Communication No. 104/1981
UN Human Rights Committee
The W. G. Party was founded as a political party in Canada, in February 1972. The Party and Mr. T. attempted, over several years, to attract membership and promote the Party’s policies through the use of tape-recorded messages, which were recorded by Mr. T. and linked up to the Bell Telephone System in Toronto, Canada. Any member of the public could listen to the messages by dialing the relevant Telephone number. Mr. T was sentenced to one year imprisonment and the W. G. Party was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. The sentences were to be suspended as long as Mr. T. and the W. G. Party did not use telephone communications for the dissemination of hate messages. Domestic remedies were not exhausted. As such, the Committee found the case to be inadmissible.
Link: http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/undocs/html/104-1981.htm
Theme(s): Anti-Semitism
Date: 6 April 1983
Description of applicant(s): Political party, leader of political party, citizen
Brief description of facts: The W. G. Party was founded as a political party in Canada, in February 1972. The Party and Mr. T. attempted, over several years, to attract membership and promote the Party’s policies through the use of tape-recorded messages, which were recorded by Mr. T. and linked up to the Bell Telephone System in Toronto, Canada. Any member of the public could listen to the messages by dialing the relevant Telephone number. The messages were changed from time to time but the contents were basically the same, namely to warn the callers “of the dangers of international finance and international Jewry leading the world into wars, unemployment and inflation and the collapse of world values and principles”. The national court ordered that the telephone communications were not to be used again for the dissemination of hate messages. Mr. T was found guilty of contempt of court as he disobeyed the order issued by the Human Rights Tribunal as had made use of the telephone services to convey the type of messages which they were prohibited from disseminating. He was sentenced to one year imprisonment and the W. G. Party was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. The sentences were to be suspended as long as Mr. T. and the W. G. Party did not use telephone communications for the dissemination of hate messages. Domestic remedies were not exhausted.
(Alleged) target(s) of speech: Jews
The Committee’s assessment of the impugned speech: The Commission considered that the author failed to exhaust domestic remedies, however, reference to Article 20(2) was made as demonstrated below.
Important paragraph(s) from the decision:
(b) As to the author’s claim that section 13 (1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, under which his use of the telephone service has been curtailed, has been applied against him in violation of article 19 of the Covenant, the Committee notes that he failed to file his application for judicial review within the time-limits prescribed by law. It appears, however, in view of the ambiguity ensuing from the conflicting time-limits laid down in the laws in question, that a reasonable effort was indeed made to exhaust domestic remedies in this respect and, therefore, the Committee does not consider that, as to this claim, the communication should be declared inadmissible under article 5 (2) (b) of the Optional Protocol. However, the opinions which Mr. T. seeks to disseminate through the telephone system clearly constitute the advocacy of racial or religious hatred which Canada has an obligation under article 20 (2) of the Covenant to prohibit. In the Committee’s opinion, therefore, the communication is, in respect of this claim, incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant, within the meaning of article 3 of the Optional Protocol;
ICCPR Article: Article 19
Decision: Inadmissible