Canadian Human Rights Act complaint against Canada Post and the Government of Canada

!Canada Post and the Government of Canada are regularly and knowingly delivering misogynist,
racist, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and homophobic hate propaganda into Toronto-area homes. Canada
Post and the Government of Canada are regularly and knowingly exposing Canada Post workers to
misogynist, racist, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and homophobic hate propaganda in the workplace.

!The hate propaganda is in the form of an unsealed tabloid newspaper called Your Ward News.

While the exact circulation is unknown, it is understood that thousands of copies of each edition are
delivered.
Media reports (globalnews.ca/news/1906577/canada-post-workers-upset-over-having-todeliver-controversial-newspaper) confirm that Canada Post has been aware of the discriminatory
content since the first month they began delivering Your Ward News in March 2015 when employee
members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers objected. Further, on 28 May 2015 both Canada
Post and the Government of Canada were put on notice that they were distributing hate propaganda
after Arthur Potts, MPP for Beaches-East York wrote a formal complaint to Canada Post CEO
Deepak Chopra and Lisa Raitt, then Minister responsible for Canada Post.

!Those involved with Your Ward News include the following:

!1. James Sears (aka Dimitrious Sarafopoulos, aka Dmitri the Loser).
!2.
!
!3.

In 1993, Mr. Sears was

stripped of his licence to practice medicine for sexual misconduct by the College of Physicians
and Surgeons (Ontario) - see: Ontario (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario) v. Sears,
1993 ONCPSD 9, <http://canlii.ca/t/glgkv>. In addition to his other bigotry, Mr. Sears repeatedly
advocates the rape of women and states that fantasizing about KILLING YOUR WIFE is
perfectly normal and healthy! [sic] through his Twitter account.
Gary Schipper - previously a leading member of the neo-Nazi Heritage Front group and already
convicted of contempt of Federal Court for disseminating hate propaganda. See: Canada (Human
Rights Commission) v. Heritage Front, [1994] 3 FCR 710, <http://canlii.ca/t/4glw>. In a decision
involving Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel, Justice Blais of the Federal Court noted the following
about the Heritage Front:
[39] If, as Mr. Zndel said, the Heritage Front, a group described as the most powerful
racist gang to hit Canada since the real Nazis back in the Dirty Thirties, was not a good
idea, then why would he hire the president of that organization, [Marc] Lemire, as a
part-time and then full-time employee in his own personal residence?
Zndel, Re, 2005 FC 295 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/1jv4z>
Michelle Erstikaitis - reported in the media as an admirer of child-killer and rapist Paul Bernardo
and one of the few women declared a dangerous offender under the Criminal Code. At the
time she was declared a dangerous offender, the Toronto Star wrote:
In June 1999, Erstikaitis was sentenced to two years probation after
she was convicted of threatening to kill Debbie Mahaffy, the mother
of Leslie Mahaffy, 14, one of three girls murdered by Bernardo and
Karla Homolka.
www.thestar.com/news/crime/2011/04/07/female_
paul_bernardo_fan_named_dangerous_offender.html

!
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While the back issues of Your Ward News that Canada Post and the Government of Canada are
responsible for having distributed are replete with bigotry, samples are provided below of only the
four most recent dating from December 2015 to Spring 2016. If there is any difficulty in accessing
the back issues at the URL links provided, please advise and I will forward PDF copies.

!Spring 2016 edition

https://issuu.com/yourwardnews/docs/ywn_spring16
!- page 3 openly acknowledges the paper advocates Nazism

- refers to opponents of the newsletter as faggy

- page 8 describes a named individual as a boy-hungry faggot
- pages 10 and 11 engage in Holocaust denial and general anti-Jewish bigotry
- page 19 repeatedly refers to individuals as faggots, cripples, spazzes, Mr. Sears states that if
elected to municipal council he would yell SUCK MY COCK [sic] to Mayor John Tory, refers to a
named woman as a CUNT, and mocks sexual assault victims

!February 2016 edition

https://issuu.com/yourwardnews/docs/ywn_feb_2016
!- the front page image and text display gross bigotry against the Muslim community (as does the rest
of the article at p.4)
- pp 8/9/11 contain bizarre allegations that Sophie Gregoire is a member of a Satanic cult, drank
menstrual blood and repeated references to "fags/faggots", homophobic abuse, "Satanic Jew" as well
as encouraging sexual harassment of women
- the entire newsletter contains misogynist language repeatedly referring to women as "sluts", that
women are inferior to men, that a named woman had "grope worthy breasts"
- p19 - the letters to the editor section refers to a named woman as a "cunt" and promotes Holocaust
denial

!January 2016 edition

https://issuu.com/yourwardnews/docs/ywnjan16
!- the cover image and text display bigotry against the Filipino community

- p 2 refers to women as "cunts"

- pp 7/10/11/13 promote Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish bigotry with Mr. Faed's ad appearing on p7
- p15 refers to women as "dykey gals" and a named woman as likely having been sexually abused as
a child and one who enjoys sexual assault - further, that she was a "feral shrew" in need of
"domestication"
- p16 includes anti-Jewish bigotry
- p19 again refers to "fags" and a named woman as a "cunt"

!December 2015 issue

https://issuu.com/yourwardnews/docs/ywn_dec15_final
!- p3 repeatedly describes a named woman as an "attention whore"

- Mr. Sears also indicates that he is seeking a "token Jew" to write a column for the newspaper but
articles must not insult his "Holy Trinity" including Adolf Hitler and National Socialism
- p6 describes African-Americans as "Negroes"
- refers to a transgendered individual as a "FAGGOT"
- p7 immediately above Mr. Faed's ad refers to Caitlin Jenner as a "fag in drag" and goes on to state
that "During rational times in human history, Adolf Hitler's 'natural order' would prevail."
- p11 argues that Jews and/or Israelis were responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks
- pp16-17 and 19 engage in extensive Holocaust denial

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!Additional evidence of the fact that the actions of Canada Post and the Government of Canada are

unlawful under the Canadian Human Rights Act is that they are also in breach of Canadas
international legal obligations prohibiting the dissemination of hate propaganda. After witnessing the
horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, Canada and the international community came together in
an attempt to establish a legal framework through documents such as the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and later agreements like the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination to ensure that such carnage would never again take place.

!Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by UN General Assembly

10 October 1948) states that:
! All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
!Article 7 holds that:
! All are equal before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are
entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in
violation of this Declaration and against any incitement
to such discrimination.

!Concerned with the enduring plague of racism, the United Nations later enacted the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Convention, Canada as a party;

Under Article 4 of the

(a) Shall declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority
or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, as well as all acts of violence or incitement to such
acts against any race or group of persons of another colour or ethnic origin, and also the provision
of any assistance to racist activities, including the financing thereof;

(b) Shall declare illegal and prohibit organizations, and also organized and all other propaganda
activities, which promote and incite racial discrimination, and shall recognize participation in such
organizations or activities as an offence punishable by law;

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,

7 March 1966, Can. T.S. 1970 No. 28, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M., art. 4.

Page !3 of 4!

As part of the legal duties the Government of Canada assumed when it acceded to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 19 August 1976, Canada undertook to make hate
propaganda illegal:

!Article 20 General comment on its implementation

1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.

2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination,
hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by
General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966
entry into force 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 49

!The Government of Canada has the legal obligation to stop the dissemination of hate propaganda, not
profit from its distribution through Canada Post.
!In accordance with s. 23 of the Canada Post Corporation Act, Canada Post acts as an Agent of the
Government of Canada. The Government of Canada is therefore responsible for its actions.
!Under the circumstances, on 2 March 2016, I wrote directly to Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra and

Judy Foote, Minister responsible for Canada Post requesting in the strongest possible terms that they
bring an immediate end to the discriminatory conduct and indicating the legal grounds in the
Canadian Human Rights Act and Canada Posts own Non-mailable Matter Regulations
(laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/SOR-90-10.pdf) requiring them to do so. I have received no response
from Judy Foote as of the filing of this complaint, but on 10 March 2016, I received a response from
John West, General Counsel for Canada Post confirming their prior, publicly stated position that they
would not discontinue distribution of Your Ward News (copy attached). Mr. West cited two prior
legal cases that are of no relevance to my complaint to them. I have attempted to stop the
discriminatory conduct by Canada Post and the Government of Canada at the lowest possible level
and they have refused thus forcing me to bring my concerns to the Canadian Human Rights
Commission.

!Canada Post and the Government of Canada have repeatedly refused to stop distributing material

they know is misogynist, racist, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and homophobic hate propaganda. By
knowingly distributing hate propaganda and profiting from it, they have engaged in discriminatory
conduct. I confirm that I have reasonable grounds to believe that the knowing distribution of hate
propaganda into the workplace and public by Canada Post and the Government of Canada is in
violation of one or more of sections 5, 7, 12, and 14 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

!Sincerely,
!!
!

Richard Warman
Barrister and Solicitor
Ottawa
www.richardwarman.ca

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