But as citizens of a democratic country committed to the principle of freedom of speech, we also oppose the suppression of any ideas, however repulsive they may be to us. We must insist that we do not want the state or anyone else telling us which views we may hear and which we may not. We demand the right to hear all and to decide for ourselves which are worthy and which are not. We believe our free society is strong enough to withstand and reject the churlish, ugly and bankrupt ideas of the Klan without having to abandon basic democratic principles. Nor will attempts to suppress the Klan's right to speak, even if successful, eliminate race hatred in the province.
Race hatred is here every day.
We know, because we have been fighting it for years. Our members work constantly in various ways to counteract not only verbal but also active bureaucratic, legal and even physical abuse of racial and other minorities. We do not merely take positions on such matters, but work quietly and as effectively as we can to secure redress for those who have been wronged. When people say something we object to, our goal is not to shut them up but to prove them wrong. Thus, as soon as we heard that Ku Klux Klan material apparently had been distributed at a high school in North Vancouver, we got in touch with each high school in the district and offered to send a speaker on human rights.