FOR
OUR PEOPLE. A weekly show by Canada's leading free speech advocate - Paul
Fromm.
OTTAWA, October 17, 2007. This afternoon, by unanimous consent, the House
of Commons past a motion banning free speech activists Alexan Kulbashian
and Paul Fromm. Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression
from the House of Commons. The ban was put in place to thwart a press
conference scheduled for Friday at 1:30 in the Charles Lynch Room of the
Parliamentary Press Gallery.
Hansard records: "By unanimous consent, it was ordered, 'That this
House order that Alexan Kulbashian and Paul Fromm be denied admittance to
the precincts of the House of Commons during the present Session to
preserve the dignity and integrity of the House.'"
"MPs have acted with stunning arrogance and disregard for free
speech," Fromm charged. "After all, it's we taxpayers who foot
the bill for this place. It's not their private little club. 'Parliament'
from the French parler (to talk) should be a place of talk and free
exchange of ideas, not of the sort of suppression more in keeping with the
thuggish generals of Burma," he added.
"Our research shows that only five people have ever been banned from
the House of Commons," Mr. Fromm explained. "The first was Louis
Riel who led an armed rebellion against the Dominion Government in the
19th century. The other four were critics of the Canadian Human Rights
Commission. Controversial publisher Ernst Zundel and his lawyer Doug
Christie were banned from the precincts of the House of Commons in 1998
when they sought to hold a press conference to complain that the Canadian
Human Rights Commission does not consider truth a defence against charges
of hate."
Books won't stay banned.
They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of
history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The
only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.
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