Malcolm Ross, a former teacher in Moncton, New Brunswick, has lost an appeal against an order by the province’s human rights commission banishing him from the classroom because of his anti-Jewish views.
But in a decision announced last week, Justice Paul Creaghan of the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench did lift a gag order against Ross, allowing the former math and remedial reading teacher to resume his anti-Semitic writing and publishing.
The judgment deemed his writings a form of religious expression, protected by Canada’s Constitution. Creaghan agreed that Ross’ rights to freedom of expression had been limited.
“It’s a partial victory,” said Ross, 45, who is now in a non-teaching position with the District 15 School Board in Moncton. “It’s a personal vindication.”
Though an exemplary educator with 23 years experience, Ross was permanently barred from the classroom Aug. 29 by a provincial human rights panel on the basis of his anti-Semitic views.
In four books with titles like “Specter of Hate” and “Web of Deceit,” he wrote that a Jewish conspiracy exists to govern the world and undermine Christianity, and that the Holocaust is a hoax. Ross, however, never espoused his views in the classroom.
In 1988, David Attis, the father of a student at the school where Ross taught, filed a complaint with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission that Ross’ school district condoned his views by employing him.
Attis said the school board was using public funding to support a racist role model and to encourage the expression of anti-Jewish sentiment in the school and the community.
The commission appointed Brian Bruce, a Fredericton, New Brunswick, law professor, to investigate the complaint.
Ross’ lawyer, Douglas Christie, whose career includes defense of virtually every Canadian charged with anti-Semitic behavior, challenged the jurisdiction of the commission to hear the case. In 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the legal challenge, allowing the one-man tribunal to proceed.
Among those to testify against Ross at hearings last year were Attis’s daughter, Yona, and two of her classmates.
The New Brunswick Teachers Federation backed Ross’ right to freedom of expression.
Bruce’s decision was sharply critical of the school board, saying it allowed a “poisoned environment” to develop that led to discrimination against Jewish students.
At Ross’ appeal, Christie called his client “a classic example of a scapegoat.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
