Defeating Hatred - Without Censorship

My latest Calgary Herald column looks at the decline of Calgary's racist skinhead movement and the factors that did - and did no - play a role in that decline:

A cursory glance at some of the national headlines from three or four years ago might have given one the impression that the neo-Nazi hordes were descending on Calgary and that the city had become a bastion for the racist skinhead movement.
Such a perception would be very much at odds with the spectacle of two meek (and very much non-skinhead) “white pride” advocates who briefly turned out for Saturday’s anti-racism rally at City Hall.
In fairness, however, if that had been the case in 2009, there likely would have been no headlines at all about racist skinheads in Calgary. As it was that year, several dozen skinheads and assorted racists did turn out to rally and ended up clashing with more than 400 anti-racist counter-protesters.
The Aryan Guard — as it was then known — certainly endeavoured to be as high profile as possible. The group did seem to be drawing recruits from other parts of the country, and the violent tendencies exhibited by many in the group were indeed of concern.
But by 2011, there were barely a dozen skinheads at their rally, and last year, there were none as a handful of them went to rally in Edmonton instead.
So while the panic of a few years ago may have been somewhat overblown, there’s no doubt that a neo-Nazi skinhead movement did exist in Calgary. But it’s also the case that this movement has all but petered out. That is a good news story worth celebrating and it’s also worth exploring why it happened.
One of the obvious reasons is the fact that some of the leaders of the movement are now behind bars. The group’s founder, Kyle McKee, remains in jail while he awaits trial on charges stemming from an alleged race-based assault in Edmonton. Two others have been implicated in a Calgary murder — one has pleaded guilty and another is awaiting trial.
The splintering of the movement and the subsequent infighting has obviously been a factor. It may also be that the young, angry and disenfranchised young men who are drawn to the movement have simply outgrown such views and moved on with their lives. In lieu of any leadership or organization, they are not being replaced.
We could also look to the scrutiny from city police, the pressure from anti-racist activists, and the simple fact that Calgary is a very diverse and tolerant city as other factors.
However, it’s worth noting the factors that did not play a role in the movement’s decline. This was achieved not through denying them the right to hold their annual rally, nor was it achieved through any other means of censorship.
If individuals or groups are engaged in criminal activity, then they should certainly be treated and targeted by police as criminals. The mere act of holding racist views is not criminal, nor should the act of expressing those views be criminal, either.
In this country, it potentially can be. The laws that give rise to that — the hate speech provisions of the Criminal Code and the sections of various human rights acts that deal with offensive speech — seem to be premised on the notion that more hate speech will lead to more hatred. Therefore, the response to hate speech in this country is often to censor it.
But no hate speech charges were ever laid against any of those involved in these racist rallies in Calgary. No human rights panels were ever asked to weigh in. Despite calls for the rallies to be blocked, city officials erred on the side of protecting freedom of expression and they were allowed to go ahead.
And despite the lack of any of this — or maybe even because of it — this movement is on life-support, if not already dead.
It could well be that the censorship approach merely serves to push such views underground, whereas allowing hatemongers to expose themselves for who they really are expedites the process of having their views wither and die.
Free speech can often be messy and unpleasant. But as we see time and time again in this city — and in this country — tolerance prevails.