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Douglas Hewson "Doug" Christie, Jr. (April 24, 1946 – March 11, 2013) was a Canadian lawyer and political activist based in Victoria, British Columbia who was known nationally for his defence of clients such as Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, former Nazi prison guard Michael Seifert and right wing extremist Paul Fromm among others. ==Career== Christie was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and graduated from the law school of the University of British Columbia in 1970. He was the founder and general counsel of the Canadian Free Speech League and was best known for defending individuals accused of Nazi war crimes or racist, anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi activity. He was also the founder and leader of the Western Canada Concept, a separatist party which ran in British Columbia and federally, and the Western Block Party, a right-wing federal political party advocating the separation of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba from Canadian Confederation. He first came to national attention as a lawyer in 1983 when he became James Keegstra's attorney after the schoolteacher was fired from his job and criminally charged with willfully promoting hatred by teaching his students that there was a Jewish conspiracy, along with spreading other antisemitic ideas. His defence of Keegstra brought him to the attention of Ernst Zündel who retained Christie in September 1984 to defend him against criminal charges related to Holocaust denial with co-counsel Barbara Kulaszka. Christie enlisted the assistance of outspoken civil libertarian Dr. Gary Botting, who in 1984 had published a book on George Orwell and Jehovah's Witnesses.〔Heather and Gary Botting, ''The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.〕 Christie subpoenaed Dr. Botting as an expert witness to both the Zündel trial in Toronto and the Keegstra trial in Red Deer Alberta, where Botting had conducted a survey demonstrating that Keegstra could not get a fair trial in Red Deer because of pretrial publicity. The Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the judge should have allowed Botting's evidence to be heard. Later, Botting became the first recipient of the George Orwell Free Speech Award after giving up his teaching post as a professor of English at Red Deer College and entering law school. He eventually articled for Christie in Victoria, from where he worked on several of Christie's most notorious cases. However, Botting subsequently went to great lengths to distance himself from Christie. "It is clear to me that your Canadian Free Speech League is merely a front for an anti-semitic, Pro-Nazi agenda." Botting wrote in a public letter to Christie, continuing: "In the Canadian Free Speech League, the only opinions truly allowed are those which conform to your own. And those opinions, as you well know, are antisemitic and almost blatantly pro-Nazi. It is no coincidence that both you and Ernst Zündel usually celebrate your birthdays on April 20, Hitler's Birthday. It is no coincidence that most of the Canadian Free Speech League annual awards ceremonies have been held as close to that date as possible."〔http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/one-down-%E2%80%93-racist-lawyer-doug-christie-dies-cancer/16735〕 Christie would act as Zündel's attorney in several cases over the subsequent two decades up to Zündel's deportation from Canada in 2005. Christie's advocacy on behalf of Keegstra and Zündel led to him acting as legal counsel in a number of notable cases involving far-right figures including: * Ernst Zündel * Terry Long, former leader of the Aryan Nations in Canada; * Malcolm Ross of New Brunswick who, like Keegstra, was a teacher fired for anti-Semitic activity; * three alleged leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Manitoba; * Rudy Stanko of the World Church of the Creator; * Tony McAleer after he was charged with broadcasting hate speech over the phone and online; * John Ross Taylor of the Western Guard Party and Aryan Nations; * Imre Finta who was alleged to be a Nazi war criminal and collaborator (see R. v. Finta); * Doug Collins, a late newspaper columnist brought before the British Columbia Human Rights Commission for antisemitic and racist comments; * Paul Fromm, head of the far-right "Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform" and "Canadians for Freedom of Expression", and participant in neo-Nazi and racist gatherings, who was fired from his job as a teacher for his political activity; * Lady Jane Birdwood, a British follower of Oswald Mosley and distributor of hate propaganda; * Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front; * David Ahenakew, who acknowledged making antisemitic comments in a 2002 interview with the ''Saskatoon StarPhoenix'' * Jack Klundert, a Windsor, Ontario optometrist who does not believe the Constitution of Canada grants the Federal Government the power to collect income tax Christie posted material on the former website operated by Bernard Klatt, on what had been called "Canada's most notorious source of hate propaganda." In addition to his extensive work on freedom of expression cases, Christie participated in wide range of causes touching on issues of individual liberties more generally. He represented numerous individuals in civil actions against the police, in an effort to ensure police accountability, and in 1987 successfully represented Gary Botting in a defamation suit against Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). "There is a growing gulf between the police and public trust, which can only be fixed and crossed with any hope of restoration of faith when the police are judged for their conduct by the public themselves and not by their constant co-workers in the system itself," Christie wrote in a letter to the Victoria Times-Colonist. "The essential ingredient of a society where citizens and police are in agreement on the enforcement of the law is simply that the law applies to police and citizens in equal measure. The police cannot be above the law. With the present system of accountability, that impression is well-founded." Christie also acted in child apprehension cases, most notably that of Paul and Zabeth Bayne, a Hope, BC couple whose children were seized by the Ministry of Children and Family Development for four years, then eventually returned.〔http://www.mychilliwacknews.com/blog/view/18138〕 From 2007 to 2010, Christie represented Bruce and Donna Montague in a constitutional challenge of Canada's gun registry and other firearms laws.〔http://www.brucemontague.ca/html/0382.html〕 The constitutional challenge was ultimately dismissed by the Ontario Court of Appeal, but Christie continued to represent the Montagues in their efforts to resist civil and criminal forfeiture applications by the Crown.〔http://www.brucemontague.ca/html/0434.html〕 In January 2012, Christie became the first lawyer to successfully challenge an application under British Columbia's ''Civil Forfeiture Act'', when the BC Supreme Court found that the retroactive forfeiture of a truck subsequent to a criminal prosecution was "clearly not in the interests of justice." This decision was upheld on appeal. In September, 2012, Christie successfully defended Terry Tremaine, a Regina math instructor charged under Section 319(2) of the ''Criminal Code'', by establishing that there had been unreasonable delay in bringing the case against him to trial. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Doug Christie (lawyer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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