FPO Call-in – Page 4 – Freedom Party of Ontario Archive

Gord Mood and Robert Metz on immigration and social programs

Sep 011986

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
These two recordings were found, back to back, on a cassette tape, sandwiched between a recording dated August 13, 1986, and another dated September 8, 1986. Only the two excerpts were recorded, so we cannot know the specific topic being discussed, but it appears the question under discussion was whether Canada should be open to immigration. Freedom Party member Gord Mood and Freedom Party president Robert Metz each given an emphatic “yes”, and point out that a lot of the racism and anti-immigration sentiment is actually caused by bad government policy in respect of social programs.

Gord Mood Excerpt

Robert Metz Excerpt

Robert Metz versus Ontario PC leader Larry Grossman re: Sunday Shopping

All, FPO Call-in

Aug 131986

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
On August 13, 1986, Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Larry Grossman was the guest of the Wayne McLean show. Grossman fielded calls from listeners, including Freedom Party president Robert Metz who challenged Grossman to clarify his position on the injustice or justice of a law that punishes a person for opening his or her retail store on a Sunday. Grossman was in favour of the law as a matter of tradition, but also said he was in favour of making exceptions based upon race (e.g., Chinatown, which laid within his own electoral district), business type (Grossman said he would exempt bookstores, and arguably he did so because the constitutionality of Ontario’s Retail Business Holiday’s Act was being challenged by a Toronto bookseller Edward’s Books and by Toronto furrier Paul Magder, whose fur business was located in Chinatown, in Toronto), and other completely arbitrary things. When Grossman says he doesn’t know how to solve the apparent injustice of allowing store owners in Chinatown to open their stores while other store owners are charged and lose their business to competitors, Metz argues that market forces, not government force, provide the solution.

Robert Metz Excerpt

Complete Recording

Marc Emery and Robert Metz on taxpayer funding for the 1994 Commonwealth Games

All, FPO Call-in

Jul 311986

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

In the summer of 1986, the City of London was considering making a bid to host the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Marc Emery and the Freedom Party of Ontario had already successfully campaigned – alone – against London’s bid to host the 1991 Pan Am Games (a bid that would have stuck taxpayers with a tab for hundreds of millions of dollars). So, when London Mayor Tom Gosnell was the guest of Wayne McLean’s London-based radio show, to speak about the Commonwealth Games bid, Marc Emery called in to oppose taxpayer funding for the bid, and a bit of an exchange between himself and the mayor ensued. At the end of the program, McLean held a rapid-fire yes/no poll about whether London should bid for the 1994 Commonwealth Games, and Freedom Party’s Robert Metz – knowing that the bid would again stick taxpayers with a tab to pay land developers and others for the building of white elephants – called in to say “no”. The “no” side won the poll.

NOTE: Ultimately, BC taxpayers were the ones who got stuck with the $142M bill for the 1994 Commonwealth Games, which were held in Victoria.

Excerpt (Marc Emery):

Excerpt (Robert Metz):

Whole Recording:

Robert Metz vs. John Clarke

All, FPO Call-in

Jul 311986

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

FPO’s President Robert Metz calls into the Wayne McLean radio talk show and asks the show’s guest – anti-capitalist poverty activist John Clarke – how jobs are made. Metz also asks Clarke to describe what he thinks is “the better system”. His answer, without naming it: communism.

Excerpt: Robert Metz’s Call:

Whole Recording:

Robert Metz vs. Bishop John Sherlock

All, FPO Call-in

Jul 141986

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

FPO’s President Robert Metz calls into the Wayne McLean radio talk show to tell the show’s guest – Bishop John Sherlock – about his concern for a an anti-capitalist statement on the economy.

Robert Metz versus Gar Mahood and anti-smoking censorship

All, FPO Call-in

Dec 021985

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
In the 1980’s, Garfield (“Gar”) Mahood was the head of the Non-Smokers Rights Association (NSRA). The group’s purpose, essentially, was to get people to stop smoking tobacco. In this recording from the Wayne McLean talk show on Radio 98 in London, Ontario, Mahood was McLean’s in-studio guest. Freedom Party president Robert Metz calls in in reaction to Mr. Mahood’s comment, apparently made earlier in the broadcast, that if the London Free Press newspaper and other newspapers do not police themselves as he said they promised to do – i.e.., stop publishing tabacco advertisements – then the NSRA is in favour of a legislated solution (i.e., censorship). NOTE: this is the only portion of the broadcast that was recorded.

Complete Recording

Women Against Censorship…but for taxpayer-funded feminism

All, FPO Call-in

Dec 011985

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
In late 1985, radical feminist Varda Burstyn was the guest of a CBC talk radio show hosted by David Shatzky. The two discussed a book that had just been published (release date: November 28, 1985): Women Against Censorship. Burstyn was the book’s editor. The book contained a number of essays concerning feminist views on pornography and how to combat it. The general message of the book was that pornography should be eliminated not by censorship but by the promotion of feminist ideas. Freedom Party of Ontario’s Robert Metz initially found the topic hopeful – because it was opposed to censorship – but his hopes quickly were dashed: Burstyn was advocating taxpayer funding for the promotion (on air, etc.) of feminism. Metz called in to the show. This is the recording of his call.

Excerpt: Robert Metz

Nagasaki, the bomb, the USSR, and Reagan’s Star Wars

All, FPO Call-in

Aug 091985

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

August 9, 1985. It’s the cold war, and the Berlin Wall is years away from falling. It is the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan by the USA. U.S. President Ronald Reagan has announced a “Star Wars” initiative that would destroy enemy missiles before they land and do harm. Canadians hold strong views about whether to participate in the development of Star Wars. And an 18 year old young man by the name of Jamie Lefcoe (founder and president of Students United for Nuclear Sanity) is the in-studio guest of Radio 98’s Wayne McLean Hotline. Lefcoe’s group is against missile testing, and the arms race. McLean asks his callers: “Was it right for the USA to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki?”, and “Should Canada be involved in Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars Program?”.

Lefcoe’s position is that Canada should not participate in Star Wars, that mutual disarmament is the way to go, and that it is irrelevant which side (USA versus the USSR) is worse. To him, the USSR’s communist philosophy and totalitarian nature is not the issue, and does not matter. Over the course of the two hour program, three Freedom Party members call in to the show: Gord Mood, Robert Metz, and Marc Emery. London West’s MP, Tom Hockin (PC) also calls in.

Excerpt (Gord Mood):

Excerpt (Robert Metz):

Excerpt (Marc Emery):

Whole Recording:

Robert Metz on Government Funding for Public and Catholic Secondary Schools

All, FPO Call-in

Aug 021985

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
In 1984, Ontario’s public secondary schools were government-funded (i.e., tax-funded) in all grades, but Catholic schools were government-funded only up to grade 10. Beyond grade 10, a tuition had to be paid by the parents of students attending grades 11 through 13 at a Catholic secondary school. In June of 1984, Ontario Premier Bill Davis reversed his party’s long-standing opposition to full funding for Catholic schools: he proposed funding grades 11 through 13, beginning in September of 1985 with grade 11, adding grade 12 in 1986 and grade 13 in 1987. Catholic schools – which were private – would be turned into government schools. By August 2, 1985, an Ontario provincial general election had resulted in the ouster of the PCs (for the first time in 42 years). The province now was governed by David Peterson’s Liberals.

Peterson decided to go ahead with full funding for Catholic secondary schools, starting in September 1985. So, on August 2, 1985, talk radio host Wayne McLean (AM980, London, Ontario, a.k.a. CFPL AM, a.k.a. Radio 98) invited George McLintock (Coalition for Public Schools) and Ken Regan (London and Middlesex Catholic School Board) – opponents on the issue of full funding for Catholic schools – in-studio to address the question: “Do you support full funding for Catholic schools?”. As usual, McLean took calls from his listeners. Freedom Party president Robert Metz was among them and explained that both McLintock and Regan were on the same side: the anti-freedom side.

Robert Metz Excerpt:

Complete Recording:

The Conviction of Jim Keegstra (1985): Collectivism & Censorship

All, FPO Call-in

Jul 251985

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

On July 25, 1985, Wayne McLean and Ann Robel, hosts of “Hotline” (Radio 98, London, Ontario) held a 2-hour radio discussion with Jim Keegstra, who had just been convicted in Alberta on a criminal hate speech violation: he had been sentenced to pay a fine of $5,000.00. Keegstra denied several widely accepted historical accounts of what happened in Hitler’s Germany, and believed that Jewish people – as a collective/group – were involved in a conspiracy to take over the world. Keegstra had been a mayor and a school teacher. After spending some time interviewing Keegstra, Keegstra stayed on the line as the show took calls from listeners in the London area, including Freedom Party president Robert Metz and Marc Emery (Action Director). Metz pointed out that both Keegstra and his opponents were making the same mistake: essentially judging people as a collective (in this case, Jewish people). He pointed out that such collectivism and suppression of speech were exactly the sorts of things that Hitler used to oppress Jews and others, and that gave rise to the second world war. Emery – who had personally interviewed Holocaust survivors and published their accounts in his publications, including the London Metrobulletin – explained that although he rejected Keegstra’s claims, he thought it important for every individual – right or wrong – to be free to express his or her views. He also pointed out that law enforcement tends to apply censorship laws not against big media companies, but against individuals with limited financial means of defending themselves.

Five (and, again 11) years later, the Supreme Court of Canada would reject Keegstra’s challenge to the constitutionality of Canada’s criminal law against the wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group. He received a one-year suspended sentence, one year of probation, and community service. Keegstra died in Alberta on June 2, 2014.

Excerpts (McLean, Robel and Emery, Metz):

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