacked by the World’s largest Opium Cartel and manipulated into helping the CIA and the Mossad, using the DEA and US Customs as cover to become the World’s largest illegal drug traffickers.
    2.) The second deep dark secret even more terrible for America if you can imagine that is that the Pentagon High Command assisted the Mossad and the Israeli-American “Israeli-first” Dual Citizens and the US Administration in their attack on America on 9-11-01.”
    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/11/10/divided-loyalties-inside-the-pentagon

  12. Paul

    With current trends, you will get your beloved hate speech laws soon enough here in America. As demographics change, not only is the 2nd Amendment likely to be interpreted differently but also the 1st. But of course, you probably already know this.

    The larger question is. Why are organized Jewish groups the biggest supporters of hate speech laws throughout the West? (Note: I do not mean every individual Jewish person.). Funny, but this didn’t seem the be the case when the radicals were from the left and names like Hoffman or Shapiro.

  14. I think there are two main issues raised by this case. The first, and more difficult, is the truth of what Mr. Topham says. Remember, he maintains a blog and no one is forced to read it. Yesterday he was convicted for reprinting an article with two words changed. He substituted ‘Israel’ and ‘Jews’ for ‘Germany’ and ‘Germans.’ The piece was satirical. It is shocking the numbers who weigh in on Topham without reading the blog.

    The second issue is Topham’s right to say what he does. He does not suggest violence or action. His speech is clearly political. You do not need to agree to allow him to write as he does.
    Lastly, I’d like to point out that most of the charges stem from tracts that Topham reprinted. Almost all are widely available in Canada, including on Amazon.ca.

  16. Hi, Jonathan, a meaty topic I’ve been prepared for.

    Topham is a moron for backpedaling what concrete truths he believed he was promoting. Thats where his case got soft also. I haven’t read his views, I’m going on this story alone. The first giveaway in his credibility is that he makes anti ‘Satan” indistinguishable from the zionist or antijudaism views he had. A typical underprepared method that ‘congenital/nurtured as’ muslim zealots use also. When people are willing to blurt far fetched conspiracies with very little backing evidence relevant to the audience , he’s inevitably going to be brought down by bias from either side. It hurts the ability to criticize and weaponizes every use of label “antisemitism” that are incorrectly strewn on real critics. ( as they are now).

    Not all times are these types of posts wrongful. To address an inconsistency of views I created a term ” Alternative White Supremacy” These University of Missouri situations have too many gaps of racist exhibitionists being immediately recognized as an organized White Supremacist group. Drawing the Swastika in feces? Who’s the supremacist here and who’s to be accused of being a monkey? seriously. (rated M)
    http://nexishexus.tumblr.com/post/132952142753/alternativewhitesupremacy-on-prison
    http://nexishexus.tumblr.com/post/132950222933/alternativewhitesupremacy-topic-on-univ-missouri

    Topham makes a serious mistake to parade his views as independent of sturdy memes. For example, A Satanist is entirely correct to speak against jews, christians and muslims. The three creationist groups have already been and are currently bigots against them. The Temple of Satan made the effort to distribute a coloring book in Florida to the dismay and selfish greedy anger of the evangelical geriatric flock Canada may in this case be protecting the right to discuss and criticize jew sect blemishes on level ground instead of on the wild eye essays of this guy.

    Sometimes to build a better system you have to build a better problem so it can be resolved. And fairly I can point at David Wildstein , Bernie Madoff, Monica Lewinsky , Nevin Shapiro ( for the football bounties more so than finance) Joe Gliniewicz, and Nechemya Weberman. Look at the level of brazen crime going on. “Do not steal” doesn’t sink in. The counselor-molestor is standalone dirt. Lewinsky and Anthony Weiner: Where’s the respect for traditional marriage? Whether Bill Clinton has his pecker out is not obligatory of Monica to understand she should 1) never expect privacy 2) she went along with a married man’s affair all on her own. Is that belief in her own race’s rituals? NOPE. She did it to herself.

    Joe Glinewicz sours the face of cops and jews. Bernie Madoff and Nevin Shapiro the elite crime of the white collar class. When will it not be obvious Europe had reasons to keep jews out of power. Those types of policies don’t arise in the same skeptical conditions as the holocaust. Lets definitely recognize criticism of Jews and the holocaust are two separate entities. I feel ultimately the uncomfortable question people who have negative views of jews are afraid to address ” What do jews do wrong and when we label those matters with them ; how are we to proceed after they throw that antisemitism label?

    Roy Topham has one thing going for him: He doesn’t have to respect any class whose roles include bigotry. Judaism IS sexism. Judaism is oppressive and classist of other religions as to why outsiders are ‘ Gentiles, Baal worshippers, etc. The the book “Hatred”(2003,Gaylin) This quote by Gordon Allport appears:

    ” antisemitism arises because people are irritated by their own consciences. Jews are symbolically their superego, and no one likes to be ridden so hard by his superego. Ethical conduct is insisted upon by judaism, relentlessly, immediately , hauntingly . People who dislike this insistence, along with the self discipline and acts of charity implied , are likely to justify their rejection by discrediting the whole race that produced such high ethical ideals. ” , Gordon Allport

    This quack book has taken Freuds’ ( also a jew) alleged scientific trinitarian view of the psychology and turned it into a zionist brain worm. Thats apparently not at all far fetched from the conspiracy Topham is trying to pin down. There it is in black and white. Jews and sympathetics will try fraud science evaluations of society to CLEARLY and UNOBSTRUCTEDLY mistake that having the first testament in the bible.. and its bigotries somehow links the judaism religion and race members as an uber class when they are not. Lets use this quote from Allport ” Ethical conduct is insisted upon by judaism , relentlessly , immediately , hauntingly.” There’s no way Weberman is practicing judaism as this definition outlines define it. Are these not the sons of the god-to-be-feared? Where is their fear? Canada cannot be judged based on this article because the farfetched conspiracies are probably as damaging to his case as they are helpful. What I can tell you for certain as found in my book ” The Narcissocracy v2″ Exclusively on Amazon. is Moses botched the gender relationships of the gods he spoke of. If a god or gods chose a group, a language group it would be to preserve the correctness of the translation as best as possible. There are no gender neutral nouns in Hebrew so there are no gender neutral deities in either judaism or christianity. Case closed. As simple as it could have been to say ” Elohim created Adam in his image and Ruach Elohim created Lilith / “The first eve” (Genesis Rabbah 22:7)

    The very first created female is redacted from the bible and the torah. All of her creation being from the same mud as Adam and all that. Where is that? Whose book is this anyway, the gods or the mortals? From there on its a lore of bigotry made of that specific fabrication that Adam somehow has dominion over Eve. A Blaspheme against 3 different religions. Still skeptical? Yeshua ben Yosef ( Jesus) committed himself to only identify as son of man. ONLY and ever. He is referred to as the human one despite the vatican and nicean creed botching his theme.

    Mark 3:28-31: 28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—

    Ruach Elohim is a female noun; ” the spirit of god” And I already told you Elohim was the male essence. Conclusion: Jesus did not want to be named a god or part of the godhead. The trinity is entirely blaspheme and bogus as scripture. Jesus intended to make the two genders of the jewish deism equal: they killed him for it as being too good a do gooder for the women they would oppress up through 1900s. christianity never formed. The nicean creed is not christianity nor does it specifically address his own laws in Matthew 5:17-48. Any good student of the bible as a christian should realize matthew is the first book of their education and nothing about the torah should deteriorate the level of social development definitely dividing the two eras. What is being mistaken as Hitler fever is really an unresolved fear that jews were invading christianity when the sects were really just continued splinter groups of reformed judaism all the way up to the catholic church current day. Theres molestors among jews and terrible child rapists among muslms. Atheists and other spiritual Citizens have been equally correct to damn christianity and mormons for the same problems. All three creationist sexist groups eventually lead to excused sex crimes against underaged and above age women , ie unwelcome exorcisms of ex wives ( also ex church goers). Cultism is made of what Topham dislikes and for that it must be spoken against even louder with clear events of wrongdoing. David Wildstein and Lewinsky are similar in this respect. Both do the deed instead of whistleblowing and then whimper about their reputations / avoid accountability to their own shenanigans. No high standards there. Its ethical to grade a jews jewishness as it is to judge westboro on their christianity. Both Absent.
    Thanks for the opportunity to voice this matter.

    Sincerely , Michael Bench , MSci, GCert
    #MichaelBenchforUSprez45
    Carbon County , PA

  17. John in his gospel describes the scene with Jesus, Pilate, and the Pharisees who desired Jesus dead. PIlate attempts to wash his hands of Jesus by giving Jesus back to the Pharisees. But the Pharisees reply to Pilate, “it is unlawful for us to take any man’s life.” Yet in at least five vs. the Bible clearly blames only Ioudaios (wrongly translated “Jew” a word that did not appear in history till 1775 AD) for killing Jesus. Only in one vs. does the Bible give partial blame to “you” (Ioudaios) “and evil men” (Romans) “who killed the Lord Jesus.”

    So per the Bible, “Ioudaios” killed Jesus, and this was by their own words a “crime.” Some maintain that to this day, this was mankind’s worst of all crimes.

    Judaics started the notion of “six million innocent Jews” slaughtered in the early 20th C. Not till HItler did the story stick. Some deny the commonly told story of the holocaust in that they deny the number who died: statistically there were more alive at the end of WW2 than at the start, which does not make sense with 6M dead and not many more at the start. Also, some believe, with good evidence, that the cause of most deaths was normal starvation, lack of shelter, etc, not a determined and impossible goal to kill them all.

    And for simply having such belief, many are in prison in Canada and Europe. Did you know that Spain at one time banned all Jews? Should Spain pay reparations?

    Now some also say that one of the main purposes of the holocaust story was to replace the murder of Christ as mankind’s worst crime.

    How else do you explain the fact that the holocaust is elevated above all crimes including the murder of several times more innocents in the Soviet east bloc? (A good portion of the killers were Judaic Bolsheviks like Bill Kristol’s father.)

  18. I think you’re behind the times.

    Here in the New Yorker, we learn how free speech is oppressive

    http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/race-and-the-free-speech-diversion

    And in Rolling Stone, we see that free speech is a bizarre conservative theory

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/5-bizarre-conservative-theories-about-the-mizzou-and-yale-protests-20151112

    > Rand Paul: The problem is censorship — of racists.
    “I think freedom of speech is very, very important. Does freedom of speech mean there will be boorish people who say things you don’t want to associate with? Yes,” Paul said Tuesday. “But really in a free society, there’s got to be a place for people to make their argument.”

    I encourage you to get with the times, Professor Turley, or else you may get an enjoyable few years in a re-education camp.

  19. What you can’t criticize is your god.

    OK, let’s be absolutely positively clear about the hypocritical double standard Re. Judaism. Paul C. Schulte, I’m talking to you.

    Judaism’s holiest of all holy books is the Talmud. The Talmud is one of Judaism’s two “Torah,” the other being the Old Testament. So when a Judaic mentions “The Torah” I recommend you blow his cover and ask him to which one does he refer.

    The Talmud comprises the following hate speech, for which you’ll never ever in a million years hear anyone publicly criticize to a Judaic’s face: “Even the best of the goyim deserve only death…Thank you _od you did not make me a pagan, a slave, nor a woman…Pantera, son of the whore Mary, boils in excrement for eternity.”

    Rome once banned the Talmud for its hate speech. Later the Rabbis substituted the code name Pantera for Jesus, and Rome gave the Rabbis the gift of lifting the ban. The Rabbis always considered Pantera to be the name of the Roman centurion who paid Mary for sex and fathering Jesus.

    So why no hate speech crime against the Rabbis for preaching hate and death to every non-Jew in the world, especially women goyim?

    1. Josseph Jones – most rabbis do not take that part of the Talmud that seriously. Some do not take it seriously at all. Same in the Catholic Church. For the nuns, sin was all black and white. For the priests there was some grey. If the priest was a Jesuit, it was all grey.

      I think the Catholic Church bears a great burden for teachings that lead to the Holocaust. I remember first thinking that they did not make sense.

  20. I think this speech falls under incitement to riot. I have a real problem with hate speech because people get hurt.

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