By Comrade Black
Hate speech proponent Doug Christie has passed away. Finally.
Most of the mainstream media articles refer to Christie as a ‘controversial lawyer‘ and some even refer to him as a ‘defender of free speech,’ saying he defended holocaust deniers and anti-semites. I find this toned down revision as sickening as the historical revisionists he defended; so I want to say this loud and clear -no bullshit- for those who appear to be tone deaf. Doug Christie was one of this colonial nation state’s most well notorious racists; known as the lawyer who has defended numerous well known neo-nazi organizers, as well as holocaust deniers, homophobes, and other anti-semites. It only seems fitting that Christie died of terminal cancer, since he himself was a cancerous creep, and an important player in an even more sick movement.
For years Christie has tried to ‘white-wash’ himself as being a ‘defender of free speech.’ Of course like most nazis who try to veil their racism to create a more socially acceptable image the only speech Christie has ever concerned himself with is that of racist who have been charged with hate speech. Christie’s dance card was full of big names in the wild wild world of white power – oh sorry I mean white pride, see that’s the term racists prefer to use when speaking to ‘the public’ so they won’t
NAZI DIE
look like racists. But as I was saying, Christie has defended such prominent hatemongers as Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front, Terry Long, former leader of the Aryan Nations, John Ross Taylor of the Western Guard Party and Aryan Nations, three leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Manitoba, and Rudy Stanko of the World Church of the Creator. Christie tries to hide his hatred behind the rhetoric of ‘free speech,’ yet maintained an ad on Stormfront, the most notorious white supremacist neo-nazi website and main recruiting vehicle for vulnerable 12 year olds.
Christie also founded the so called Canadian Free Speech League, which every year would give out an award to people charged with spreading racial hatred, holocaust denial, and homophobia; dubbed the George Orwell Award. The appropriation of Orwell’s name and image for the celebration of racism is mind numbing. Orwell, an anarchist well known for his books such as 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia; having gone to Spain to fight the fascists during the Spanish civil war and was about as opposite of Christie’s ideology as humanly possible. Vancouver Lawyer Gary Botting worked for Christie for many years, and developed a close personal relationship to him; Botting has since severed ties with Christie and went to great lengths to distance himself from the well known racist. “it is clear to me that your Canadian Free Speech League is merely a front for an anti-semitic, Pro-Nazi agenda.” Botting wrote in a publi
c letter to Christie, continuing “In the Canadian Free Speech League, the only opinions truly allowed are those which conform to your own. And those opinions, as you well know, are antisemitic and almost blatantly pro-Nazi. It is no coincidence that both you and Ernst Zundel usually celebrate your birthdays on April 20, Hitler’s Birthday. It is no coincidence that most of the Canadian Free Speech League annual awards ceremonies have been held as close to that date as possible.”
In a recent CBC radio interview, Christie claims he only defended white supremacists cause they were the only people facing government repression for what they believed. This is a sad attempt to cast himself the hero, the defender of the people; and is also simply and utterly confusing. The only people? Really? Is he that stupid and unaware of what’s going on in the world around us, or dose he just think everyone else is? When the Canadian chapter of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty was dealing with intense police harassment and repeated arrests, as well as private security hired by corporations, I did not hear Mr Christie offering to help. How do I know? well when SHAC was in Victoria I was volunteering with them. They instead retained the services of Vancouver lawyer Peter Edelmann. If that’s not close enough to home, where was Dougie Boy when the Victoria Tent City was fighting for the Right To Sleep; as homeless activists were challenging the constitutionality of anti-camping laws in the Supreme court after a 31 day camp at Cridge Park, only ab
out 5 blocks away from his law office. How do I know he didn’t offer to help? Again, I was one of the campers, and my legal name is on the court docs. Nor did he speak a word against the massive police/state repression of activists at the Toronto G20, many of which were arrested before the G20 even occurred! Same with the repression of activists in Vancouver at the Anti-Olympics Convergence. When the Joint Terrorism task Force showed up at my door, and I was interviewed on CBC, Christie again didn’t say a word. We could even go further back to the legendary struggles between feminist bookstore Little Sisters in vancouver and the state who was confiscating their shipments of lesbian erotica books, once again Christie didn’t offer to help. But when holocaust denier Jim Keegstra was fired for teaching his high school students that the holocaust was just a Jewish Conspiracy, Christie phoned him up to say “Hey, don’t be down-hearted.” and became his lawyer. And when George Burdi, vocalist of the white power band RaHoWa (Racial Holy War), and founder of Resistance Records – The largest white power record company in the world – was arrested, Christie “was ready to give up three months of his time away from home, and do it pro bono,” urging Burdi to let the charges go to court rather than plead guilty. So it seems clear that he was only interested in helping other racists.
Christie was also the head of the Western Canadian Concept party and later founded the Western Bloc Party, 2 far right political parties with anti-immigrant and homophobic stances as well as colonial assimilation views. The WCC website described it’s mission in part as the development of a “genuine national culture true to our existing European heritage and values.” And of course English speaking only. Another prominent nazi and former client of Christie’s Paul Fromm, ran a
long side him for the Western Block Party. Fromm was a one time member of the Conservative Party, until he was kicked out after comments about racial purity and immigration. Fromm who hosts a radio show on Stormfront, is a self described “Nazi Sympathizer” and “anti-immigration activist.”
Since his diagnosis with terminal cancer, Doug Christie has tried to convince the world even more that he did not share the views of his clients, but only wanted to defend free speech. I want to ensure that Christie is remembered for the racist he truly was. No ‘white’-washing.
Good bye Doug Christie, you will not be forgotten. And you will not be missed.
One less racist.
We’ll be picking up PE #64 from the printers on Friday, June 7, 2013. This massive 36-page newspaper-type issues compiles reprints from PE’s blog from 2012 and 2013.
