Customs Censors Hold Up Rushton
Book for Nine Months & Ban U.S. Immigration Book "Hate Propaganda"
Customs Canada are running amok as political censors, charges Citizens
for Foreign Aid Reform ( C-FAR) Research Director Paul Fromm.
In February 1995, C-FAR imported a box of University of Western Ontario
Professor J. Philippe Rushton's new book Race, Evolution and Human Behaviour:
A Life History Prespective. The book had been widely reviewed in such publications
as The New York Times, The Toronto Star, and the Ottawa Citizen. As the
weeks went on, the books did not arrive. Numerous inquiries with the Canadian
Post Office and Customs revealed nothing. Eventually, the U.S. publisher
Transaction Publishers wrote the shipment off as lost and replaced it.
On December 21, Paul Fromm was handed the long lost box of books when
he checked the C-FAR mail at the Rexdale Post. Office. Further inquiries
revealed that the books, complete with their February 24, 1995 invoice
and a March 8 U.S. postmark, had been sent, March 22, 1995 by the Prohibited
Importations Unit in Toronto to Ottawa for a ruling. The letter by Toronto
authorities to Ottawa indicated that the books are suspected of being prohibited
and are forwarded to you for classification. On December, Customs in Ottawa
sent the books back to Toronto with the ruling "released ... admissible".
C-FAR got the books on December 21.
Ironically, says Mr. Fromm. these books were already available in many
campus and mainline bookstores. This is the ultimate in harassment of politically
sensitive ideas . It is tampering with the right of thinking men and women
to read literature of their choice. Even worse, he adds, Customs behaviour
is entirely capricious, secretive and arbitrary. Neither the U.S. publisher
nor we, the importers, were ever advised that the books were being held
by Customs. In fact, in June, Customs denied having any knowledsge of this
missing box of books.
The same day, December 21, C-FAR received another box of books from
Scott Townsend Publishers in Washington, DC. These books had been missing
since June. The box had also been opened by Customs. A notice advised that
three of the four titles were being released. However, the fourth title,
five copies of Will America Drown? Immigration and the Third World Population
Explosion were being prohibited entry under Tariff code 9956 which covers
books, printed paper, drawings, paintings, prints, photographs ... that
constitute hate propaganda.
The book is an innocuous collection of academic essays edited by Humphrey
Dalton and published by Scott-Townsend Publishers in Wsahington, D.C. The
table of contents notes: The majority of the above papers have been adapted
from articles published in Conservative Review, which is published in McLean,
Virginia. The the Foreword to the book is an open letter from Gov. Pete
Wilson of California, who, in 1995, was briefly a candidate for the Republican
presidential nomination.
Among the contributors are Dr. Wayne Lutton, editor of The Social Contract,
Dr. Dwight D. Murphey of Wichita State University, and Dr. John Tanton,
Director of the U.S. Foundation in Petoskey, Michigan.
This seizure is a clear case of tyranny by the politically correct
and is manifestly unjustified, even under Canada's restrictive "hate
laws", says Mr. Fromm. The Supreme Court in the Keegstra case (1990)
clarified the meaning of "hate". The Customs guidelines for finding
that material is "hate propaganda" are arbitary and restrictive.
Immigration is a public policy issue. Its discussion and debate are in
the national interest. The language in this book is respectable and decent.
There's no way a critical discussion of current U.S. immigration trends
constitutes hate.
"If the government really believes a book is pornographic or constitutes
hate, then it should charge the author or the distributors, instead of
hiding behind the arbitrary and secretive procedures of the Customs censors,"
says Fromm. "The real issue here is freedom to read and intellectual
liberty," he adds.
For more information, call
Paul Fromm at C-FAR: (905)-897-7221 or FAX (905)-277-3914.
Additional Comments
"it's unbelievalbe. I can't remember another incident when anything
of this nature has ever occurred. It would never have happened in the United
States, and my first reaction was, Well, I'm not going to live in Canada.
...In general, getting books into Canada is more difficult than it should
be. I don't know what it is about your country."
Mary Curtis, Executive Vice-President and publisher of Transaction
Publishers. (Globe and Mail, January 3, 1996)
"It's really offensive to be telling adult Canadians what they
can read. I just find the whole thing demeaning."
C-FAR Research Director Paul Fromm (Ottawa Citizen, January 3, 1996)
"This has never happened to me before. It has never happened to
my publisher before. It's full of tables and figures. It's a boring read
for most people."
Professor J. Philippe Rushton (Ottawa Citizen, January 3, 1996)