It’s February 14. Where’s the Love For Dougie?

At least this is the question that must have been running through Doug Christie’s mind when he realized his supporters were outnumbered by a factor of almost 2 to 1.

Mr. Christie had come to Calgary to shill for the Western Block Party, an entity largely of his own creation with the aim of separating Western Canadian provinces from the rest of the country. Mr. Christie has been at this for almost three decades but has found limited success. Of course our readers also know of Mr. Christie for an entirely different reason. Doug Christie has acted as an attorney for a who’s who of Holocaust deniers, Nazis (original and Neo), anti-Semitic tax protestors, Klansmen and Aryan Nation types. In fact, a partial list of clients can be found on his Wikipedia page:

• James Keegstra;
• Ernst Zündel (pictured to the right with Christie);
• Terry Long, former leader of the Aryan Nations in Canada;
• Malcolm Ross of New Brunswick who, like Keegstra, was a teacher fired for anti-Semitic activity;
• three alleged leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Manitoba;
• Rudy Stanko of the World Church of the Creator;
• Tony McAleer after he was charged with broadcasting hate speech over the phone and online;
• John Ross Taylor of the Western Guard Party and Aryan Nations;
• Imre Finta who was alleged to be a Nazi war criminal and collaborator (see R. v. Finta);
• Doug Collins, a late newspaper columnist brought before the British Columbia Human Rights Commission for antisemitic and racist comments;
• Paul Fromm, head of the far-right "Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform" and "Canadians for Freedom of Expression", and participant in neo-Nazi and racist gatherings, who was fired from his job as a teacher for his political activity;
• Lady Jane Birdwood, a British follower of Oswald Mosley and distributor of hate propaganda;
• Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front;
• David Ahenakew, who has acknowledged making antisemitic comments in a 2002 interview with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix
• Michael Seifert, an SS prison guard and war criminal.
  

Now, we don’t fault attorneys for defending clients whom most of society considers to be scum. A basic tenet of our legal system is that everyone is entitled to legal council and are innocent unless proven to be guilty. There are attorneys, such as Gerry Spence or those who work for the ACLU, who take on cases such as this not because they agree with their clients beliefs, but because of a genuine desire to ensure the legal process plays out properly and fairly. Such does not appear to be the case with Mr. Christie who, based on his own writing and speeches, appears to have common cause with the haters whom he defends.

Well today Mr. Christie was confronted by anti-racist activists and progressives for those views and forced to deal with them in the open. As someone who claims to support freedom of speech, one would think that Mr. Christie would have welcomed a spirited debate and discussion concerning his views on the Holocaust and immigration. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that was the case.

The reports of the evening sent to us by an attendee stated that Mr. Christie had something on the order of 22 supporters, one of whom was his father and another who may have been his wife. His opposition numbered roughly between 35 and 40. The anti-racist activists and progressives arrived to the hotel where the speech was to occur early and began leafleting people entering and leaving the hotel before entering the conference room. There, they began asking Mr. Christie, “pointed” questions about his past clients and his apparent support for their anti-immigration and Holocaust denying views.

Mr. Christie apparently didn’t welcome the chance to clear the air and instead claimed that the anti-racists and progressives in the room were, “unemployed juveniles” and even accused them of, “armed with axe handles.” Of course this was and is a ridiculous accusation; the very fact that there was no violence this evening sort of proves the claims made about progressives and anti-racists are almost always misrepresentations or flat out falsehoods. In fact, aside from the very spirited discussion that did occur this evening between Mr. Christie and the progressives, the only hint of violence occurred when one of Mr. Christie’s supporters attempted to intimidate the progressives into silence. It didn’t work.

We hope to get some photographs of the event soon. We would like to congratulate the progressives and anti-racists who exercised their freedom of speech rights this evening.

Links:

• Some Picnic: Neo-Nazi's favourite lawyer rubs shoulders with Alliance members at Stockwell Day's barbecue
• Law body won't punish Christie but flays ties to 'lunatic fringe'
  
• "Controversial lawyer Doug Christie cited for misconduct by B.C. Law Society"
• One Peoples Project - DOUG CHRISTIE