At the forefront of protecting Canadian civil liberties since 1981

 

Battles for Freedom

ARA'S CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT AGAINST CAFE & C-FAR

Certainly, we're not the only populist group attacked by the thugs and terrorists of Anti--Racist Action (ARA). However, the ARA and its affiliates -- unfortunately, somewhat flush with $16,000 in tax dollars in 1996 -- have taken a number of steps to restrict our free speech and the rights of people to listen to what we might have to say. * December, 1995 -- about 30 ARA punks storm a private dinner/meeting at the Europe Restaurant in Toronto. They spit at the owner and at some of us. They throw food at us, curse, threaten and slap an elderly lady. Police eventually arrive, but permit them to pound on the window, so intimidating the restaurant owner that the meeting must be relocated. * March 15, 1996 -- Edmonton. The self-styled Anti-Fascist League, apparently now ARA's Edmonton branch, threatens the owner of the Best Western City Centre Hotel to try to get him to cancel a meeting by the Canadian Association for Free Expression ironically on threats to freedom of speech in Canada. A riot is promised. The owner caves in and cancels this free speech meeting. The meeting is relocated. * February 10, 1997. The ARA's Radio Antifa -- that's Anti-Fascist -- gloated at the imminent firing of Paul Fromm from his job as a teacher for his criticisms of multiculturalism. "Hopefully, it will reduce his income, reduce the amount of money he has to spend on stuff like this. ... Just because he loses his job that doesn't mean he'll discontinue his activities. Won't that leave more time on his hands to pursue a white supremacist agenda? And doesn't that mean that anti-racists will have to increase community action to shut him down? Definitely. That's a good idea. Increase community action. Go for it!" Considering ARA's violent past, the threat to "shut him down" seems a clear call to illegal activity. * February 28, 1997 in Vancouver, local punk anarchists try to storm a Canadian Association for Free Expression meeting. They are repulsed. The ARA's On theProwl (Spring, 1997) states: "Vancouver antifas were ready with a 'welcoming party'. ... They monkeywrenched his smooth plans and fucked up Fromm's meeting." The piece goes on to chortle over the fact that Fromm was assaulted and knocked to the ground. * The Spring 1997 issue of the ARA's On the Prowl clearly threatens C-FAR. "Remember ... a nazi is a nazi, and the only good nazi is a dead nazi. ... Now it's up to militant antifas around the country to deny this man any space. ... From now on ... Paul belongs in the pavement." We must remember that the ARA is an organization whose webpage reprints a call by Demanarchie, a Montreal anarchist paper, to "torch every Domino's pizza on the planet." (Toronto Sun, June 22, 1997)