James Keegstra
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James "Jim" Keegstra is a far-right Canadian political figure, and former public school teacher. Keegstra was convicted of hate speech. He appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court; it received substantial international attention, and became a landmark legal case.
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[edit] Background
Keegstra was an auto mechanic, a former mayor, and a high school teacher in the town of Eckville, Alberta [1]. In 1984, Keegstra was stripped of his teaching certificate and charged under the Criminal Code of Canada with "wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group" by teaching his social studies students that the Holocaust was a fraud and that Jews are "treacherous, evil and responsible for depressions, anarchy and war." He attempted to have this charge quashed as a violation of his freedom of expression; this motion was denied, and he was convicted at trial.
[edit] Supreme Court Appeal
Keegstra appealed this conviction, claiming that it was in violation of Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This section guarantees "freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication." Keegstra also challenged his conviction on the grounds that Section 319(3) of the Criminal Code of Canada, which states that a person cannot be convicted of promoting hatred if she or he establishes that the statement is true, was a violation of Section 11(d) of the Charter. That section guarantees "the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal."
The appeal ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of R. v. Keegstra. In December of 1990, the Court upheld Keegstra's conviction, ruling that the law's prohibition of hate propaganda was constitutional.
[edit] Sentencing
At his original trial, Keegstra was given a fine of $5000. A subsequent decision by the Alberta Court of Appeal reduced that to a one-year suspended sentence, one year of probation, and 200 hours of community service work. [2]. While the Supreme Court upheld the original conviction and the constitutionality of the law, they did not restore the original sentence.
[edit] Other
Keegstra was also active in the Social Credit Party of Canada, and ran unsuccessfully for the party's leadership in 1986.
[edit] See also
- Doug Christie (lawyer) - Keegstra's lawyer, still an active political figure
[edit] References
- Echoes of Auschwitz News Report on Holocaust Education
- Lee, Robert Mason. "Keegstra's Children." Saturday Night 100 (May 1985): 38-46.
