Saturday, January 12, 2008

John Beck

Name: John David Beck
DOB: March 8, 1968
Posts on Stormfront and other hate sites using a number of usernames.
Last Known Residence: Kelowna, BC
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision found at www.chrt-tcdp.gc.ca/search/files/t1120_0206dejan9.pdf

B.C. man fined $6,000 for spreading hatred on web
Don Butler , CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008

OTTAWA - The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has fined a Kelowna B.C. man $6,000 and ordered him to stop using the Internet to disseminate material that exposes Jews, non-whites and the disabled to hatred.

In a decision released Wednesday, the tribunal concluded John David Beck was responsible for much of the content on a white supremacist website called bcwhitepride.com.

Among other things, the site described former governor general Adrienne Clarkson as an immigrant from Hong Kong who married "race traitor" John Ralston Saul.

The tribunal ruled the material on the site "discriminates against a wide range of people, and encompasses comments that are vicious and dehumanizing, especially with respect to the disabled, a particularly vulnerable group."

The website, which no longer operates, purported to speak for those alarmed by "the premeditated decline" of people of European descent.

But in advancing those views, said the tribunal, "non-whites and the disabled are treated as persons whose value and contribution to society is less than white peoples'." And Jews "are represented as a powerful menace to society, responsible for many of its evils."

The case was prompted by a 2003 complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission from the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, a Montreal-based civil rights group.

Fo Niemi, the centre's executive director, said Wednesday's decision and other recent tribunal rulings make it clear there's "an organized network of individuals in different cities who are committed to hateful ideologies."

To deter hatemongers, he said, Parliament should raise the maximum $10,000 fine provided for under Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

The section is the world's only non-criminal legislation that deals specifically with hate on the Internet.

According to the tribunal, bcwhitepride.com portrayed non-whites as "undesirables" whose entry into the country is a "calamity" that must be restricted. It also contained material that portrayed people with severe mental or physical disabilities as "parasites" and "genetic throwbacks" who must be "culled from the herd."

The obvious message, said the tribunal, is that the disabled are "not entitled to the same basic rights, including the right to live. It is hard to imagine any comments being more likely to expose disabled persons to hatred or contempt."

The website accused Jews of using their "vast power and their unchallenged control of almost every walk of life" to manipulate, control and ultimately destroy "white nations." What is particularly disconcerting, said the tribunal, is that the material "appears to call for concrete, or even violent, action" to overthrow alleged Jewish control of white society.

At the hearing, Beck denied that he wrote the website material. But the tribunal ruled otherwise after hearing evidence from a Toronto anti-racism activist, Shane Ruttle Martinez.

Martinez told the tribunal he exchanged e-mails with Beck, posing as a female who shared his views. During these exchanges, Beck disclosed he co-founded a group called B.C. White Pride and helped write much of the content on the bcwhitepride.com site.

After concluding that Beck was indeed the author of most of the material, the tribunal ordered him to cease and desist from posting similar messages on the Internet.

Ottawa Citizen
© CanWest News Service 2008



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