Richard Warman is an Ottawa-based lawyer who is active in human rights law. Warman worked for the

Canadian Human Rights Commission The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) was established in 1977 by the government of Canada. It is empowered under the ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' to investigate and to try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the pr ...

(CHRC) from July 2002 until March 2004. He is best known as the primary instigator of actions related to Internet content under Section 13(1) of the

Canadian Human Rights Act The ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' (french: Loi canadienne sur les droits de la personne) is a statute passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1977 with the express goal of extending the law to ensure equal opportunity to individuals who may be vi ...

against people including

white supremacists White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

and

neo-Nazis Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

. Warman wrote a detailed report on Internet hate in Canada for

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peo ...

's ''Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents'', and has been the target of anti-Semitic smears himself, though he has testified in the past that he is not

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish. He received the Saul Hayes Human Rights Award from the

Canadian Jewish Congress The Canadian Jewish Congress (, , ) was, for more than ninety years, the main advocacy group for the Jewish community in Canada. Regarded by many as the "Parliament of Canadian Jewry," the Congress was at the forefront of the struggle for human ...

in June 2007 for "distinguished service to the cause of human rights".

Education

Warman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Queen's University, a Bachelor of Law from the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public universi ...

, and a Masters of Law (LLM 2004) from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

Legal activism

Human Rights Commissions

Warman has initiated a large number of complaints against groups and individuals, alleging violations of Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act. He has been identified as the primary complainant under this provision. His targets include the

Canadian Heritage Alliance The Canadian Heritage Alliance (CHA) was a Canadian white supremacist group founded in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Detective Terry Murphy of London's Hate Crime Unit alleged that the group had links with the Heritage Front and the Kitchener, Ontari ...

and its leader Melissa Guille; Jason Ouwendyk and the Northern Alliance; Marc Lemire; Tomasz Winnicki; Alex Kulbashian and James Scott Richardson of the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team; Bobby Wilkinson and his Canadian Nazi Party; Craig Harrison; Terry Tremaine;

Glenn Bahr Glenn may refer to: Name or surname * Glenn (name) * John Glenn, U.S. astronaut Cultivars * Glenn (mango) * a 6-row barley variety Places In the United States: * Glenn, California * Glenn County, California * Glenn, Georgia, a settlement i ...

, Peter Kouba, Jessica Beaumont and Ciaran Paul Donnelly, all formerly with the group Western Canada For Us; Liz Lampman; Fred Kyburz;Warman v. Kyburz
!--this needs a secondary source--> and Eldon Warman. Warman is the only person who has successfully used Section 13 in the decade ending in 2011. In addition to Kyburz and Eldon Warman, Warman also raised concerns about Wally Dove, another member of the Canadian detax movement who was attempting to use his qualifications as a Certified General Accountant (CGA) to promote unlawful tax evasion schemes. The Chartered General Accountants of Ontario later revoked Dove's CGA and obtained an injunction ordering him to stop claiming to be a CGA thereafter.

Freedom of speech

Warman was involved in preventing

David Icke David Vaughan Icke (; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist and a former footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more than 25 countries. In 1990, Icke ...

's public presentations in Canada and abroad. He shared his opinion with the British newspaper ''

The Independent On Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published ...

'': "He has taken all the conspiracy theories that ever existed and melded them together to create an even greater conspiracy of his own. His writings may be the work of a madman, or of a genuine racist. Either way they are very dangerous. There is an unpleasant anti-Semitic undertone in his work that must be brought to public attention. If he's unstable then so are his followers, who hang on his every word. What benefit can there be in allowing him to speak?"

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

Warman has won ten of the cases he has brought before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT), and two more have been successfully mediated after the individuals had left the neo-Nazi movement and renounced their beliefs. The CHRT has consistently upheld Warman's complaints against the following individuals and groups: Fred Kyburz; Eldon Warman; Alexan Kulbashian, James Scott Richardson and the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team, Affordable-space.com; Tomasz Winnicki; Craig Harrison (for postings on Marc Lemire's ''Freedomsite''); Peter Kouba;

and

Western Canada for Us Western Canada For Us (WCFU) was a short-lived Alberta-based white nationalist group founded by Glenn Bahr and Peter Kouba in early 2004.Terry Tremaine.; Bobby Wilkinson and his

Canadian Nazi Party The Canadian National Socialist Party, commonly known as the Canadian Nazi Party, existed from 1965 to 1978. It was led by William John Beattie, and was based in Toronto. It succeeded a separate, short-lived group also known as the Canadian Nazi ...

; and Jessica Beaumont.

''Warman v. Lemire''

On September 2, 2009, in the case of Warman's complaint against Marc Lemire, Canadian Human Rights Tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis found Section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act to be unconstitutional, as it infringed unjustifiably on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' guarantee of freedom of expression. Hadjis thus declined to impose a penalty on Lemire. As Hadjis is not a judge and the tribunal is not a court, his decision does not carry sufficient weight to strike down the section as ''

ultra vires ('beyond the powers') is a Latin phrase used in law to describe an act which requires legal authority but is done without it. Its opposite, an act done under proper authority, is ('within the powers'). Acts that are may equivalently be termed ...

''. As a result, the ruling is not binding beyond ''Lemire''. However, the Tribunal has suspended further hearings in some active cases while awaiting a higher court ruling in ''Lemire''. On October 1, 2009, the Commission appealed the decision in ''Lemire'' to the Federal Court. The Canadian government has chosen not to intervene in the Federal Court case, although it had defended the constitutionality of Section 13(1) before the Tribunal. In February 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against Lemire in a decision that found Section 13 to be constitutionally valid and reinstated the penalty section and the CHRT's cease and desist order against Lemire violating Section 13, regardless of the fact that by that point the section had already been repealed by parliament.

Case against neo-Nazi Bill White

Warman is also known for his attempt to have the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) block access to two United States-based websites that included what

Bernie Farber Bernie M. Farber (born 1951) is a writer, commentator, and the former chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress and a social activist. He has testified before the Canadian courts as an expert witness on hate crime. He was appointed ...

of the

described as a "murder warrant" against Warman by U.S. neo-Nazi Bill White. In refusing the initial

ex parte In law, ''ex parte'' () is a Latin term meaning literally "from/out of the party/faction of" (name of party/faction, often omitted), thus signifying "on behalf of (name)". An ''ex parte'' decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all ...

application, the CRTC stated:

In the Commission's view, given the unprecedented nature of the relief sought in the Application and the serious and fundamental issues it raises, as well as the fact that the specific approval is being sought in favour of Canadian carriers without notice to such carriers, it would be inappropriate to consider granting the interim relief sought in the Application on an ex parte basis, and in particular without affording Canadian carriers and all other interested parties the opportunity to comment.

White was subsequently indicted by a U.S. grand jury for the death threats against Warman and others and remains in custody pending trial. The grand jury heard testimony from both Bernie Farber and Warman. Acting U.S. attorney Julia Dudley said some lines had clearly been crossed, as she announced the charges against Mr. White. "When freedom of speech turns into threats against innocent people, it is the responsibility of the law enforcement community to intervene and protect its citizens", she said.

Defamation suits

David Icke

Warman sued

for libel, following the publication of Icke's book ''Children of the Matrix''. Warman also sued the publishers and some distributors of the book. Warman requested that the

Thompson-Nicola Regional District The Thompson–Nicola Regional District is a regional district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Canada 2021 Census population was 143,680 and the area covers 44,449.49 square kilometres. The administrative offices are in the m ...

Library remove the book from its collection. Fearing litigation, the library complied with the request. British Columbia Library Association member Ann Curry commented that "in the Warman case, libraries had to comply with Warman's request or possibly face liability2. In 2004, the

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

government passed legislation to protect libraries from defamation suits if they distribute materials that can be considered defamatory. The lawsuit was settled in 2015 when Icke paid $210,000 in damages and legal costs and agreed to "immediately cease any further distribution of ''Children of the Matrix'' and remove the defamatory material from any future editions". Warman said: "This settlement exposes Icke's argument that no one had ever sued him because his allegations were true as nothing more than a fallacy". He added, "My reputation has been entirely vindicated. David Icke’s attacks against me were disgraceful and beyond the pale but he’s paid a heavy price for them and I trust this will never happen again".

Jason Ouwendyk and the Northern Alliance

Warman has also sued Jason Ouwendyk and his white supremacist group the Northern Alliance for libel. – a case that was suspended when Ouwendyk sought bankruptcy protection and agreed to pay Warman damages as part of his proposal to creditors

Paul Fromm and the Canadian Association for Free Expression

Warman sued Paul Fromm and his

Canadian Association for Free Expression The Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) is one of a number of groups run by neo-Nazi and white supremacist Paul Fromm. Established in 1981, CAFE states that it is committed to the promotion and defense of total freedom of speech, and ...

for libeling him in various Internet posts. On November 23, 2007, Ontario Superior Court Justice Monique Métivier ruled in Warman's favour and ordered Fromm to pay Warman $30,000 in damages, and to post full retractions within ten days on all the websites on which he posted the defamatory comments. Métivier found that Fromm posted statements about Warman "either knowing the fundamental falseness of the accusations he levelled at Warman, or being reckless as to the truth of these." The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the judgement and added $10,000 in costs against Fromm and his group. The Supreme Court of Canada later refused to give them leave to appeal further and again awarded costs against Fromm and his group.

William Grosvenor

Warman was awarded $50,000 in damages in 2008 after a successful suit for defamation, assault, and invasion of privacy against Albertan William Grosvenor. Grosvenor had sent emails and made a variety of posts over the course of the two prior following Warman's human rights complaint against Grosvenor. The posts variously threatened Warman, called for violence against him, and attempted to reveal where he lived. Warman would have pursued damages of $175,000, but waived the larger claim so that he could proceed under simplified rules of court.

National Post, Ezra Levant et al

In April 2008, Warman launched a libel suit against the National Post Company, ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'' columnist Jonathan Kay, and Canadian bloggers -

Ezra Levant Ezra Isaac Levant (born February 20, 1972) is a Canadian conservative media personality, political activist, writer, broadcaster, and former lawyer. Levant is the founder and former publisher of the conservative magazine, The'' Western Standard''. ...

, Kate McMillan and her blog Small Dead Animals, Kathy Shaidle and her blog Five Feet of Fury, Mark Fournier and Constance Wilkins-Fournier and their blog Free Dominion. The reason for the suit was that the newspaper, quoting an expert hired by Marc Lemire as part of his lawsuit with Warman, said that Warman was the author of a 2003 Internet post regarding Canadian Senator Anne Cools that used racist and sexist epithets. Warman denied that he was the author of the post and sued for libel damages from those who posted the information. The ''National Post'' and Kay apologized and retracted its statement and settled out of court with Warman. Levant, McMillan and Shaidle settled and publicly apologized on June 10, 2015. The apology posted on Levant's website read as follows:

In the past, I have made certain derogatory statements and comments about Mr. Richard Warman on January 20, 23 and 28, 2008 and November 10, 2008. Those statements and comments were made on my website at www.ezralevant.com. Those statements and comments attacked the personal and professional reputation of Mr. Richard Warman. I retract and apologize to Mr. Warman for those statements and comments without reservation. In particular, in one of my website posts, I alleged that Mr. Richard Warman had posted a bigoted attack on the Internet against Senator Anne Cools. I have no evidence that this is true and I retract it and apologize to Mr. Warman for it without reservation. – Signed Ezra Levant

Mark and Connie Fournier and Free Dominion

The owners of Free Dominion were also sued in a second lawsuit brought by Warman. Also in 2008, Warman sued Mark Fournier, Connie Fournier and eight John Does for libel. As part of this case, Warman asked the court to order the Fourniers to release information which could assist in the identification of the eight John Does: their email addresses and IP addresses. Justice Kershman ordered them to do so. However, on appeal, the Superior Court overturned this decision unless Warman could prove a ''prima facie'' case against the John Does before their information was released. On August 9, 2013, the case finally began with jury selection. After 10 days of testimony, the jury was charged. On October 2, 2013, the jury found in Warman's favour, awarding him $42,000 in damages, plus costs which were later set at $85,000. Free Dominion closed to the public as a result. On December 11, 2015, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's ruling and awarded Warman an additional $23,000 in costs.

Jonathan and Barbara Kay

In 2019 Warman sued

Jonathan Kay Jonathan Hillel Kay (born 1968) is a Canadian journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of ''The Walrus'' (2014–2017), and is a senior editor of ''Quillette''. He was previously comment pages editor, columnist, and blogger for the Toronto-based Ca ...

and

Barbara Kay Barbara Kay (born 1943) is a columnist for the Canadian newspaper ''National Post''. She also writes a weekly column for '' The Post Millennial'' and a monthly column for '' Epoch Times''. Kay announced on July 24, 2020, that she was leaving the ...

for libel in response to the two journalists linking the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), an organization for which Warman currently as a board member, to "violent ANTIFA". In a judgement released on November 10, 2022 the claim was dismissed. In the judges reasons for the judgement it was noted that based on "the evidence disclosed...CAHN did in fact assist ANTIFA and that the movement has been violent". The judge went on to condemn Warman for what the judge described as "us nglitigation to silence or intimidate those he sees as his critics, or who oppose his methods of prosecuting hate groups".

Political activism

Warman ran as a Green Party of Canada candidate in the 1997 federal election in the

Windsor West Windsor West (french: Windsor-Ouest) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968. Geography The district consists of the part of the city of Windsor lying west an ...

riding, and in the 2000 federal election in Ottawa—Orléans, placing fifth on both occasions. He ran as the

Green Party of Ontario The Green Party of Ontario (GPO; french: Parti vert de l'Ontario) is a political party in Ontario, Canada. The party is led by Mike Schreiner. In 2018, Schreiner was elected as the party's first member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly. In t ...

candidate in the 1995 Ontario provincial election in Simcoe Centre, placing fifth, and in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Ottawa West—Nepean Ottawa West—Nepean (french: Ottawa-Ouest—Nepean) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997. Geography The district includes the neighbourhoods of Shirleys ...

, placing fourth. In 2006, Warman contributed to the Renewal Commission of the Liberal Party of Canada's ''Report on Human Rights''. He is also one of the backers of the reward fund established by the

Assembly of First Nations The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is an assembly of Canadian First Nations (Indian bands) represented by their chiefs. Established in 1982 and modelled on the United Nations General Assembly, it emerged from the National Indian Brotherhood, ...

in relation to the Gatineau murder of Kelly Morrisseau.

Death threats and violent rhetoric

In addition to the threats against him by Bill White, Warman was the subject of further death threats after Tomasz Winnicki was sentenced to nine months in prison for violating a court injunction. A federal court sentenced Winnicki to nine months imprisonment for contempt of court for breaking that injunction. The threats included website Vanguard News Network's webmaster

Alex Linder Milton Alexander Linder (born June 30, 1966) is an American white supremacist. He is the founder and editor of the Vanguard News Network (VNN), an antisemitic and white supremacist website and forum Cohen-Almagor, Raphael ''Confronting the Inter ...

posting material inciting the murder of the Federal Court judge, employees of the Canadian Human Right Commission, and Warman (who had testified against Winnicki at the contempt of court hearing). Linder suggested on the main VNN website and in a VNN Internet radio broadcast that their killing would be a "genuine act of patriotism." Other individuals posted similar violent rhetoric to the VNN Internet forum. Both the main VNN website and the VNN forum were temporarily shut down on July 26, 2006, by their website hosting company's upstream provider, after being contacted about the threats.

Praise and criticism

Journalist Don Butler of the ''Ottawa Citizen'' newspaper wrote in a front-page profile of Warman: :Part of arman'smotivation comes from having relatives who fought Nazis in the Second World War. "It's really a betrayal of the veterans and all those who contributed in World War II to ignore the ongoing threat from these groups that are seeking to resurrect an idea that should have died 60 years ago in a bunker in Berlin." :He also feels it's incumbent on him as a lawyer to repay the investment society made in his education by working for the societal good. Ignoring the problem, he insists, would be "betraying my duty to the profession." :"It's imperative that individuals and groups take steps as strong as they can to defend human rights in Canada," he says. "Because if they're not defended, they get undermined. Eventually they get worn down through disuse. I could never bear to see that happen." :Anti-Semitism and racism, he argues, are a community problem and need to be treated as such. "There's never been a history of genocide that hasn't been preceded by demonization." Butler also reported: :"He's had an enormous impact," says

Michael Geist Michael Allen Geist (born July 11, 1968) is a Canadian academic, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Geist was educated at the Univers ...

, the Canadian research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa. "In a sense, he's got the mechanics of how we deal with online hate up and running. It's fair to say no one has been as effective or persistent." The result is a body of jurisprudence that leaves little doubt Canadian law applies to

online hate speech Online hate speech is a type of speech that takes place online with the purpose of attacking a person or a group based on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and/or gender. Online hate speech is not easily defin ...

that originates in this country. The decisions, says Geist, "have sent a clear warning to those who engage in hate speech that this is not a no-law land."

Blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

ger and former magazine publisher

, who is being sued by Warman and others for libel, has argued that Warman's actions as a plaintiff before the Canadian Human Rights Commissions are tantamount to censorship in the name of human rights. Levant also says the Warman's libel lawsuits generally are "nuisance suit that are part of Warman's "maximum disruption" policy. ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'', which had been the subject of an unrelated human rights complaint concerning hate speech, has reported that "Richard Warman says he's fighting hate. Critics say free speech is the real victim." That article included commentary or allegations that :... e slam-dunk quality to Warman's Section 13 cases are a cause for worry, symbolizing the drift of human rights commissions into the boggy territory of covert investigation and speech control. Those concerns deepened two weeks ago with revelations that, for a time, Warman was acting both as a complainant and an investigator at the commission. Even after he left in 2004, he seemed to enjoy easy access to commission offices, stopping by to chat with staff or get documents printed. ... Of the fact Warman and investigators were going online undercover, eithMartin says simply, "That's appalling." The CHRT criticized Warman in March 2009 for having posted pseudonymously — using the names Axetogrind and Pogue Mahone — to neo-Nazi sites such as Stormfront and Vanguard News Network, as if in agreement with racist and antisemitic messages posted there. In one post, in response to a comment in January 2005 about American neo-Nazi leader Jeff Schoep, Warman wrote, "Keep up the good work Commander Schoep!". The CHRT ruled that Warman's posts, which he initially denied were his, could have precipitated further hate messages from forum members, stating same to be "both disappointing and disturbing and it diminishes his credibility".; 2009 CHRT 10 at para. 64. http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/chrt/doc/2009/2009chrt10/2009chrt10.html The CHRT therefore did not prescribe any penalties beyond a cease-and-desist order against Mr. Ouwendyk. Warman said his posts had helped him identify members of the neo-Nazi movement and that at the time there was no "road map" for such investigations. "With hindsight, he said, "things might have been done differently today."Richard Warman v. Northern Alliance and Jason Ouwendyk
2009 CHRT 10, March 13, 2009.Butler, Don

''Ottawa Citizen'', March 16, 2009.

References

External links

richardwarman.ca
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Warman, Richard Living people Lawyers in Ontario Canadian anti-racism activists Green Party of Canada candidates in the 1997 Canadian federal election Green Party of Canada candidates in the 2000 Canadian federal election Canadian anti-fascists University of Windsor alumni McGill University Faculty of Law alumni Queen's University at Kingston alumni People from Ottawa University of Windsor Faculty of Law alumni Year of birth missing (living people)