© Copyright 1992 the Toronto Sun reproduced with permission:
phone call to Dean McNulty at the Sun, 7:45 PM, October 15, 1992, by J. Shallit.

Bracketed commentary by J. Shallit

Toronto Sun
Thursday, October 15, 1992
page 39

Brit Denied Entry to Canada

Nazi sympathizer barred

By Bill Dunphy
Toronto Sun

A controversial British author and Holocaust denier has been barred from entering Canada for a speaking tour, the Sun has learned.

David Irving, a historian and darling of the international neo-nazi movement, was hand-delivered a letter in Los Angeles informing him of the Canadian decision to deny him entry.

A copy of the Oct. 9 letter warns Irving he can't enter Canada because of his criminal record and because "there are reasonable grounds to believe (you) will commit one or more offences" in Canada.

Irving was convicted of violating a German law making it illegal to deny the existence of the Nazi extermination of Jews.

Irving, in Los Angeles for a speaking engagement, was unavailable for comment.

His lawyer, Doug Christie of British Columbia, said Irving has asked him to fight the decision.

Christie said the ban is the result of political pressure and vowed to overturn the decision.

"I am searching for a remedy, perhaps a federal court injunction."

Christie said he still hoped Irving would be present in British Columbia on Oct. 28 to receive the Canadian Free Speech League's 8th annual George Orwell award for courageous defence of free speech.

Irving's planned tour also included stops in Calgary, Kitchener, Hamilton, Toronto, and Ottawa.

Irving's visit to Kitchener, Ontario

Despite an order from Canadian immigration [which, by the way, I strongly disagree with] to leave the country, David Irving got out on bail and spoke for about half an hour in front of approximately 50 people at Michael Rothe's European Sound Import store in downtown Kitchener, Ontario [about 60 miles west of Toronto] on Saturday, November 7, 1992.

Kitchener, a town of about 175,000 with a strong German heritage [it used to be called Berlin until World War I], is a known center of neo-Nazi and Holocaust denial activity. Also sighted at the store were neo-Nazi publisher Ernst Zundel and convicted felon, drug-dealer, and former KKK leader Wolfgang Droege. [ Droege spent several years in a US prison in the 1980's for his attempted takeover of the Caribbean island of Dominica.]

Irving was greeted by approximately 75 demonstrators, who, despite sub-freezing temperatures, chanted and carried signs outside Rothe's store from about 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM. Irving briefly appeared outside the store, and was interviewed on local TV, before he was shouted down by protestors chanting, "Irving, go home!" Later, at about 3:00 PM, Irving was ushered into a waiting car by police and, eyes averted from the crowd, was driven away.

A man who claimed to be a history student at WLU handed out anti-Semitic Holocaust denial literature briefly. [I was not able to get any copies.]

Jeff Shallit

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