{"id":26121,"date":"2017-09-29T03:28:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T10:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=26121"},"modified":"2017-09-28T10:16:11","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T17:16:11","slug":"controversy-over-ickes-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/09\/29\/controversy-over-ickes-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversy over Icke\u2019s talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Icke spoke in Vancouver earlier this month at the Orpheum. (photo by Tyler Merbler via cjnews.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

David Icke \u2013 a controversial conspiracy theorist, antisemite and Holocaust denier \u2013 spoke in Vancouver at the Orpheum on Sept. 2, despite the city\u2019s civic theatres board\u2019s recommendation to Mayor Gregor Robertson and city council that Icke\u2019s booking be canceled.<\/p>\n

In a statement quoted in the Vancouver Sun<\/em>, the city said that under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, \u201cthe city is not in a position to take action intended to censor speech that is otherwise permissible under Canadian law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Icke is a British author and speaker known for his bizarre views. A former football player and sports broadcaster for the BBC, Icke was once also a spokesperson for the U.K. Green Party. All that changed in 1990, when, by his own account, a psychic told him that he had a special mission on earth and would soon begin receiving messages from the spirit world. The following year, he announced on primetime British television that he was \u201cthe son of godhead\u201d (also a title of Jesus Christ\u2019s) and predicted global natural disasters to come.<\/p>\n

Over the next several years, Icke developed his worldview, which has been called \u201cnew age conspiracism.\u201d He described himself as \u201ca full-time investigator into who and what are really controlling the world.\u201d In his 1994 book The Robots Rebellion<\/em>, he answered the question by singling out Jews. But, he also argued that the really major players in world dominion were an ancient order of shapeshifting, blood-drinking reptilian humanoids called the Babylonian Brotherhood. Their goal, according to Icke, is the creation of a neo-fascist global state, known as the New World Order.<\/p>\n

When Icke added Holocaust denial to his worldview in his 1995 book And the Truth Shall Set You Free<\/em>, his publisher felt he had crossed a line. As a result, that book, and Icke\u2019s subsequent works, were published at his own expense.<\/p>\n

Icke combines familiar New Age philosophies with conspiracy theories about public figures being reptilian humanoids and pedophiles. He believes in reincarnation, a collective consciousness that has intentionality and the \u201claw of attraction\u201d (that good and bad thoughts can attract like experiences).<\/p>\n

According to a report by Political Research Associates \u2013 an American nonprofit research group that studies white supremacist groups and militias \u2013 Icke\u2019s ideas are \u201ca mishmash of most of the dominant themes of contemporary neofascism, mixed in with a smattering of topics culled from the U.S. militia movement.\u201d The same report details the support that Icke has gotten from far-right and neo-Nazi groups, including the violent U.K. group Combat 18, which was linked to bombings of minority neighbourhoods in London.<\/p>\n

Aiden Fishman of B\u2019nai Brith Canada described Icke\u2019s views as \u201cclassic antisemitic ideas\u201d and said the booking should never have been allowed. \u201cIt\u2019s totally, totally incompatible with the city of Vancouver\u2019s role as an open and tolerant multicultural municipality to allow Mr. Icke to speak at a city-owned facility after we\u2019ve brought all these concerns to their attention,\u201d Fishman told CBC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are free to be a racist in Canada, you are free to say so and tell others that they should be, too,\u201d Micheal Vonn, policy director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, told the CJN<\/em>. \u201cBut this is not just about Mr. Icke\u2019s rights. Everyone who comes to see him has their Charter rights involved, as well. The government should not be in a position to prevent you from hearing what you would like to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

To those who say that the talk should not have been held at a city-owned venue, Vonn said: \u201cThe city does not support this, the city is neutral with regards to the content. Can you imagine if the city could pick and choose who among the public they allowed to make use of the venue? They can\u2019t be cherry-picking what members of the public get that benefit. The city can\u2019t be saying this is available only to people that we like. It is, as it should be, available to all members of the public involved in lawful activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be unlawful, Icke\u2019s speech would have to constitute criminal hate speech, which has a high burden of proof in Canada. \u201cHe would need to be intentionally and explicitly inciting harm,\u201d said Vonn.<\/p>\n

An admittedly unscientific Vancouver Sun<\/em> poll asking whether the event should be canceled, showed that most readers supported Icke\u2019s right to free speech, with more than 81% of respondents saying the show should go on.<\/p>\n

Despite significant coverage of the event leading up to the talk, Icke\u2019s lecture, which he claimed would last 10 hours, apparently failed to attract a media presence. Nor have there been any allegations of criminal hate speech.<\/p>\n

Matthew Gindin<\/strong> is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the <\/em>Forward and <\/em>All That Is Interesting, and has been published in <\/em>Religion Dispatches, <\/em>Situate Magazine, <\/em>Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter. A longer version of this article was originally published by <\/em>CJN.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Icke spoke in Vancouver earlier this month at the Orpheum. (photo by Tyler Merbler via cjnews.com) David Icke \u2013 a controversial conspiracy theorist, antisemite and Holocaust denier \u2013 spoke in Vancouver at the Orpheum on Sept. 2, despite the city\u2019s civic theatres board\u2019s recommendation to Mayor Gregor Robertson and city council that Icke\u2019s booking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[801,7429,2873],"class_list":["post-26121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-antisemitism","tag-david-icke","tag-free-speech"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}