"The ultimate expression of free speech"

I just watched a British documentary about David Icke, the British alien-conspiracy theorist, and the "anti-racist" group that opposed his visit to Vancouver, led by Richard Warman.

This segment of the documentary showed Icke doing a media tour of the city, and expressing his frustration at interviews being cancelled because of political pressure from Warman's group. That's how political disagreements ought to be done -- no state censorship, just moral persuasion. If protesters can bring peaceful pressure to bear on a radio show to cancel an interview, good for them. Judging by the surprisingly warm reception Icke received in Vancouver, it certainly hasn't stopped him from getting his strange theories out there.

There are so many surprising details that I did not expect:

• Icke comes across as a very charming and well-meaning man who truly believes that he must share his alien theories with the world; it's the street punks in Warman's "anti-racist coalition" who come across as the uncivil ones.
• It's clear that Icke's theories are large and weird; anti-Semitism is just one ingredient in his sci-fi stew. The importance given by the "anti-racists" to combating such a non-threat is likely explained by the fact that they're just some trouble-making kids hamming it up for a foreign cameraman. Vancouver, with its warm weather, easy drugs, fat welfare cheques and big labour unions fomenting protests, has a lot of these "activists". But what's the excuse of the once-credible Canadian Jewish Congress? It's clear as the video progresses that while the "coalition" does successfully scotch some media appearances for Icke, they -- and the disproportionate attention spent on him by the CJC -- actual provide Icke with a tremendous amount of press and credibility, the documentary included. As I've said before, the CJC has a knack of taking weird nobodies (like Ernst Zundel) and turning them into big somebodies.
• All in all, it looks more like a fun afternoon's "work" for some Vancouver street urchins, with lots of booze involved. Richard Warman is the odd man out: he's not a street kid just having fun with his fellow nose-pierced left-coasters; he's a lawyer, who has found a way of turning this sort of thing into a money-making career. It feels out of joint because it is out of joint. That's the stuff for kids, not grown men.

But the next video clip in the documentary turns a shade darker. It's clear that no-one else cares about censoring an alien-conspiracy theorist -- more people find the prospect entertaining than worrying. The smartest line in the segment comes from an older lady in line to see Icke who, when challenged with his foolish theories, says "so what. Let him make a fool of himself if that's what he's doing." That's what grown-ups say -- and grown-up societies too. They are tolerant of eccentrics like Icke, and tolerant the motley crew that harasses him.

But Warman and his young "activists" are upset that no-one cares. So they decide to do what one of Warman's wards calls "the ultimate expression of free speech": they're going to physically attack Icke in public, by throwing a pie in his face, to "humiliate" him. Uh, that ain't free speech fellas, that's assault. Warman himself proposes the idea, and does a lot of nodding and winking to the camera, as if he would never counsel the commission of a crime.

The finale of the video is the attack -- and a lamer spectacle is hard to find. The crowd at the bookstore is large and engrossed in Icke's talk. The rag-tag "coalition" -- now just down to the handful of professional protesters -- walk in slowly and labouriously, one wearing the standard issue paper mache outfit, disrupting his event, and shouting out a few stunted heckles that, despite days of planning, manage neither to inform nor entertain. I suppose the kids in charge of the rhyming chants were seconded to some other rally that day.

Warman's kids are roundly booed by the crowd -- another flop. Before they all bravely run away, one of Warman's wards lobs the pie at Icke, grazing his arm, but falling to the bookstore floor below, hitting a children's book stand, ruining some of the books. Icke again comes across as the bigger man; he doesn't call for police to press assault charges -- as was his right, and as others have done. He recovers his composure immediately (actually, unlike his timid assaulters, he never lost it), cracks a joke, licks some of the cake off his sleeve and continues. The "coalition" retreats to crow about their great victory.

Until this video, I only knew Warman as a collection of facts and figures -- as a serial complainer-of-fortune at the Canadian human rights commission, and someone who conned the Canadian Jewish Congress into supporting his "anti-racist" antics, to their deep discredit. Now I have a much better picture of the man: a jumped-up, self-righteous student politician who is no longer a student, a political activist who can't connect with or persuade real people in the court of public opinion, a petty squabbler who hasn't yet outgrown the childish antics of leftist street theatre and pie-throwing.

It's not just the weirdness of his choice of racist dragons to slay (kooky David Icke? Unknown Internet bloggers?) or his hypocrisy (a lawyer counselling an illegal assault; a "human rights activist" posting bigoted comments about Canada's first Black, female Senator). It's that he's taken this childish game to an agency of the Canadian government, and they've agreed to let him continue his stunts in their tax-funded court.

David Icke is not a danger. He's an amusing eccentric. Icke has an optimistic desperation in him -- he simply must reveal his Truth to the world, and does so earnestly no matter what obstacles are thrown at him -- combined with an obvious flair for the dramatic. I don't think anyone who watches these clips would disagree that dinner with Icke would be a much more passable evening than spending an hour with Richard Warman and his semi-literate street urchins.

Richard Warman is the greater danger. Not in and of himself -- except to those against whom he organizes pie-assaults. But when his childish, petty, malicious, abusive antics jump from a band of minor hoodlums into human rights commissions, then it moves from poor street theatre to worrisome abuse of a government office.

I don't think anyone can watch these videos and genuinely think that Richard Warman is a genuine human rights activist. The fact that he generates nearly half of all section 13 complaints at the CHRC is prima facie proof that they are little more than a group of voyeurs enabling Warman's political fantasies at taxpayer expense -- to the detriment of civil rights, and to the disrepute of the administration of justice.

UPDATE: After thinking about this for a bit longer, I know what it is that stood out the most: the glee of "humiliating" Icke. Real human rights activists don't set out to humiliate anyone. With Warman, it's one of his driving motives. That video clip, where he counsels the pie assault, shows what makes him tick. It's repellant -- far more than some kook who think Jews are alien reptiles.