In 1997, as in the past few years, anti-Semitic became more diffuse in nature. While reported incidents of serious violent crimes declined, the data show a continued proliferation of hate propaganda and ethnic stereotyping in the media. Metropolitan Toronto, Canada's largest and most ethnically diverse city, had by far the largest number of reported anti-Semitic incidents. While the influence and impact of organized neo-Nazi groups remained low, there were indications that the Heritage Front and others were starting to rebuild their grassroots movements. Several important court cases involving incitement of hatred toward Jews were heard in 1997. A human rights tribunal began hearing a complaint against Ernst Zündel's website for promoting hatred and Holocaust denial.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS AND HATE GROUPS

During the municipal elections in Toronto, Nazi sympathizer and convicted hatemonger Don Andrews ran for the position of mayor, coming in third, with 2 percent of the total. Marc Lemire, webmaster of the Freedom-Site, which hosts the websites of several of Canada's most virulent anti-Semitic organizations (see below), ran for the position of school trustee in Toronto Public School Ward P17. Lemire, who is on the payroll of the well-known Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, received 12 percent of the vote. Paul Fromm, former Peel Board teacher, known for his prominence on the neo-Nazi speaking circuit and publisher of the Free Speech Monitor, ran for the position of school trustee in Peel Board Mississauga Wards 1-7. He came in last of four candidates with 10 percent of the vote. Fromm was fired from the Peel Board on February 27, 1997 following an official complaint from the League for Human Rights (the League), which supplied the board with a video tape of Fromm speaking at a memorial symposium for known white supremacist Revilo P. Oliver, sponsored by the virulently anti-Semitic and racist, US-based National Alliance. Since the termination of his teaching contract, Fromm has been traveling across Canada attempting to organize speaking engagements.

Douglas Christie, best known as legal counsel to people such as Malcolm Ross, James Keegstra, Nazi war criminal Imre Finta and Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, has been very active in British Columbia (BC), conducting meetings of his so-called Canadian Free Speech League and publishing and distributing a newsletter. As these meetings are conducted primarily at public libraries in Victoria and Vancouver, a heated controversy arose concerning the use of public facilities for the promotion of hatred. Doug Collins, recently retired columnist from the North Shore News, who is currently facing a complaint before the BC Human Rights Commission for the anti-Semitic and racist nature of his articles (see below), appeared as a guest speaker at one of Christie's meetings at the West Vancouver Public Library, in May.

After backlash sentiments were expressed in the press, a rally was held on August 26 outside a motel housing Roma refugee claimants, by a band of white supremacists who called themselves the Aryan Blitzkrieg and who sported Nazi and o ther skinhead type symbols. In attendance were known members of the Heritage Front (HF). Anti-racist activists were concerned that this marked the resurrection of the previously thwarted, organized, violent radical right in Toronto. Recruitment by the HF and other skinhead groups appears to be regaining some of its past strength as the leadership attempts to rebuild the organizational infrastructure. In 1997, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario reported an upsurge in HF recruitment. This included pamphleteering, person-to-person recruitment and racist graffiti around the Kingston area. It should be noted that HF activist Wolfgang Droege was seen in the company of prominent figures of the far right. It is unclear, however, whether he has regained a leadership position.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES

There were 98 reported incidents of anti-Semitism in 1997 in Toronto, the same as last year. These represented 46.4 percent of all reported incidents. Montreal, which in 1996 reported 30 incidents, had 21 in 1997. Ottawa figures also declined, with 25 reported incidents, slightly down from 27 in 1996.

In the last few years, an appreciable increase in anti-Semitic incidents has been noted in smaller communities in Ontario. In 1997, there was a crackdown on hate crime by the various hate crimes units, leading to several arrests and a decrease in reported incidents. There were 20 incidents in regional Ontario, down 37 percent from last year, albeit still 10 percent of the national total. Winnipeg reported 18 incidents in 1997, which is one more than the 17 reported in 1996. In Alberta and Saskatchewan there were 7 reported incidents in 1997, representing a decrease of 36.3 percent, down from 11 incidents in 1996.

The number of reported incidents in BC decreased slightly from 23 incidents in both 1995 and 1996, to 19 in 1997, 9 percent of the total. It should be noted that leaders of organized hate group activity in British Columbia appear to enjoy greater mobility there than in their previous location Ontario.

In Quebec, 1997 saw an important diminution in clear-cut anti-Semitic acts of vandalism or harassment. What seemed to prevail, however, were anti-Semitic and racist propaganda or letters, often with political overtones. It is well known that the Jewish community of Quebec overwhelmingly supports Quebec remaining a part of Canada. Former Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau even reinforced this notion in 1997 during a speech in Calgary when he attempted to clarify his controversial remarks of the night of the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum when he blamed his defeat on "money and the ethnic vote." In Calgary, he pointed the finger directly at the Jewish community as one of three ethnic groups that he had referred to, along with the Italian and Greek communities.

Propaganda

In addition to recruitment activities by hatemongers, the distribution and dissemination of hate material continued relatively unabated in 1997. For example, packages containing a video of the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew with the addendum "and Jewish Ritual Slaughter" were sent to organizations involved in animal rights issues. Dozens of university professors across Canada were targeted with a lengthy hate pamphlet replete with a myriad of classical anti-Semitic themes and hate propaganda, including Holocaust denial, anti-feminism and anti-Zionism.

Shortly after his campaign for the position of school trustee, Paul Fromm sent material to all local school libraries promoting his anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant material under the guise of free speech advocacy. The material included his own newsletter Free Speech Monitor, which was full of inferences to Jewish conspiracy myths. Fromm presented himself and his "beleaguered allies," such as Doug Collins, as objects of this power. "Perhaps most ominous of all is the wholesale attack by special interest groups on the Internet," writes Fromm in defense of Ernst Zündel and his webmistress Ingrid Rimland, referring to the case being heard against them by a human rights tribunal (see below).

The Internet: Since 1996 the Toronto-based Freedom-Site hosts such organizations' webpages as the HF, Paul Fromm's Canadian Association for Free Expression and his Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform as well as the Canadian Patriots Network. The move by Canada's judicial authorities in 1997 to apply to the Internet laws regulating the promotion of hatred in Canada (see below) aroused adverse reactions from freedom of speech advocates, and some hate groups found allies in respectable civil liberties associations.

The Media: The media has also been a significant arena of anti-Semitic, as well as anti-ethnic and anti-immigrant sentiment. Despite official editorial policies to the contrary, several mainstream newspapers made gratuitous mention of individuals' Jewishness when it had nothing to do with the story, and continued to reinforce ethnic stereotypes, for example, during the visit of the American radio personality Howard Stern. Also, in Quebec, the Jewish and ethnic communities continued to be targets of the media. In Fredricton, New Brunswick, the Daily Gleaner was reproached by representatives of the Jewish community for its continued anti-Semitic and anti-Israel coverage of issues such as Nazi War criminals. In 1997 the paper persisted in publishing unsigned, undocumented letters to the editor, which in some cases were purely anti-Semitic diatribe.

ATTITUDES TO THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

Bradley Smith of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) targeted American and Canadian university newspapers with an advertisement offering $50,000 to anyone who could arrange to have his Holocaust denial documentary shown on cable television. Several universities turned down the ad, but it was published by The Varsity, the main newspaper of the University of Toronto, and early in 1998 by The Cord at the Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. The editorial department of The Varsity was quick to catch its error in publishing the ad and has instituted a tougher vetting process. At the same time, the money paid for the ad was donated to the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Toronto and the following issue of the paper featured a strong apology and several op-ed pieces on the issue of Holocaust denial and hate propaganda.

RESPONSES TO EXTREMISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

In another case, involving Ernst Zündel, who had successfully appealed to a federal court regarding a Security Intelligence Review Committee decision deeming him a security threat (see ASW 1996/7), the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the federal court verdict in 1997, making it ultimately impossible for Zündel to become a Canadian citizen.

In addition, 1997 was a watershed year for the formulation of strategies to deal with Internet regulation in Canada. A human rights tribunal convened on October 14 to hear a complaint against Ernst Zündel's Internet website, the Zundelsite. The complaint charges Zündel under Section 13(1) of the Human Rights Code which prevents the use of a telephonic device for the exposure of an identifiable group to hatred or contempt. Intervenors include the League, Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal and the Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario region. This case is the first to apply existing Canadian legislation to the Internet and is likely to result in recommendations for new legislation dealing exclusively with the Internet. It also advances the movement toward having Holocaust denial defined as hate propaganda. The case will continue well into 1998, and regardless of the outcome will be significant in terms of legislation regulating the Internet.

B'nai B'rith Canada hosted an International Symposium on Hate on the Internet, during September 7-9, 1997 in Toronto, Canada. One hundred invited participants, including government and police officials and representatives from the fields of law, human rights, computer technology, academia, education and community action, engaged in an in-depth exploration of hate on the Internet for the purpose of drafting recommendations designed to counter this growing phenomenon.

In the wake of the 1996 Canadian visit by Louis Farrakhan to promote the Nation of Islam, the League has increased efforts in some parts of the country to counter black anti-Semitism and to promote black/Jewish relations. In Montreal, the research phase of a joint project between the League and the Black Coalition was completed in 1997; the report "Minorities, Youth and the Employment Crisis in Montreal," will recommend an action plan to address the increasing problem of minority youth unemployment in Quebec.