Douglas Hewson Christie, Jr. (April 24, 1946 – March 11, 2013) was a Canadian lawyer and political activist based in Victoria, British Columbia, who was known nationally for his defence of clients such as Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, former Nazi prison guard Michael Seifert and neo-Nazi Paul Fromm among others.
He was the founder and general counsel of the Canadian Free Speech League and was best known for defending individuals accused of Nazi war crimes or racist, anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi activity.
He first came to national attention as a lawyer in 1983 when he became James Keegstra's attorney after the schoolteacher was fired from his job and criminally charged with willfully promoting hatred by teaching his students that there was a Jewish conspiracy, along with spreading other antisemitic ideas.
His defence of Keegstra brought him to the attention of Ernst Zündel who retained Christie in September 1984 to defend him against criminal charges related to Holocaust denial with co-counsel Barbara Kulaszka.
Christie enlisted the assistance of outspoken civil libertarian Dr. Gary Botting, who in 1984 had published a book on George Orwell and Jehovah's Witnesses.
[4] [5] In addition to his extensive work on freedom of expression cases, Christie participated in wide range of causes touching on issues of individual liberties more generally.
[citation needed] The constitutional challenge was ultimately dismissed by the Ontario Court of Appeal, but Christie continued to represent the Montagues in their efforts to resist civil and criminal forfeiture applications by the Crown.
[10] In September 2012, Christie successfully defended Terry Tremaine, a Regina math instructor charged under Section 319(2) of the Criminal Code, by establishing that there had been unreasonable delay in bringing the case against him to trial.
Suffering Mr. Christie's words and opinions is part of the price one pays for upholding and cherishing freedom of speech in a free and democratic society.
"[12] On 11 September 2007, The Law Society of British Columbia issued a hearing report[13] finding that Christie had committed professional misconduct in his civil litigation practice by seeking, from a hospital, a bank, and a traveller cheque company, private health and financial records without a court order.