Two white supremacists fined for spreading hate on the net

Canadian Jewish News/March 23, 2006

Toronto — Two white supremacists violated Canada’s hate laws by posting offensive material about blacks and Jews on the Internet, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled earlier this month.

In a decision released March 10, the tribunal said the now-defunct websites contained messages that exposed non-Christians and non-whites to “hatred and contempt.”

The tribunal ordered the men, one of whom ran the web-hosting service that carried the sites, to stop spreading hate, imposed fines totalling $13,000 and awarded $5,000 to the complainant, Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman.

It was the first time a Canadian Internet web-hosting service was found financially liable for hate messages.

One of the men, Alexan Kulbashian of Toronto, ran a web-hosting service, AffordableSpace.com, that carried the messages. The ruling also ordered the service shut down.

Kulbashian and the other man, James Richardson of London, Ont., were associated with the “Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team” and www.tri-cityskins.com, which carried neo-Nazi and white supremacist material.

The two men were each fined $1,000, the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team was fined $3,000, and AffordableSpace.com was fined $3,000.

Warman was awarded $5,000 because he was the subject of personal attacks on the website.

The online messages included jokes about the Holocaust and songs about blacks, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities.

“Black persons and people of the Jewish faith are particularly laid open to ridicule, ill feelings or hostility, creating the right conditions for hatred or contempt against them to flourish,” the 48-page ruling states.

Warman, who launched the complaint in early 2002, told Canadian Press he was “ecstatic” about the decision. “It shows human rights laws work.”

He has has several more cases before the tribunal.

Bernie Farber, CEO of Canadian Jewish Congress, said the judgment “makes a huge and important statement.”

He said the sites in question were “ugly, vile and brutal.”

The tribunal has shut down Internet sites in a half-dozen cases in the past few years.

The first major Internet-related decision came in 2002, when it forced Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel to close his website.

This week, Canadian Jewish Congress is expected to unveil a link on its website (www.cjc.ca) to which the public may report hate-related websites and other online activity.

The link was expected to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21.