Canadian Jewish Congress Supports Bill to Punish Hate Propaganda

A bill to curb the dissemination of hate propaganda, now before the Canadian Senate, was strongly endorsed in a brief presented by a Canadian Jewish Congress delegation to a special Senate committee on hate propaganda here today. The 22-page document, the first major presentation to the Senate committee on the subject, urged adoption of the legislation with only one important addition, “the inclusion of the category of religion among the “identifiable groups’ whose protection against hate propaganda is the major aim of the Government’s legislative proposal.”

The CJC brief defended the proposed bill against critics who have called it a “gag law.” Noting that the bill does not envisage “prior censorship” and that under its provisions “no public official or policeman has the right to ban any written material or to prevent a speaker from expressing himself,” the CJC brief said that “talk of a ‘gag law’ or of capricious and dictatorial banning of speakers or articles is irresponsible and unwarranted.”

The eight member delegation which presented the brief was headed by Michael Garber, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, and included Saul Hayes, executive vice president and Louis Herman, national chairman of the CJC – B’nai B’rith Community Relations Committee. The brief stated that it represented the views of “the Jewish community across Canada.”

In support of the proposed legislation, it cited a statement by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Ontario to the effect that “the power of the State must be invoked to protect any group which is subject to the vilification which has been expressed…in various parts of the world.” It also referred to three psychological and psychiatric studies on the lasting effect that racial hate propaganda has on its victims.