“Alternative Party Leaders” Debate (Ontario provincial election 1990, Rogers)

 All, FPO Featured
Sep 011990
 

1990-09-xx.metz-thumb.2VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:

In September of 1990, during Ontario’s general election, Rogers held a televised leaders debate that included all but the three leaders whose parties most recenty held seats in Ontario’s Legislature. Debaters: Robert Metz (then leader, Freedom Party of Ontario), Elizabeth Rowley (Communist Party), Jim Harris (Green Party), James Stock (Libertarian Party), and Louis di Rocco (Family Coalition Party). Hosted by David Schatzky. Questions from callers: How would each party get AIDs medicines to patients without patients having to pay the high cost of those medicines; What would each party do about funding to public schools?; What is the Family Coalition Party’s position on homosexuality?; What would the Green Party do with respect to garbage and energy lost with our waste?; Where do the candidates stand on the issue of Sunday shopping?; What is Freedom Party’s position on the right to recall (i.e., unseat) MPPs when they do not keep their problems?; Is the Libertarian party committed to more funding for police forces to “combat the rampant drug problem in this province”?; What kind of program does the Communist Party have?; What is each party’s position on multiculturalism?; What is each party’s position on rent controls?; What is each party’s position on immigration?; What is each party’s position on abortion?; What is each party’s position on Worker’s Compensation? Continue reading »

Robert Metz: Sunday Shopping in London (July, 1990)

 All, FPO Featured
Jul 061990
 

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

On June 22, 1990, an Ontario High Court trial judge released his decision in the case of Peel (Regional Municipality) v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Co. of Canada Ltd.. The court declared Ontario’s Retail Business Holidays Act (which banned most retail sales on Sundays) unconstitutional because, it found, the Act was contrary to the religious freedom provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The decision was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal on March 20, 1991 but, in the meantime, many retail stores began opening their doors on Sundays.

FM 96’s John Boles reported on what was expected to happen when London stores opened on Sunday, July 8, 1990. Ron Logan of the Patton’s Place furniture store (a long time opponent of Sunday Shopping) and Robert Metz (President of Freedom Party of Ontario, which long advocated choice) were interviewed.

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Freedom Flyer (Issue #16: May, 1990)

 All, Freedom Flyer
May 011990
 

Contents:
“No Fair!” Says Fp Leader Robert Metz About Taxation; “Of The People, By The People, and For the People” – Democracy Reconsidered; Focus on the Environment – Fp Leader Robert Metz Participates in Media Forum On the Environment; Reforming Canada’s election laws; democracy and freedom; Sunday shopping; Fp’s Barry Fitzgerald Wins Battle to Force City of Welland to Clean Up the Welland River; Fraser Institute’s Senior Economist, Dr. Walter Block, Presents Fp Members And Supporters With A Reconciliation of Economics And The Environment; What Do We Owe The Poor?; No-fault insurance; Freedom 200 pins. Continue reading »

Freedom Flyer (Issue #13: Winter, 1988-1989) v.2

 All, Freedom Flyer
Dec 011988
 

Contents:
BIA The Clarkson Controversy, Sunday Shopping, Freedom of Choice, Competition, Private Property Rights, Freedom of Religion, Justice, Self-Responsibility, Free Enterprise, The Freedom Party campaigns; (Openers) The Long Hard Climb, party success challenges; 1988 Wellend-Thorold election results, various newspaper excerpts (Guardian Express); Calendar of Individual Freedom Expands Freedom’s Horizons, forecasts and strategies; Province is staying out of Clarkson BIA affairs (Mississauga News); Clarkson Controversy, What is BIA?, Battle Rages over Clarkson’s BIA, Clarkson Business Group in Turmoil, Clarkson BIA meeting turned to chaos (Mississauga News), Letter from Adams Rent-All to John Eakins, Minister of Municipal Affairs; Dresden Opposes Sunday Shopping (Chatham Daily News) Not Just a Single Issue – Anatomy of the Sunday Shopping Debate, FP Stance on Sunday Shopping Ad, It’s a Matter of Choice – FP rep Fitzgerald appears before Standing Committee on Administration of Justice – St. Catharines, 1906 Lords Day Alliance and Act (Welland Evening Tribune); Open-Line on Sunday Laws; Jailed For Justice, Marc Emery first to be jailed for violation of Retail Business Holidays Act; Also-rans Driven by Idealism, Pay Equity Rules – Market Forces, Marketplace Offers Better Education System (London Free Press); FP represented on CFPL-TV London – Sunday Shopping; Consent (issue #6); Freedom Forum – letters, questions, opinions. Continue reading »

Freedom Flyer (Issue #13: Winter, 1988-1989) v.1

 All, Freedom Flyer
Dec 011988
 

Contents:
BIA The Clarkson Controversy, Sunday Shopping, Freedom of Choice, Competition, Private Property Rights, Freedom of Religion, Justice, Self-Responsibility, Free Enterprise, The Freedom Party campaigns; (Openers) The Long Hard Climb, party success challenges; 1988 Wellend-Thorold election results, various newspaper excerpts (Guardian Express); Calendar of Individual Freedom Expands Freedom’s Horizons, forecasts and strategies; Province is staying out of Clarkson BIA affairs (Mississauga News); Clarkson Controversy, What is BIA?, Battle Rages over Clarkson’s BIA, Clarkson Business Group in Turmoil, Clarkson BIA meeting turned to chaos (Mississauga News), Letter from Adams Rent-All to John Eakins, Minister of Municipal Affairs; Dresden Opposes Sunday Shopping (Chatham Daily News) Not Just a Single Issue – Anatomy of the Sunday Shopping Debate, FP Stance on Sunday Shopping Ad, It’s a Matter of Choice – FP rep Fitzgerald appears before Standing Committee on Administration of Justice – St. Catharines, 1906 Lords Day Alliance and Act (Welland Evening Tribune); Open-Line on Sunday Laws; Jailed For Justice, Marc Emery first to be jailed for violation of Retail Business Holidays Act; Also-rans Driven by Idealism, Pay Equity Rules – Market Forces, Marketplace Offers Better Education System (London Free Press); FP represented on CFPL-TV London – Sunday Shopping; Consent (issue #6); Freedom Forum – letters, questions, opinions. Continue reading »

News (June 12, 1988): Marc Emery Released from Jail

 All, FPO Featured
Jun 121988
 

1988-06-12.emery-released-thumbVIDEO – DESCRIPTION:

On June 12, 1988, TV London News reported the June 10, 1988 release of then Freedom Party of Ontario Action Director Marc Emery from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ontario. He had been jailed for approximately 4 days for refusing to pay a $500.00 fine, which was imposed upon him because he intentionally staffed his book store (City Lights) with more than three individuals on a Sunday, contrary to Ontario’s then-existing laws against retail business on Sundays (a law imposed in 1975 by Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party). Continue reading »

Marc Emery on CHRW re: Sunday Shopping (June 10, 1988)

 All, FPO Panelist
Jun 101988
 

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

Beginning June 7, 1988, Freedom Party of Ontario Action Director Marc Emery spent 4 days in jail for having refused to pay a $500 fine that was imposed upon him by a court for having opened his bookstore on a Sunday, contrary to provincial law. He had opened his store as an act of civil disobedience, in conjunction with his efforts as Action Director of the Freedom Party. In the face of organized proponents of the ban on Sunday shopping – including organized religion, organized business interests, and all three of the political parties holding seats in the Ontario Legislature – Emery was the front man for Freedom Party of Ontario’s lonely, but ultimately successful, campaign against the Sunday shopping ban.

In this radio broadcast, “Radio Docs” host Mario Circelli mentions that Emery has just been released from jail to join him on the program (that makes June 10, 1988 the most likely date of the broadcast; Freedom Party president Robert Metz recalls having brought money to the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in the early morning hours of a June Friday to pay the money [collected from supporters as “Pennies for Principles”] necessary to secure Emery’s release). Arguably, the fact that Emery has just emerged from jail can be heard not so much in Emery’s voice, as in his words on the program. This arguably is Emery in his finest form.

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