An Authentic Canadian Hero For Our Times
"I'm a WASP boy from small-town Ontario" is the way Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman describes himself. Those who understand his mission acclaim him as one of Canada's finest and bravest citizens. His enemies, understandably those whom his legal actions target, claim he suppresses their freedom of speech. He has received any number of death threats.His determined lodging of complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against neo-Nazis and white supremacists has resulted in a body of jurisprudence ensuring Canadian law applies to online hate speech originating from within Canada. In pursuing his relentless activities against the promotion of racial hatred, he has spent tens of thousands of his own money.
Mr. Warman scours the Internet for Canadian hate mongers. "Let's say you found out that somebody was calling for the genocide of your neighbour. Isn't it incumbent on everyone to say, 'it's not OK and that's got to be stopped?" he demands to know. "I don't really want to see my Jewish neighbours wiped out. I don't really want to see my black neighbours wiped out, or anyone else who's among the target group."
Mr. Warman had relatives who fought fascist Germany in WWII. "It's really a betrayal of all the veterans and those who contributed in World War II to ignore the ongoing threat from those groups that are seeking to resurrect an idea that should have died 60 years ago in a bunker in Berlin."
As a lawyer he feels himself to be perfectly suited to hounding down those who spout the bile of hatred against others on any grounds, be they racial, colour, or any identifiable minorities. He works for the good of society, because he feels he owes it to society, and to his own sense of self-respect. To do otherwise, he claims would be to "betray my duty to the profession."
It's not just a Jewish or a Black problem, he maintains, when racists are busy spewing hatred and attempting to encourage those who love their Anglo-Saxon heritage to 'defend' it against the onslaught of all others seeking equality under the law. These are crimes against the community as a whole, he contends, and should be treated as such.
"There's never been a history of genocide that hasn't been preceded by demonization." He points out that the Supreme Court of Canada has been consistent in its denial of protection to all those who spout hatred toward identifiable groups. "It is so poisonous and so toxic to the multicultural nature of modern Canadian society that is it unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
In seven years of dedicated push-back and hoisting the cudgel of the law, Mr. Warman has been able to shut down the most egregious hate-filled web sites emanating from within Canada and to establish through the process that the Internet is not "somewhere where you could just run amok." He has demonstrated, amply, that under the law, people will be held accountable.
He's urging better funding to ensure that human rights bodies can continue to operate to the fullest of their potential. "If you're serious about saying society needs to be protected from hate speech, then you have to put your money where your mouth is." He's certainly done that personally.
Labels: Heroes and Villains, Justice
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 12, 2007
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