| Doug Christie | |
|---|---|
| Leader of the Western Block Party | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office November 20, 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | First Leader |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1946 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Political party | Western Block Party |
| Residence | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Douglas Hewson "Doug" Christie, Jr. (born April 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and far-right political activist based in Victoria, British Columbia.
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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 antisemitic 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:
Christie posted material on the former website operated by Bernard Klatt, on what had been called "Canada's most notorious source of hate propaganda."[2][3]
He 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 ran in the riding of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca in British Columbia, finishing fifth in a field of six.
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.[4]
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."[4]
On 11 September 2007, The Law Society of British Columbia issued a hearing report[5] finding that Christie had committed professional misconduct in his civil litigation practice. Christie had been cited for his role in preparing and signing certain improper documents headed ‘Subpoena for Documents’ and having them served on parties uninvolved in the litigation. Christie was seeking, from a hospital, a bank, and a traveller cheque company, private health and financial records. In British Columbia, according to expert testimony heard by the Law Society’s hearing panel, “litigants are not entitled to compel testimony from a third party prior to trial without a court order nor to compel the production of documents from a third party prior to trial or from a third party not called on a trial without a court order.” The Law Society hearing panel found that some of Christie’s testimony in his own defence was not believable. The panel found that Christie’s conduct was dishonourable, and that in his zeal to pursue the case on behalf of his clients, Christie had overlooked his professional responsibilities.
On 17 December 2007, the Law Society’s panel gave its decision on the penalty to be imposed on Christie.[6][7] The panel noted that prior to this incident, Christie’s professional conduct record had been unblemished for over 30 years. The panel accepted that Christie’s professional misconduct arose out of stress and an excessive zeal to help his client, rather than a desire for personal gain. The panel therefore imposed a fine on Christie of $2,500. The panel ordinarily would have ordered Christie to pay the Law Society’s costs and expenses of the hearing, which in this case amounted to approximately $50,000. However, the panel had evidence that Christie’s annual income over the past five years had averaged slightly over $50,000 net before tax. Therefore the panel required Christie to pay $20,000 in respect of costs, rather than the full amount.
| By-election on 29 September 1986
Electoral district of Pembina |
|||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive Conservative | Walter van de Walle | 16,525 | |||
| New Democrat | Ivor Dent | 16,251 | |||
| Liberal | Chris Seirson | 6,505 | |||
| Independent | Doug Christie | 2,765 | |||
| Independent | Ernie Jamison | 1,241 | |||
| Confederation of Regions | Elmer Knutson | 926 | |||
| Independent | Anne McBride | 423 | |||
| Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca - Canadian federal election, 2006 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||
| Liberal | Keith Martin | 20,761 | 34.93% | -0.36% | $79,041 | |
| New Democrat | Randall Garrison | 18,595 | 31.29% | +0.67% | $75,094 | |
| Conservative | Troy DeSouza | 16,327 | 27.47% | +3.31% | $83,818 | |
| Green | Mike Robinson | 3,385 | 5.70% | -3.54% | $1,911 | |
| Western Block Party | Doug Christie | 272 | 0.46% | - | $98 | |
| Canadian Action | David Piney | 89 | 0.15% | -0.10% | $3,523 | |
| Total valid votes | 59,429 | 100.00% | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 112 | 0.2% | ||||
| Turnout | 59,541 | 68.9% | ||||
| Preceded by Party Created |
Leader of the Western Block Party 2005–present |
Succeeded by incumbent |