Contents:
“Free Trade: Ensuring a Strong Canadian Culture” by Walter Block
“Sunday Shopping and Christian Ethics” by William Frampton
“Films for the Rational Filmgoer” by Marc Emery
“Limits Mean Poor Service” by Lloyd Walker Continue reading »
VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:
These two by-election commercials for the March 31, 1988 by-election in the Ontario riding of London North was aired on local television in London. Freedom Party of Ontario’s candidate in the by-election was Barry Malcolm. Continue reading »
AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
It’s the beginning of 1988. The Retail Business Holiday’s Act – introduced by Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives in 1975 – bans the opening of most retail stores on Sundays (although the Ontario PCs deny the reason, the fact is that the Lord’s Day Alliance – an alliance of 4 Christian religions – asked Premier Bill Davis, in 1975, to keep the Lord’s Day holy by imposing a ban). However, Canada’s Supreme court has already struck down (in 1985) a federal Lord’s Day Act that did the same thing, pursuant to the then-new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Although the Ontario legislation has survived (in 1986) a similar constitutional challenge, there is growing public support for ending the ban on Sunday Shopping (in no small part due to Freedom Party’s ongoing campaign to end the ban on Sunday shopping). Feeling the political head, Ontario’s governing Liberals have announced that they will be introducing legislation in 1988 that will give Ontario’s municipalities the power to decide whether or not Sunday shopping is banned within their respective municipalities.
And so, as the tabling of new Sunday shopping legislation approaches, on January 22, 1988, AM 980 (London)’s Talkback program asked callers to call in their views on the Sunday shopping ban. Four Freedom Party personalities called in: Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery, FPO supporter Dave Southen, FPO Vice-President Lloyd Walker, and FPO president Robert Metz. You can hear the whole program, or listen to their respective calls, below.
VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:
In August of 1987, Ontario’s election saw Global TV portraying Freedom Party of Ontario as a “fringe” party…a goal made easier by sandwiching a profile of the party between a profile of the communists, and a profile of the greens. The joke’s on Global though: although the report called Freedom Party’s election planks – including opposition to the Sunday shopping ban, censorship, and free trade – “not a quick ticket to Queens Park”, almost all of them have, long ago, come to pass. Continue reading »
VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:
In August of 1987, during Ontario’s provincial election, CFTO news in Toronto did a profile of Freedom Party. Discussed: Freedom Party’s stands on Ontario’s ban on Sunday Retail store openings, free trade, censorship, forced association/dues in unions, and Business Improvement Associations (BIAs). Continue reading »
Contents:
Openers: Freeing the Slaves. Sunday Closing Laws: Metz and Emery testify to Select Committee on Retail Store Hours; Magder Dinner a Success; Emery to Go to Court August 20 for Sunday Opening Charges; Freedom Party Blasts Toronto City Hall Inquiry Into Sunday Opening Laws. Taxes & Business: BIA Campaigns Draw Government Backlash; Bronte BIA in Trouble After Pamplet Barrage; Bronte Needs BIA; BIA Misrepresents Case; BIA on the Ropes; Mississauga, Toronto, Georgetown, Hamilton, Burlington, and Sarnia Actions; Letters: BIA Backlash; Hamilton City Council Votes Unanimously to As Ontario Government to Ban Freedom Party’s BIA Package and Recommends “Spreading False News” Criminal Charges Against Freedom Party; Newspaper coverage. Meet Bill Frampton. Regulation (Bill 154): Pay Equity Legislation Condemned by Freedom Party at Committee Hearings; Transcript of Questions Asked of Freedom Party by the Committee. Continue reading »
VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:
On or about June 29th, 1987, a private members bill was passed in the Ontario legislature which carved out an exemption – for small bookstores like FP Action Director Marc Emery’s “City Lights Book Store” – from the mandatory Sunday closing law set out in the Retail Business Holidays Act. Book sellers – especially Emery – had been among the most vocal critics of the ban on Sunday selling. Emery viewed the bill as an attempt to give him nothing to complain about. However, the bill just gave Emery a new way to impose what he and Freedom Party saw as a law that offended individual liberty and property. Continue reading »
VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:
On April 21, 1987, CBC did a news story on Freedom Party of Ontario’s Paul Magder Dinner, which raised money in connection with the campaign for choice in Sunday Shopping. Continue reading »
VIDEO – DESCRIPTION:
On April 21, 1987, Freedom Party held its Paul Magder dinner at the (then) Holiday Inn at 89 Chestnut Street in Toronto. The event included speeches by Freedom Party president Robert Metz, Douglas Devnich (Seventh Day Adventist Church), Marc Emery (then Action Director of Freedom Party and the proprietor of City Lights Bookshop in London, Ontario), and Toronto furrier Paul Magder. Emery and Magder each (as a matter of civil disobedience) had been charged, numerous times, for opening their respective stores on Sundays contrary to Ontario’s Retail Business Holidays Act. Continue reading »
AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
On Tuesday, April 21, 1987, Freedom Party hosted a dinner in support of Toronto furrier Paul Magder. Magder was continually charged under Ontario’s Retail Business Holiday’s Act for opening his fur store on Sundays. On April 20, 1987, CBC’s Radio Noon interviewed Freedom Party president Robert Metz about the party’s dinner, and about the party’s nature.