The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ordered a fine of $4,000 against an Ottawa man who operated a website and internet forum called the Canadian Nazi Party.
Bobby James Wilkinson has also been ordered to “cease and desist” from communicating or helping to communicate messages that would likely expose people to hatred or contempt for being part of an identifiable group protected by law against discrimination, tribunal member Athanasios D. Hadjis ruled Tuesday following a hearing in January.
Wilkinson did not attend the hearing.
Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman filed the complaint against Wilkinson and the Canadian Nazi Party, saying the website would expose “mentally disabled persons, Jews, Hispanics, blacks, gays and lesbians, Roma (a.k.a. gypsies), Pakistanis, Arabs, Chinese, and Japanese, to hatred and/or contempt.” He cited materials mainly posted in 2003.
Hadjis wrote that he was “not persuaded that the ‘Canadian Nazi Party’ ever existed in any form nor that it was anything more than Mr. Wilkinson’s alter ego” and deemed Wilkinson solely responsible.
The site included discussions with titles such as “America’s media controlled by Jews” and stated that “Prerequisits [sic] for joining the National Nazi Movement” were that participants “love your race” and were of “pure white background.”
The commission counsel argued that “not only did the messages attribute numerous and varied criminal acts to the [targeted] groups, described them as corrupt and devious, but some messages went so far as to openly advocate the extermination of Jews, blacks and other non-whites,” and Hadjis said the evidence supported that argument.
He added that it does not matter whether Wilkinson actually wrote the messages himself, as he made the decision to post the material.