Doug Christie (lawyer)

For the basketball player of the same name, see Doug Christie (basketball).

Douglas Hewson Christie, Jr., known as Doug Christie, (b. April 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and political activist based in Victoria, British Columbia.

Career

Christie was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and graduated from the law school of the University of British Columbia in 1970. He is the founder and general counsel of the Canadian Free Speech League and is best known for defending individuals accused of Nazi war crimes or racist, anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi activity. He is also the founder and leader of the Western Canada Concept, a separatist party of British Columbia and The Western Block Party, a right-wing political party advocating the separation of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba from Canadian Confederation. He was the founding leader of the national Western Canada Concept, but was removed from the leadership in 1981. He was subsequently denied membership in the party's Alberta branch. He first came to national attention as a lawyer in 1983 when he became James Keegstra's attorney after the schoolteacher was fired from his job and criminally charged with willfully promoting hatred by teaching his students that there was a Jewish conspiracy, along with spreading other anti-Semitic ideas. His defence of Keegstra brought him to the attention of Ernst Zündel who retained Christie in September 1984 to defend him against criminal charges related to Holocaust denial with co-counsel Barbara Kulaszka. Christie would act as Zündel's attorney in several cases over the subsequent two decades up to his deportation from Canada in 2005. Christie's advocacy on behalf of Keegstra and Zündel has led to him acting as legal counsel in a number of notable cases involving far-right figures including:

• Terry Long, former leader of the Aryan Nations in Canada;
• Malcolm Ross of New Brunswick who, like Keegstra, was a teacher fired for anti-Semitic activity;
• three alleged leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Manitoba;
• Rudy Stanko of the World Church of the Creator;
• Tony McAleer after he was charged with broadcasting hate speech over the phone and online;
• John Ross Taylor of the Western Guard Party and Aryan Nations;
• Imre Finta who was alleged to be a Nazi war criminal and collaborator (see R. v. Finta);
• Doug Collins, a late newspaper columnist brought before the British Columbia Human Rights Commission for anti-Semitic and racist comments;
• Paul Fromm, head of the far-right "Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform" and "Canadians for Freedom of Expression", and participant in neo-Nazi and racist gatherings, who was fired from his job as a teacher for his political activity;
• Lady Jane Birdwood, a British follower of Oswald Mosley and distributor of hate propaganda;
• Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front;
• David Ahenakew, who has acknowledged making anti-Semitic comments in a 2002 interview with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix

He later became leader of British Columbia's provincial WCC, and led it through provincial elections in that province through the 1980s and 1990s. Christie never won a seat at the provincial or federal level, nor did the BC WCC ever win any seats in the provincial elections it contested. Christie continues to run an organization with the "Western Canada Concept" name, but it is no longer a registered political party except at the provincial level in British Columbia, which has relatively lax party registration laws. In 2005, Christie announced his intention to form a new federal political party to be called the Western Block Party which would be a Western Canadian version of the Bloc Québécois in that its role in the Canadian House of Commons would be to act as a regional separatist party. The WCC and WBP are not affiliated with the Separation Party of Alberta or the Western Independence Party of Saskatchewan. Officials in these parties have distanced themselves from Christie - for example, they do not include links to the WCC or WBP on their websites even though the SPA and WIPS do link to one another. The WBP was officially registered with Elections Canada prior to the 2006 federal election. Christie is ran in the riding of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca in British Columbia, finishing fifth in a field of six.

Canadian Free Speech League

Christie is general counsel for an organization called the Canadian Free Speech League (CFSL), which has presented its "George Orwell Award" to controversial figures including BC columnist Doug Collins, who authored an article titled Swindler's List attacking Steven Spielberg's Holocaust film Schindler's List.[1]

Law Society of Upper Canada

The Law Society of Upper Canada looked into disciplining Christie for his conduct during the Imre Finta trial. The Society's discipline chair, Harvey Strosberg, declined to issue a complaint against Christie but stressed that Christie's remarks during the trial "clearly disclose that he has crossed the line separating counsel from client: he has made common cause with a small, lunatic, anti-Semitic fringe element in our society. We know who Mr. Christie is. Suffering Mr. Christie's words and opinions is part of the price one pays for upholding and cherishing freedom of speech in a free and democratic society. And society must be willing to accept this price. Mr. Christie's anti-Semitic comments were not akin to the cry of fire in a crowded theatre. His theatre was mostly empty." [2]

External links

• Doug Christie: Fascism Under Cover of Free Speech by David Lethbridge of the Bethune Institute.
• Western Block Party official site.
• Doug Christie's Website
• Website of the Western Canada Concept