James Keegstra

James Keegstra
Keegstra in 1985
Mayor of Eckville, Alberta
In office 1974–1983
Preceded by	Hans Coppens
Succeeded by	Harold Leach
Acting Leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada
In office July 27, 1987 – July 28, 1987
Preceded by	Harvey Lainson
Succeeded by	Harvey Lainson
Personal details
Born	(1934-03-30)March 30, 1934 Vulcan, Alberta, Canada
Died	June 2, 2014(2014-06-02) (aged 80) Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Political party	Social Credit
Children	4
Occupation	Teacher, mechanic
Known for	Respondent in R v Keegstra

James "Jim" Keegstra (March 30, 1934 – June 2, 2014) was a public school teacher and mayor in Eckville, Alberta, Canada, who was charged under the Criminal Code with wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, the Jewish people, in 1984. The charge led to lengthy litigation over the next twelve years, including three hearings in the Supreme Court of Canada, with Keegstra arguing that the offence of wilful promotion of hatred infringed his right to freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the offence and Keegstra was convicted.

The events surrounding the charge received substantial international attention. The main Supreme Court decision, R v Keegstra, became a landmark Canadian legal case upholding the constitutionality of Canada's hate speech laws.

In addition to the criminal case, Keegstra was dismissed from his teaching position and his teaching certificate was revoked. He spent the rest of his life farming and working in a custodial position, dying at age 80 in 2014.

Life

Keegstra was born in Vulcan, Alberta, on March 30, 1934, to Dutch immigrant parents who were devout members of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was an auto mechanic, mayor of Eckville, Alberta from 1974 until 1983, and a high school teacher until he was fired, in December 1982. He then farmed with his brother and worked in a custodial position. He died in Red Deer, Alberta, on June 2, 2014, and was survived by four children.

Court proceedings

Factual background

Keegstra taught social studies in the high school in Eckville. In 1982, it came to light that he was teaching his students that the Holocaust was a fraud and attributing various evil qualities to Jews. He described Jews to his pupils as "treacherous", "subversive", "sadistic", "money-loving", "power hungry", and "child killers". He taught his classes that the Jewish people seek to destroy Christianity and are responsible for depressions, anarchy, chaos, wars, and revolution. According to Keegstra, the Jews "created the Holocaust to gain sympathy" and, in contrast to the open and honest Christians, were said to be deceptive, secretive, and inherently evil. He taught his students the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy whose blueprint allegedly came from the Talmud. Keegstra expected his students to reproduce his teachings in class and on exams. If they failed to do so, their marks suffered.

The way Keegstra taught his students was apparently known to the school principal, who ignored complaints from parents. It was not until the parents lodged a complaint with the school board, and went to the local newspaper, the Red Deer Advocate, that the issue became public.

When Keegstra's teachings came to light, he was fired by the school board in December 1982. He was subsequently stripped of his teaching certificate. The issue attracted international media coverage.

In 1983, Keegstra was defeated in his bid for re-election as mayor of Eckville, by a vote of 278 to 123, with 92 per cent turnout of voters. Residents resented the adverse publiciity he had brought on the town and felt that he had damaged the reputation of the town.

First trial: 1984–1985

In 1984, the Attorney General of Alberta charged Keegstra under the Criminal Code. The allegation was that Keegstra "did unlawfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, to wit: the Jewish people, by communicating statements while teaching to students at Eckville High School contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Code."

At his trial before the Alberta Queen's Bench, Keegstra applied to have this charge quashed. He argued that the Criminal Code offence of promoting hatred against an identifiable group infringed the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression, set out in section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The trial judge, Justice Quigley, ruled against him. He held that the offence did not infringe freedom of expression, as the promotion of hatred was not the kind of expression which section 2 was designed to protect. In the alternative, if he was wrong on that point, he concluded that the infringement was justified under section 1 of the Charter.

The matter then went to trial, which lasted 70 days. Many of his former students testified against him. In the end, the jury convicted Keegstra of the charge. The Court fined him $5,000.

First appeal: 1988

Keegstra appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeal of Alberta, again arguing that the criminal offence violated the Charter's guarantee of freedom of expression.

He also brought a new challenge, relating to the defence of truth. The Criminal Code provided that it was a defence to the charge if the statements alleged to have been said were true. However, the onus was on the accused person to prove the truth of the statements, on a balance of probabilities. Keegstra argued that this reverse onus violated the presumption of innocence guaranteed by section 11(d) of the Charter. Keegstra admitted he was not able to prove the truth of the many anti-semitic statements he made to his students. In the CBC News presentation Canada's Hate Law: The Keegstra Case (1991), Keegstra displayed the material in which his views were obtained, admitting that none of it came from mainstream historical sources.

The Court of Appeal ruled in Keegstra's favour on the constitutional issues. The unanimous three-judge panel found that the criminal offence infringed freedom of expression and could not be justified under section 1 of the Charter. They also found that the reverse onus violated the presumption of innocence and could not be justified under section 1.

Appeal to the Supreme Court: 1990

Keegstra's appeal ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Canada, in R v Keegstra. In December 1990, the court upheld Keegstra's conviction, ruling that the law's prohibition of hate propaganda and suppression of Keegstra's freedom of expression was constitutional. The majority of justices looked at hate speech as not being a victimless crime but instead having the potential for psychological harm, degradation, humiliation, and a risk of violence.

Having upheld the constitutionality of the offence provisions, the Court remanded the case to the Alberta Court of Appeal to deal with the other issues that had been raised on appeal but that court had not dealt with, in light of its constitutional ruling.

Sentencing

At his original trial, Keegstra was given a fine of $5,000. A subsequent decision by the Alberta Court of Appeal reduced that to a one-year suspended sentence, one year of probation, and 200 hours of community service work. While the Supreme Court upheld the original conviction and the constitutionality of the law, they did not restore the original sentence.

Social Credit Party

Keegstra was a longtime activist in the Social Credit Party of Canada and was a candidate for the party in Red Deer in the 1972, 1974, and 1984 federal elections, coming in last place in each attempt.

In 1983, Social Credit leader Martin Hattersley suspended Keegstra's membership and tried to expel him because of his antisemitic activism. When the party voted to reinstate Keegstra, Hattersley resigned, saying, "I simply cannot be leader of a party that has people accepted into its ranks that publicly express views of that sort."

In 1986, Keegstra ran unsuccessfully for the party's leadership with the support of white supremacist Don Andrews and Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. He lost by 67 votes to 38 to Harvey Lainson, an evangelical minister from Ontario. Keegstra was elected as the party's acting leader on July 27, 1987, after the party's national executive ousted Lainson over his call to rename the party "Christian Freedom". Lainson refused to relinquish the leadership, and Keegstra was expelled from the Social Credit Party and its successor, the Christian Freedom Social Credit Party, in September.

In popular culture

The 1988 American television movie Evil in Clear River was based on the Keegstra case. The film depicted a teacher and mayor of a small Canadian town who taught antisemitic ideas to his students, the efforts of the mother of one of his students to stop him, and the teacher's termination and prosecution. Randy Quaid played the character that was based on Keegstra, and Lindsay Wagner played the mother.

See also

• Doug Christie (lawyer) – Keegstra's lawyer, politician, and far-right activist
• Malcolm Ross (school teacher) – Canadian teacher found liable under human rights legislation for discriminating against Jewish students