Taxpayers you be the judge and jury!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post, "Big Brother's driver's licenses coming to Manitoba?"

Clare,

In my own Google searches, I was able to find a few web postings/article repostings which may be of interest to your readers:

(i) http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-
AmIndian&month=0406&week=d&msg=
39RLbeuvjMd6Sq43Eq6NqA&user=&pw=

"Metis Recants Saying Tory Official is Like Hitler: Manitoba Native Leader in Hot Water For Label Placed on Campaign Manager." It's a very good article.

(ii) http://www.bnaibrith.ca/prdisplay.php?id=513

An early press release from B'Nai Brith condemning the comments.
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Dear Anonymous:

Thank you very much for writing with the links. Anyone with a grade school education who'd compare a University professor to Hitler is ..... we'll leave you to fill in the descriptive.

Then to turn around using Canadian taxpayer dollars to sue a now defunct website www.CyberSmokeSignals.com for alleged defemation is a joke!
The case is being prosecuted by minimum $250 hourly taxpayer financed Winnipeg MMF lawyer Murray Norman Trachtenberg.Note:

ARTICLE II POLITICAL AFFILIATION of the Manitoba Metis Federation's constitution ratified during the 37th Annual General Assembly September 11, 2005 at page 2 states:

The organization shall not be affiliated with any political party.

We rest our case.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
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["WINNIPEG (CP) -- The Conservative party's national campaign manager was likened to Hitler by the leader of the Manitoba Metis Federation on Monday, but David Chartrand later apologized for trivializing the Holocaust. Chartrand, who was urging aboriginal people to vote Liberal in the election, said the Tories have a 'hidden agenda' that could strip First Nations and Metis people of their rights. He singled out Tory campaign manager Tom Flanagan, who wrote a book four years ago called First Nations? Second Thoughts. 'We know what's behind the curtain.

We know Thomas Flanagan is behind there. If you were us, your hearts would start to panic,' said Chartrand. 'Just like, no disrespect, when people talk about Hitler, they see such hatred, that a man could be so cruel.

You look at Thomas Flanagan writing about us, saying that we shouldn't even exist, that we're not even a people. . . .' Asked if he was comparing Flanagan to Hitler, Chartrand said: 'If Flanagan had his way, if he had an army behind him, yes I would.' Later, Chartrand said his emotions got the better of him and he went too far in his comments."]
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B’nai Brith Canada reacts to Manitoba Metis Federation President’s comments equating Conservative Party official to Adolf Hitler

June 21, 2004
For Immediate Release

Toronto — B’nai Brith Canada reacted tonight to media reports that Manitoba Metis Federation President David Chartrand had made comments equating Conservative Party campaign co-chair Tom Flanagan to Adolf Hitler, calling the characterization “highly inflammatory and inappropriate.”

“Trying to equate Mr. Flanagan with the likes of Adolf Hitler, however indirect the reference may be, is highly inflammatory and inappropriate, not to mention just plain wrong,” said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada. “Such incautious comments trivialize the crimes of this monster of human history and undermine our effort to educate a new generation of Canadians about the evil he represented, and still represents.”

On June 11, B’nai Brith Canada President Harold Davis released a letter he had written to the campaign chairs of each of the major national political parties asking them to refrain from such inflammatory rhetoric. “In our view, such tactics could inflict grievous harm on the fabric of our society by exploiting ignorance, thereby sowing the seeds of fear and distrust in these communities. Moreover, such misrepresentations have the effect of trivializing racism and bigotry, inducing a degree of public cynicism that ultimately undermines the efforts of human rights organizations, such as ours, that combat intolerance,” Davis’ letter read.

“Obviously we did not write to every community leader in the country, but that doesn’t mean that our concern does not apply to them as well,” explained Dimant.

For more information contact
Joseph Ben-Ami,
Director of Communications
(613) 294-7313
B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish community’s foremost human rights organization.