The Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) is one of a number of groups run by

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack r ...

and

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

Paul Fromm. Established in 1981, CAFE states that it is committed to the promotion and defense of total freedom of speech, and publishes the ''Free Speech Monitor'' ten times a year. Although it began in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, it has also been incorporated in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Opponents have accused CAFE of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, arguing that it does not merely support the free speech rights of

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

groups, but also promotes their views. CAFE has criticized what it considers injustices against

white people White is a Race (human categorization), racialized classification of people and a Human skin color, skin color specifier, generally used for people of Ethnic groups in Europe, European origin, although the definition can vary depending on con ...

in Canada, and has argued that Canadian laws do not robustly defend the free speech of whites, and are too weighted in favour of minorities. CAFE has campaigned (along with the defunct white nationalist groups Canadian Heritage Alliance and Northern Alliance) for the release of Brad Love, whom it claimed was jailed for expressing his nativist sentiments. CAFE has also campaigned for the release of

Holocaust deniers Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

Ernst Zündel Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel (; 24 April 1939 – 5 August 2017) was a German neo-Nazi publisher and pamphleteer of Holocaust denial literature.

and

David Irving David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938) is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany. His works include '' The Destruction of Dresden'' (1 ...

, and against human rights lawyer

Richard Warman Richard Warman is an Ottawa-based lawyer who is active in human rights law. Warman worked for the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) from July 2002 until March 2004. He is best known as the primary instigator of actions related to Internet ...

and the

Canadian Human Rights Commission The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) was established in 1977 by the government of Canada. It is empowered under the ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' to investigate and to try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the pro ...

. On November 23, 2007, Ontario Superior Court Justice Monique Métivier ruled that Fromm and CAFE had libelled Warman, and ordered them to pay $30,000 in damages and to post full retractions within ten days on all the websites on which the defamatory comments were posted. The

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal or ONCA) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, also the seat of the Law Soci ...

upheld the judgment in December 2008 with damages being raised to $40,000, as Fromm was ordered to pay an additional $10,000 towards Warman's legal costs.Makin, Kirk,

, ''Globe and Mail'', December 16, 2008 Warman said the appeal court's ruling "sends the message that those who try to use the cloak of free speech to poison other people's reputations through lies and defamation do so at their own peril." CAFE was an intervenor in ''Oger v Whatcott'', a hearing before the

British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal is a quasi-judicial human rights body in British Columbia, Canada. It was established under British Columbia's ''Human Rights Code''. It is responsible for "accepting, screening, mediating and adjudicat ...

regarding harassment of Ms. Oger by Mr. Whatcott, who Ms. Oger alleged ran a very public campaign of harassment against her on the basis of her gender identity. CAFE supported Mr. Whatcott's right to make those statements, and adopted many of Mr. Whatcott's statements in its submissions to the Tribunal. On March 27, 2019, the Tribunal ruled that CAFE's behaviour as an intervenor was "improper", and that its submissions were "inflammatory, derogatory, disrespectful and inappropriate".

References

External links

Canadian Association for Free Expression

Hate Groups and Bigotry's Fellow Travellers
- by Manuel Prutschi, Canadian Jewish Congress

Canadian Association for Free Expression - Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups
- Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries {{Hate in Canada Neo-Nazism in Canada Neo-Nazi organizations

See also

References

External links