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Likewise, Warman might as well have crosshairs on his chest. His enemies have repeatedly posted his home address online with Google map directions, beck- oning those within range to point and shoot. Notorious neo-Nazi Bill White, head of the American National Socialist Workers Party, sent Warman an e-mail once. "He said, 'I have a Ruger P90 and its bullets have your name on it fag-boy Criminal Code offences already cover conspiracy to commit crimes, counsel- ling in the commission of offences, and threats to do bodily harm, and there are defamation laws as well, he says. Expressing opinions about race and reli- gion, no matter how nasty, should not be a crime, he argues. Warman, who has tracked hate groups "I was quite appalled at how the act was being used to, in some cases, bludgeon freedom of speech." — Keith Martin, B.C. Liberal MP Warman.' It's hard to get any more direct than that," he says. White was indicted in December 2008 on seven counts of utter- ing threats, extortion, and intimidation based partly on testimony Warman gave before a grand jury in Virginia. Resulting from such threats, Warman reveals pre- cious little about himself aside from say- ing he works for the federal government, obtained law degrees from the universi- ties of Windsor and McGill, and is in his late 30s. The clatter from this war of words reverberates into mainstream media and Parliament Hill. Obstreperous right-wing commentators Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant were both accused of hate crimes —Steyn, a Maclean's colum- nist, for passages in his book America Alone and Levant, who also writes the Back Page column for this magazine, for publishing those notorious Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in the now-defunct Western Standard. Both men perpetually mourn the death of free speech and fill the blogosphere with calls to repeal s. 13, the Canadian Human Rights Act's hate provision. Scrapping s. 13 is a good start, says Christie. Then get rid of Criminal Code hate offences too, he says, because they unreasonably inhibit our right to speak freely about controversial topics. Other for 20 years, disagrees and cautions against removing legal barriers. Given free reign to meet, orga- nize, and publicize their views online and in person, he says, neo- Nazi and white suprem- acist groups would grow and hate-related acts of violence would as well. Like it or not, Canada has a policy of multicul- turalism and has signed international protocols to uphold human rights and eliminate discrimina- tion, Warman says. It has a responsibility to preserve a hate-free society. Freedom of expression in Canada and the legal constraints of it have evolved over time but most scholars point to the 1965 Special Committee on Hate Propaganda in Canada — dubbed the Cohen Committee — as the beginning of the modern debate between free speech and hate speech. The committee, which included a young Pierre Trudeau, was struck in response to the growth of fascist groups in Canada only 20 years after the Second World War and Holocaust. In its report to Parliament, the committee concluded: ". . . the hate situation in Canada, although not alarming, clearly is serious enough to require action. It is far better for Canadians to come to grips with the problem now, before it attains unmanageable propor- tions, rather than deal with it at some future date in an atmosphere of urgency, of fear, and perhaps even crisis." Based on the committee's recom- mendations, the Criminal Code was amended in 1970 to include s. 318 (the criminal act of "advocating genocide" defined as supporting or arguing for the killing of members of an "identifiable group"), s. 319 ("public incitement of hatred" where a person communicates statements in a public place and incites hatred against an identifiable group in such a way that there will likely be a breach of the peace), and s. 320 (allow- ances for the seizure of hate propaganda material for distribution or sale which, after 2001, included computer files and web sites). Charges under these three provisions cannot be laid without con- sent from provincial attorneys general. A couple of other landmarks dot the road of the current debate. The Canadian Human Rights Act, passed in 1977, included that controversial s. 13 provision making it discriminatory for a person or group to "communicate telephonically" any matter "that is likely to expose a per- son or persons to hatred or contempt." That too was amended in 2001 to include communicating via the Internet. Under the Human Rights Act, you can be guilty of a s. 13 offence even if you didn't intend to cause harm, and truth cannot be used as a defence. Opponents say this unfairly hobbles those accused of breaching s. 13, but advocates say since it's nearly impossible to get hate crime charges laid under the Criminal Code, s. 13 is critical for stifling the rancorous and potentially harmful actions of neo- Nazis, white supremacists, and others. A young human rights activist-cum-law student named Shane Martinez is ada- mant about that, but more on him later. After the passage of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, some free speech devotees saw an oppor- tunity to slay s. 13, Doug Christie among them. Representing John Ross Taylor, who was found guilty by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal of disseminating hate messages via a telephone answering machine, Christie appealed the case to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1990. He lost — but barely. The court ruled, in a 4-3 decision, that s. 13 was a reasonable and justifiable limitation of rights under the Charter. "I think they went the wrong way. And I think they realize they went the wrong way and they're going to reverse it if it ever gets back there," says Christie. "If the government or the courts decide to regulate what we think and what we speak, they will be inherently corrupted by their own biases and bring the admin- istration of justice into disrepute. . . . It's an area they should stay out of." www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M ARCH 2009 31