Toronto, Canada – Just months after Ontario decided not to charge a Toronto man with hate crimes, partly because he was undergoing rehabilitation, he is again being investigated over his online writings on a website called Filthy Jewish Terrorists.
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Police are probing Salman Hossain’s recent postings on the Arizona-based Internet site on which he writes harshly about Jews, Christians and moderate Canadian Muslims, whom he calls “traitors.”
He refers to Jews as “diseased and filthy,” “the scum of the earth,” “psychotic” and “mass murderers” and writes that “a genocide should be perpetrated against the Jewish populations of North America and Europe.”
In addition, he blames Jews for terrorist plots, such as the Toronto 18 bomb conspiracy, which was the work of Islamist extremists. He also praises God for “the victorious resistance operations” in Afghanistan.
Abbee Corb of the Hate Crimes Extremism Investigative Team, which is made up of representatives of 13 Ontario municipal police forces, confirmed yesterday that an investigation is underway.
“We are, as a team, collectively looking at this individual. As far as what investigations we have underway, of course that information I can’t release because that could compromise any investigations that are ongoing.
“However, you can rest assured that the hate crimes extremism investigative team — again 13 police services — is looking into him and investigating him as we speak.”
In an email exchange with a National Post reporter, Mr. Hossain was unapologetic. Asked about the investigation, he responded that, “Your hate laws are only being used to stop the truth from being spoken.”
“I don’t fear telling the truth and I don’t answer to racist genocidal Jews who want to call ME a hater, when Jews hate ALL NON-JEWS. It’s not my fault you people rape babies, then cry foul when someone exposes it,” Mr. Hossain responded.
Canada’s hate crimes law prohibits supporting or promoting genocide, as well as the communication of statements (other than in private conversation) that wilfully promote hatred against an identifiable group.
“This is a slam dunk,” Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said after reading the Internet postings. He called for an immediate investigation and was joined by writer Tarek Fatah, one of several so-called Muslim “traitors” named on the site.
“It’s pretty hard to believe that in the 20th century there is a blogger right here in Canada who calls for the genocide of the Jewish people. Can it get any worse than that?” Mr. Farber said.
Dave Ross, a spokesman for the Ontario Provincial Police, said yesterday the Hate Crimes and Extremism Unit of the force’s anti-terror section “was aware of a site and is conducting an investigation.”
Counterterrorism investigators first took notice of Mr. Hossain, who claims to know the ringleader of the Toronto 18 plot, three years ago after he posted messages online supporting terrorist attacks in Canada.
“We should do that here in Canada as well,” he wrote at the time. “Kill as many Western soldiers as well so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters … if there were any planned attacks against Canadian/ American soldiers by ‘Muslim militants’ in Canadian soil, I’d support it.”
This man is being harassed by his government for expressing his hateful, racist, antisemitic views. Every American should come to this man’s defense… even if we have to fight hold down the vomit to do it. We have plenty of these kinds of groups here in America too. We should never support a government stifling this man’s free speech. They have every right to monitor him from a legal distance, but not to harass him. Imagine if the government started visiting some of the people who write horrible things toward ALL Muslims, or as I have seen, the disgusting things said about the African American people living in parts of Brooklyn.
If he is guilty of a crime, then charge him with a crime. Convict him. Lock away the key. If he is guilty only of putting his thoughts on paper, leave him alone.
As hard as it is, we must stand up not for him, and not for his words, but for his right as a free man to speak his mind, no matter how sick it is.
Face it! Freedom of speech is not a free pass to saying, promoting whatever one wants! The borderline is between just talking and incitement. Including incitement in freedom of speech would be a free pass for Hitler etc. to organize a whole army while only “talking his mind”. which would make it to late to fight when too many people have been incited and organized by the inclusion of incitement in freedom of speech. For this reason every democracy has drawn the line by incitement.
“Free speech,” as a concept, was meant to allow for dissident voices to be heard about public policy. Challenging the government, bringing facts to light, arguing about laws and regulations. In practice, it’s hard to establish a line between simply hateful speech with no public policy (“Jews are traitors”) and hateful speech about public policy (“Obama is a communist”). The slippery slope of limiting freedom of speech has led the US to take a very cautious stance. Other countries try a more nuanced approach.
There is no “absolute” free speech. There are exceptions. The classic example: one can’t yell “fire” in a movie theater. The Canadian laws are just an extension of that exception.
Canadian laws are not subject to the U.S. Constitution. As I understand it, the rights and freedoms in the U.S. Constitution are absolute. That is not the case in Canada. Canada has its own Charter of Rights and Freedoms that recognizes freedom of expression. However, Section 1 of that same Charter states that all of the rights and freedoms recognized in the Charter are “subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” Clearly, Canadian law recognizes that there are limits on all freedoms. As noted earlier, yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre should not be protected expression. That is a reasonable limit on freedom of expression. Similarly, calling for the genocide of a defined people should be illegal and any law that says so can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.