- "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."
-
-
- 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.
-
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