AW@L Radio - We call "Woo Woo" on you: free speech, bigotry, conspiracy theories and community standards

Discussion w/ activist & former co-host Alex Hundert on free speech, racism, conspiracy theories, and upholding community standards as "alt-right" white nationalists rise to power in the US and surge worldwide.

Download Audio: We call "Woo Woo" on you: free speech, bigotry, conspiracy theories and community standards

Today’s show features a discussion with social justice activist and former AW@L radio host Alex Hundert on issues around free speech and free expression in Canada including the necessary limits and inherent responsibilities. This chat covers racism, conspiracy theories, the rise of "alt-right" white nationalism, and upholding community standards, in a talk that happened two weeks before the election of Donald Trump in the United States.

Background:

Recently it came to light that another show at AW@L radio's home community station, CKMS, wanted to have on a guest that has repeatedly published racist and misogynistic opinions. There were complaints received at the station, several facebook battles, and a long discussion at the board level which resulted in a consensus decision that the proposed guest be barred from CKMS airwaves.

The proposed guest was blogger Lawrence McCurry, who also writes for Toronto based Your Ward News. In his writings(http://grandrivermc.ca/sites/default/files/25000AndCounting.png), Larry describes Syrian refugees as "invaders", who are "90% of young men of fighting age" from a "hodgepodge of middle eastern countries". He also writes of european countries being "swamped and invaded by Muslims" and he states "Now I'm not saying all Muslims want to take over or are evil people" he then writes about the "flood" of refugees in Paris and Germany, taking part in a "cultural genocide" of Europeans.

In his writings reflecting misogyny (http://grandrivermc.ca/sites/default/files/GAE-Misogny.png), Larry refers to feminists as "feminazis" and "marxist she hags". Among other deplorable acts, Larry defends his editor at your Ward News, James Sears, who is quoted in his own paper saying that "a lot of women" "enjoyed being slapped across the face, roughed up, and sexually ravaged after provoking a man" and when speaking about a feminist who challenged him he said "The right man had not yet domesticated this feral shrew." Sears also uses the term FemiMarxist to describe the woman. Sears, who considers himself a "masculinity guru" and goes by the nickname Dimitri the Lover, had his medical licence revoked in 1992 after being found guilty of sexualy impropriety and gross misconduct relating to several female patients.

See the bottom of this page for a few images of Larry's articles. When confronted with his own words, Larry responded "I stand by what I wrote".

As mentioned, Larry also writes for the "Your Ward News" media outlet, a news outlet which has published anti-semitic (https://yourwardnewswatch.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/cartoon.jpg), anti-immigrant (https://yourwardnewswatch.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/immigrants.jpg), white-nationalist (https://yourwardnewswatch.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/ywn-writer-michelle-endorses-several-nazis/), and misogynistic ( https://yourwardnewswatch.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/negres.jpg, https://yourwardnewswatch.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/chow.jpg) opinions, among other bigotries (https://yourwardnewswatch.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/mays-dose-of-crazy/). Your Ward News has also printed endorsements of openly white nationalist and neo-nazi political candidates and political parties like the New Constitution Party of Canada.

While Your Ward News supporters have claimed it is a satirical paper, the website https://yourwardnewswatch.wordpress.com has documented the hateful content released.

In response to a resident operated campaign launched in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, where the paper was being mass-mailed, MP Judy Foote, the minister of public safety in the federal government, cancelled the contract Canada post had with Your Ward News, ending the junk-mailing of the paper. More information is available in the links at the bottom of this show's summary page.

Getting back to the discussion on this AW@L radio, the host of the conspiracy show that wanted to interview Lawrence McCurry, as well as Larry himself, and several digital compatriots naively tried to turn this into a free speech issue, and now here we are...

You can read more about Alex and the campaigns he is working on from his twitter feed @alexhundert.

Thank you for tuning into AW@L radio Fridays at 4pm EST on http://soundfm.ca, 100.3 fm in Waterloo Region. Visit http://rabble.ca/podcast and click on the AW@L radio link for our 200+ show archive.

Supplementary Information:

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Info about Your Ward News: