James Keegstra
| James Keegstra | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 30, 1934 Vulcan, Alberta |
| Died | June 2, 2014 (aged 80) Red Deer, Alberta |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Other names | Jim Keegstra |
| Occupation | Teacher |
| Known for | Respondent in R v Keegstra |
| Political party | Social Credit |
| Children | 4 |
James "Jim" Keegstra (March 30, 1934 – June 2, 2014) was a former public school teacher and mayor in Eckville, Alberta, Canada, who was charged and convicted of hate speech in 1984. The conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal of Alberta but re-instated by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Keegstra. The decision received substantial international attention and became a landmark Canadian legal case upholding the constitutionality of Canada's hate speech laws.
Keegstra was born in Vulcan, Alberta, March 30, 1934, to Dutch immigrant parents who were devout members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Keegstra was an auto mechanic, a former mayor, and a high school teacher in the town of Eckville, Alberta. He died in Red Deer, Alberta on June 2, 2014, and was survived by four children.
In 1984, Keegstra was stripped of his teaching certificate and charged under the Criminal Code with "wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group" by teaching his social studies students that the Holocaust was a fraud and attributing various evil qualities to Jews. He thus 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.
...
Wikipedia