Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Re: Revisionist Convicted AGAIN!
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 23:35:04 GMT
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA

In article <BZS.92Jul25200551@ussr.std.com> bzs@ussr.std.com (Barry Shein) writes:

>From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)

>>Canadians, you may be surprised to learn, support this law. With regard to
>>your specific comment, I confess confusion. If you want to grant government
>>the power to take away someone's livelihood, how does that differ from
>>convicting them of a crime?

>There are also minimal acceptable standards, for example a math
>teacher who never touched upon the subject of mathematics but instead
>rambled on about his/her favorite television series could be summarily
>fired for merely refusing to perform the job s/he was hired to
>perform. I believe this is closer to the reason Keegstra was fired.

Keegstra was fired because his behavior, teaching racial hatred, is against
the law in Canada. That is the issue - that the law here is different than
it is south of the border. I contended that Canadians wanted this law, and
supported this law, because Americans just can't seem to grasp that.

Whether we live in some deeply conspiratorial national environement I leave
to other discussions - most of us _love  it_ here, law and all, and have no
illusions about this issue. We do not wear blinders - we _gave_ our
government this authority, and they act upon it on our behalf.

>To my knowledge, the govt has not "taken away his livelihood" (or I
>would hope not), he was fired for not performing his job (e.g. not
>conforming reasonably to curriculum) in this specific circumstance.
>If another school (say, a private school) were to pick him up to teach
>I doubt the govt would be able to interfere (if they can then Canada
>has more problems than I suspected.)

The government would not interfere, but the school board would be hard
pressed to justify hiring a hate-crime felon - which is precisely my point.

>He should be free to express his opinions, at his own expense.

He is free to do so up to the point where his opinion shifts to the point
where he incites to racial hatred - i.e. "Kill the niggers!" is not
acceptable in public forums.

>This, in my opinion (and that of the historical and common
>interpretation of the US Constitution) is wrong. I realize Canada's
>laws are different, but I also find them (on this topic)
>reprehensible, I merely cite the USC to point out that my opinion is
>not unique.

You are free to disagree - I am American by birth, and have a great deal of
respect for the process. But I _prefer_ living _here_, and that law which
disturbs so many Yanks is one of the reasons. I respect the American belief
which asserts that it's perfectly all right to advocate killing Jews,
Niggers, WASPS or anything else on your street corners. I also understand
that the same people who make this assertion censor reading material at
their borders, and do so with regularity. (Farley Mowat comes to mind
immediately as an example of America's fascist paranoia, as does the
persecution of the Communists during the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties.)

>But he would not be jailed or even threatened with criminal charges
>for merely expressing his opinion.

Simply an example of a <more or less> benevolent Yankee hypocrasy - they
had no qualms keeping Mowat from speaking in the United States, and a sorry
history of crucifying leftists for the fun of it.... I remember well the
first election I was aware of in Canada (I came here in 1967) - the first
sign was the Communist candidate's knock on the door - THIS was closer to
the democracy I had grown up with - Canada didn't share Hoover and
MacCarthy's paranoia :-)

-- 
"We guarantee the effectiveness of the crematoria ovens as well as their
durability, the use of the best materials and of course, our faultless
workmanship." From the bargain-basement bid for the crematoria at Treblinka,
submitted by the enterprising director of the C. N. Kori Company. [Sachar]
Xref: sparky alt.revisionism:622 soc.history:6684