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----- Original Message -----
Last Updated: Tuesday 20 March
2001 TOP STORIES
Speakers with anti-Semitic ties coming to
B.C. rally
Port Coquitlam is site of weekend meeting
Kim Bolan Vancouver Sun
A number of
speakers whom critics say are anti-Semitic and support U.S.-style civilian
militias will be in Port Coquitlam next weekend for a gathering of anti-tax
and anti-government radicals.
The Freedom Fest 2001 gathering is
expected to attract adherents of what the RCMP says is growing anti-government
sentiment in Western Canada.
According to a secret RCMP memo, dated
January, 2000 and released under Access to Information legislation,
"increasing militancy by members and associates of anti-tax and other
anti-government groups in Western Canada has led to a pattern of criminal
activity relating to harassment of, and confrontations with, police officers,
judges and officials of Canada Customs and Revenue Agency."
Freedom
Fest organizer Michael Felgner said speakers at the event have been chosen for
their views on taxation and freedom from government control. He denied having
knowledge of militia-style activity or of the speakers' anti-Semitic views.
But several of those speakers attended a similar anti-government
conference at Vernon's Christian School gym last month that was headlined by
U.S. anti-Semite Eustace Mullins.
The RCMP memo says the groups it is
concerned about are linked to such U.S.-based groups as the Sovereign
Citizen's Movement, "based on a defunct right-wing extremist group, the Posse
Comitatus."
"The Posse Comitatus claimed there was an international
Jewish conspiracy which controlled international finance," the memo said,
adding that some in the U.S. movement are also "involved in the racist right.
"There are several extreme anti-government groups active in Western
Canada promoting Sovereign Citizen activities based on those of the Freemen
and Posse Comitatus in the U.S.A., denying the legal authority of the federal
and provincial governments in several areas, including the authority to levy
taxes, or to require drivers of motor vehicles to be licenced."
Mullins, a Virginia resident, has written a series of books in which
he praises the Nazis, denies the Holocaust and describes Jews as "furry
scavengers" and "parasites."
Felgner said Monday he thought Mullins
was "a wonderful speaker" when he saw him in Vernon Feb. 17.
"If I
could have got Eustace Mullins here I would have," said Felgner, who said he
did not know of Mullins' writings against Jews. "I really can't comment on his
views with regard to Jews and all the rest of it. I have nothing to do with
that in any way."
But other speakers Felgner has invited to Port
Coquitlam this weekend also make derogatory comments about Jewish people on
their Web sites.
Eldon Warman is a Calgary bus driver who founded
Detax Canada and was convicted in Kamloops last year of assaulting a Motor
Carriers Commission official.
On his Web site, he warns followers to
beware of judges who are Jewish or Freemasons.
"A judge or lawyer in
either category may lie or cheat with a clear conscience when conducting
judicial functions," Warman wrote.
In defending a link on his site,
Warman says: "I do not post this link to be anti-Jew."
He continues:
"Many, if not most people who call themselves Jews are good people who live by
the words of the Prophet Micah; However, there obviously is a cult [called
Zionism] within, or out of, Talmudic Judaism which has nefarious designs for
world domination and subjugation through the United Nations and its agencies'
plans for a One World Government. Such is coming upon us all very rapidly. The
time is short to act, if there is any hope of stopping it. The income tax is
one of their key controlling devices."
Another Albertan scheduled to
speak this weekend is Fred Kyburz, of Patriots on Guard, which he says he
founded in 1991 when the Goods and Services Tax was introduced.
In one
of his daily e-mail bulletins last fall, Kyburz disputes the numbers of Jews
killed in one concentration camp during the Second World War.
"The
above figures should demonstrate clearly that somebody is lying or twisting
the truth," Kyburz writes.
Like Warman, he condemns the United Nations
and what he claims is its involvement in creating "One-World-Government."
"Are you ready to participate in this last ditch effort to prevent the
New-World-Order plans or are you ready and willing to help subjugate your
family, your children and grandchildren into this slave state."
For
Nisson Goldman, vice-chair of the regional branch of the Canadian Jewish
Congress, the rhetoric is frighteningly familiar.
Goldman said Monday
the same anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories were ramp-ant in Alberta in the
Social Credit Party in the 1930s and 1940s.
In fact, on Wednesday, to
mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the
congress and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre are hosting a public
lecture by the author of a new book on the earlier anti-Semitism in the Social
Credit party.
"Social Credit was quite anti-Semitic at that point.
They were dealing with a world Zionist financial conspiracy," Goldman said.
"It is eerie. You can just take this [Freedom Fest] and transpose it from one
place to another and say here is the same pattern. It is almost like somebody
wrote the script and here we go again."
Goldman said people with
legitimate, if not fringe, opinions on taxation get caught up with the other
groups and their racist or anti-Semitic agenda.
"It really is
frightening," said Goldman. "Jews become the scapegoat and it is classical."
The similarities between violent U.S. groups and what is going on in
Canada is alarming, Goldman said.
"We are importing into good old
Canada some of the highly radical elements of the Comitatus Posse and some of
the other really difficult groups who think it is fun to go out in the woods
and carry sub-machine guns."
Felgner admitted the speakers he has
chosen are controversial.
"I do have to admit that some of the views
that come out are a bit radical or a bit fringe, but at the same time, that
doesn't mean there isn't bits of truth and bits of good information in there."
He added: "I've been around these people for a few years and I know
that that always comes out as a slant in the media where there are allegations
of white supremacists and all the rest of it. But to my knowledge no one is
aligned with any particular group other than just to forward the freedom of
Canadian citizens."
Still, he said, if there are demonstrators on the
weekend, all the better.
"I hope so, perfect," Felgner said of the
possibility of protesters.
While Felgner told The Sun he is expecting
200 to 300 at the conference, he told the Best Western at which the event is
being held that there would be about 100 to 150 people.
Motel
representative Stephen Earl said he was not aware of any of the material
written by conference speakers.
"We just have the group set up for the
weekend," he said.
Felgner said he is not pro-militia, but that some
of the U.S. groups "have a lot of parallels in regards to their legal research
that they have done.
"So, on one hand, if they have valid information
in regards to the legal research they have done, I would be very interested in
that. The fact that they have amassed weapons or whatever, that has nothing to
do with me and I have no knowledge of that," he said.
Asked about the
Holocaust, Felgner said he believes it happened but doesn't think there is
anything wrong with questioning it.
"I am only 38 years old. I wasn't
there. The history books say that happened. Ultimately, depending on what
frame of reference you are looking at, just because there is newsreel footage
of certain things or just because the history books says something, that
doesn't make it a fact," Felgner said. "What is the problem with questioning
things or events that have occurred in history?"
Goldman has a big
problem with people questioning the Holocaust and scapegoating the Jewish
community.
"It really is frightening," said Goldman, adding the
Internet is the newest weapon for anti-Semitic groups to find new members.
"I think that this is an evil that you have to root out. I don't see
how you can look at it any other way."
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