Soviet-style persecution in the great white north
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal* has fined a Kelowna area man $6,000 for his involvement in a “white pride” Internet website. The tribunal, which wrapped up a series of hearings in Penticton last June, issued its ruling Wednesday against John Beck and the website www.bcwhitepride.com. In addition to the fine, Beck was ordered to stop posting further discriminatory messages on the Internet. Much of the complaint, launched by the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), was based on evidence presented by Shane Martinez, a human rights activist from Toronto.
Martinez conducted an investigation into the B.C. White Pride website in 2004, during which he pretended to be a 25-year-old woman named Rachel from Kingston, Ont. who had grown sympathetic to the white pride cause. “Rachel” and a Kelowna man exchanged a series of e-mails and later photographs. Martinez had acquired photos off the Internet of a blonde woman allegedly involved in the white power movement in the U.S. In his ruling, tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis pointed to e-mailed comments by Beck during which he admitted co-founding the group B.C. White Pride and helping write much of the website‘s contents.
“There is no evidence before me of Mr. Beck denying that he posted the impugned messages or that he was not their author,” Hadjis stated in his ruling.
Beck opted not to testify at the hearing and called no witnesses. However, he denied in media interviews that he was involved in establishing the website. He admitted knowing the people who created the site, but would not identify them.
Fo Niemi, executive-director for CRARR, applauded the tribunal‘s decision. He described it as “an important victory in the national fight against racism, anti-semitism and other forms of hate on-line.”
Niemi said in a telephone interview from Montreal, this marks one of the few times an individual has been directly connected with such a website.
“It just showed there are a lot of challenges in going after authors of a hate website, whose identity is not established at the beginning,” he said. “We‘re dealing with basically faceless hate communicators.” Although the $6,000 fine represents a fraction of the cost of holding the hearing, Niemi said CRARR believes such prosecutions are worthwhile.
“If we don‘t do that, there will be a proliferation (of on-line hate sites) and vulnerable minds will be influenced and our social cohesion, our social peace, will be threatened,” he said.
*Center for Research-Action on Race Relations
460, St-Catherine West
Suite 610
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3B 1A7
514.939.3342
Fax: 514.939.9763
crarr@sympatico.ca