[Nettime-bold] (Fwd) UBC prof. accused of hate crime against Americans

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

As white house press secretary Flieschman said - in these times 
one has tow atch what he/she says - least he/she wants to be 
acused of HATE for presenting facts:
ivo
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
In Canada if you express your opinion and disagree with the gov't
policy - you can be in plenty of trouble. So much for free speech.

A Univ. of British Columbia prof. criticized U.S. foreign policy
and is now under investigation for committing a hate crime.
She was only pointing to facts.


Daniel
(article not for cross posting)
-------------------------------------------------------------

   Vancouver Sun        Wednesday, October 10, 2001

   Thobani accused of hate crime against Americans
   Complaint sent to Ottawa police 'pure harassment', UBC professor says

   Glenn Bohn and Kim Bolan


   A University of B.C. women's studies professor who criticized U.S.
   foreign policy has been accused of a hate crime -- publicly inciting
   hatred against Americans.

   An unidentified B.C. resident alleged Oct. 4 that assistant professor
   Sunera Thobani violated the Criminal Code of Canada during an Oct. 1
   speech to a women's conference in Ottawa, RCMP Corporal Michael
   Labossiere of the B.C. hate crime unit said Tuesday.

   Thobani, a former president of the National Action Committee on the
   Status of Women, said in an interview Tuesday she had not heard
   anything about the complaint and she is curious to know who made it.

   "This is just pure harassment," she said. "They are trying to silence
   dissent in this country."

   Thobani said her speech was intended to explain how U.S. foreign
   policy has affected life in many countries of the world.

   "If you point to the factual record of U.S. foreign policy, you are
   now accused of spreading hate," she said. "It really is unbelievable."

   The RCMP's Labossiere wouldn't disclose any more specifics about the
   complaint or the complainant. He said he forwarded the complaint to
   the hate crimes unit of the Ottawa-Carleton police force, which has
   jurisdiction in the area where the offence is alleged to have
   occurred.

   Ottawa police Detective Frank Corkery, a member of Ottawa's hate crime
   unit, wouldn't confirm whether police there are investigating Thobani.

   Corkery said police generally don't discuss ongoing investigations or
   reveal the subject of an investigation until charges are laid and it
   becomes public knowledge.

   However, the detective added: "Any complaint made to the hate crimes
   section is taken seriously and is investigated on the substance of the
   complaint.

   Labossiere, who last week reported bomb threats had been made against
   Islamic mosques in Vancouver and Surrey, said he went public with the
   complaint against Thobani to show that majority groups can potentially
   be targets too.

   "Here we have a complaint against someone who is obviously from a
   visible minority, whom the complainant feels is promoting hate," he
   said.

   "Normally, people think it's a white supremist or Caucasians,
   promoting hate against visible minorities . . . We want to get the
   message out that it's wrong, all around."

   Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada allows for a jail sentence
   of less than two years for anyone convicted of the "public incitement
   of hatred" against an identifiable group of people, when the comments
   lead to a breach of the peace.

   An "identifiable group" is defined as any section of the public
   distinguished by colour, race, religion or ethnic origin.

   However, the same section also provides some broadly worded legal
   defences. For instance, no one can be convicted "if the statements
   were relevant to any subject of public interest, the discussion of
   which was for the public benefit, and if on reasonable grounds he
   believed them to be true."

   Murray Mollard, a lawyer and executive director of the B.C. Civil
   Liberties Association, said that, legally, a charge against Thobani
   would be an uphill battle for the prosecution.

   Mollard also said the state shouldn't prosecute someone who criticizes
   public policies in a democratic forum.

   "This is absolutely the wrong thing to do," he said. "We need to have
   an open debate about our response to Sept. 11."

   Thobani received a standing ovation at the Women's Resistance
   Conference in Ottawa after she argued that the U.S. government -- not
   international terrorists -- is the most dangerous global force,
   "unleashing prolific levels of violence all over the world.

   "From Chile to El Salvador, to Nicaragua to Iraq, the path of U.S.
   foreign policy is soaked in blood," she said in comments that received
   front-page coverage in Canada's daily newspapers, including The
   Vancouver Sun.

   Many Canadians said Thobani's speech was an ill-timed and
   anti-American attack, while others accused the mainstream news media
   of a McCarthy-style witch-hunt.

   Thobani said Tuesday she has been stunned by the reaction to her
   comments.

   While she said she has received a lot of support, she has also been
   shocked by hateful e-mails and telephone calls not just from within
   Canada, but from the United States.

   "It is just unbelievable what it is like," Thobani said. "I am just
   getting sent all this porn and hate mail."

   She said the past week has made the controversies during her term as
   president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women
   "seem like a piece of cake."

   But, she said she doesn't want to restrict her life because of the
   hate mail and threats, even though it has disrupted her life and her
   job.

   "I have security outside my class," Thobani said.

   Convictions for public incitement of hatred are rare in Canada, but
   not unprecedented.

   In 1982, Alberta public high school teacher Jim Keegstra was fired for
   teaching students that the Holocaust -- where millions of Jews died in
   Nazi concentration camps -- was a fabrication of a "Jewish conspiracy"
   that wanted to destroy Christianity. The courts later convicted
   Keegstra of promoting hatred and ordered him to do 200 hours of
   community service work.

   In 1999, a Christian evangelist in Ontario was convicted of inciting
   hatred against Muslims in flyers he distributed and in a phone-line
   message. Mark Harding received a three-month conditional sentence and
   was required to perform more than 300 hours of voluntary service for
   the Islamic community.

                       © Copyright 2001 Vancouver Sun

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