Beach and East York residents protest local paper

It sounded like a regular community newspaper.

Shortly after Genet Rady moved her downtown hair salon to the Upper Beach, she bought a year’s worth of ads in the Your Ward News. But when her first customer picked up a copy in her new Gerrard Street salon, Rady got a shock.

“Do you read that newspaper?” he asked.

Started in 2007 by local music promoter LeRoy St. Germaine, the Your Ward News has a history of provoking headlines, usually by ranting against politicians in the Beach and East York.

But St. Germaine’s paper turned a corner this year. Since March, Your Ward News has been wrapped in neo-Nazi style ads for a group calling itself the New Constitution Party of Canada, and has prompted several hate crimes complaints to Toronto police.

It also prompted Rady to try and pull her ad.

“I went there, I had a big argument,” she said. “Finally, I just decided I don’t want the money, just get rid of this ad.”

“They didn’t take it off.”

Peter Grudzinski, who runs a local cleaning business, had a similar experience.

“I told him two times already to just discontinue,” said Grudzinski. “I don’t want money back – just quit, simple.”

Besides customer complaints, Grudzinski and Rady got calls from East End residents who are tired of getting the Your Ward News delivered to their doors.

One of those residents is Scott Fraser, who started phoning such advertisers with some friends and neighbours this March. They call their group East Enders Against Hate and For Responsible Advertising.

“We’re not the government, we can’t censor anyone,” said Fraser.

“We’re letting businesses know who they’re working with, and who they’re supporting.”

Warren Belliveau, a friend of Fraser’s, said the East End group has about 300 members so far, and most of the advertisers they’ve spoken to have wanted to get out of the Your Ward News once they learn what it is.

“We’re not against free speech, we’re not trying to prevent him from publishing,” said Belliveau, noting that they are avoiding any direct confrontation, such as pickets, that could lead to violence.

“In our view, what we’re doing is counter-speech.”

In April, Your Ward News started paying for door-to-door delivery by Canada Post.

One local postal worker objected, but legal experts hired by the Crown corporation found Your Ward News did not meet its threshold for “non-mailable matter.”

According to the Canada Post website, “non-mailable matter” includes any mail that is illegal, obscene, or fraudulent, including “articles that are obscene, indecent, immoral, or scurrilous.”

Local MPP Arthur Potts has asked Canada Post’s CEO to reconsider, saying that while he respects freedom of expression, he disagrees that a government agency should deliver the Your Ward News.

Scott Fraser agrees.

“The idea that it’s a censorship issue to me is just a distraction from the more substantive issue of the content of the paper,” he said, noting that the paper doesn’t rely on Canada Post to get published.

After the latest edition published a quote calling him a “n****r,” Fraser complained to Canada Post.

Fraser said he was told there is no way to opt out of Your Ward News alone, though he could cancel all unsolicited mail, the delivery of which Canada Post considers a public service.

“I asked, ‘Are you saying that in order to get this public service, I have to put up with being racially harassed from time to time?’”

“The answer was a sort of shrug and ‘Talk to the ombudsman.’”

Patrick Clohessy, who writes a blog called Your Wards News Watch, said he’s not a big fan of Canada Post deciding what is mailable or not.

“But at the same time, I’m against Nazi propaganda being sent out as unsolicited junk mail to everybody in the neighbourhood,” he said.

Clohessy started his blog after reading an October column by Your Ward News contributor Michelle Erstikaitis, in which she endorsed two white supremacists in city elections.

One, Christopher Brosky, served 16 years in prison for the racially-motivated murder of a man in Texas. During his recent campaign for a seat in Toronto Centre-Rosedale, Brosky gave a TV interview wearing a swastika around his neck.

The other, Paul Fromm, made a failed bid for mayor of Mississauga last year. Fromm lost his Ontario teaching licence in 2007 for giving racist speeches and joining neo-Nazi rallies, including events hosted by the far-right Heritage Front and a party on Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

Asked how the Your Ward News is funded, St. Germaine said most of its revenue comes from donations, and it doesn’t need advertising to stay afloat.

St. Germaine welcomed the campaigns to phone his advertisers, saying that while Your Ward News has lost a few hundred dollars a month in ad revenue, the campaigns caused a “massive surge of thousands of dollars a month of donations from free speech advocates.”

As for residents who do not want the paper delivered to their door, St. Germaine said it’s impossible to pick and choose houses using Canada Post.

“If a thin-skinned, brainwashed recipient is offended, they can chuck it in the recycling bin,” he wrote.

Members of East Enders Against Hate and For Responsible Advertising say that besides Your Ward News, they are concerned about door-to-door ticket sales for St. Germaine’s Beaches Blues Festival.

The festival is registered as a non-profit corporation, and St. Germaine said that in the last 20 years it has supported disadvantaged youth with tickets, food, and T-shirts, as well as raising cash for worthy causes.

Vanessa Milne, a member of the East Enders group, said a Beaches Blues Fest canvasser came to her door about a month ago to sell tickets, and offered a reduced price if she made a charitable donation.

In his hand, he held what he said were hand-written letters by Toronto street kids. Milne had her doubts and declined to buy tickets or make a donation.

As for the free speech questions raised by St. Germaine’s newspaper, Milne, a journalist, took a different stance.

“I support free speech,” she said. “But for 50 years, we’ve had hate speech laws, and free speech at the same time.”

“They co-exist. It’s crazy to say this is about free speech, and if we don’t have this, there’s no free speech.”

“To frame it that way is giving this guy an argument that he doesn’t deserve.”