R. was a teacher in Moncton, New Brunswick who expressed his revisionist historical beliefs and his traditionalist Christian Faith in several books in his capacity as a private citizen. In particular, he claimed that the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated. R. did not promote his views in the classroom. In 1990, his school-board employer became the object of a human rights complaint from a Jewish citizen on the grounds that, by employing R., the school board was discriminating against him and his family. The children of the complainants had not attended any school where R. was teaching, nor had he or his family ever met R. personally. Nevertheless, the complaint alleged that his after-school activities created a poisoned environment in the school for his children.  

As a consequence of the complaint against the school board, a human rights board of inquiry was convened to hear the case and to determine if there was discrimination and, if so, what the remedy should be. The board ruled that R.'s employment as a teacher constituted an endorsement of his views and that this discriminated against Jewish students. In 1991, it ordered that R. be fired and fined. 

The order was subsequently appealed through the New Brunswick court system and finally to the Supreme Court of Canada. R. was represented by Doug Christie. In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that R.'s removal from the classroom was justifiable, on the grounds that, although it did constitute a violation of his freedoms, this was a reasonable limit, as schoolteachers must be held to a higher standard of behaviour . 

In 1998, R. filed a defamation lawsuit against Josh Beutel, an editorial cartoonist for the Telegraph-Journal, who had compared R. to Joseph Goebbels; the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick ruled that, as Nazism was an anti-religious philosophy, and R. was profoundly religious, R.'s extreme degree of antisemitism could not fairly be labeled as Nazistic. Beutel was ordered to pay Ross $7500 in damages. The Canadian Newspaper Association, The Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the League for Human Rights of B'Nai Brith Canada joined Beutel's appeal. In 2000, the 1998 decision was overturned. In addition, on Dec. 6, 2000, the United Nations' Human Rights Committee rejected R.'s claim that his right to freely express his religious opinions had been violated by the 1996 decision . 

Today, R. is the unemployed father of two children.   

Further information:
* Malcolm Ross: My Story
* Freedom Site Editorial

Letzte Änderung / Last update: 04.10.2008 

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