James "Jim" Keegstra (March 30, 1934 – June 2, 2014) was a public school teacher and mayor in Eckville, Alberta, Canada, who was charged under the Criminal Code with wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, the Jewish people, in 1984.

The main Supreme Court decision, R v Keegstra, became a landmark Canadian legal case upholding the constitutionality of the country's hate speech laws.

Douglas' social credit theory, which blamed many of the challenges of the Great Depression and society on international bankers.

[2] During this time, he was employed as a high school automotive mechanics teacher in Red Deer, from 1963 to 1966, and took on social studies in Medicine Hat in 1966.

[6] In Medicine Hat, Keegstra taught social studies "by the book" but found the content was largely "written by socialists".

Initially responsible for industry and automotives, he ended up teaching a wide variety of subjects, including social studies.

He taught his classes that the Jewish people seek to destroy Christianity and are responsible for depressions, anarchy, chaos, wars, and revolution.

According to Keegstra, the Jews "created the Holocaust to gain sympathy" and, in contrast to the open and honest Christians, were said to be deceptive, secretive, and inherently evil.

It was not until the parents lodged a complaint with the school board and went to the local newspaper, the Red Deer Advocate, that the issue became public.

The allegation was that Keegstra "did unlawfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, to wit: the Jewish people, by communicating statements while teaching to students at Eckville High School contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Code.

[17] Keegstra took his conviction to the Court of Appeal of Alberta, again arguing that the criminal offence violated the Charter's guarantee of freedom of expression.

The unanimous three-judge panel found that the criminal offence infringed freedom of expression and could not be justified under section 1 of the Charter.

By a 4–3 majority, the Supreme Court held that the Criminal Code offence of wilfully promoting hatred was constitutional, on both the issue of freedom of expression and that of reverse onus.

He held that Parliament's goal was to "prevent the pain suffered by target group members and to reduce racial, ethnic and religious tension and perhaps even violence in Canada."

As well, he held that the offence was carefully tailored to Parliament's concern and that "hatred" captures "only the most severe and deeply felt form of opprobrium".

She agreed with Dickson that the offence infringed the guarantee of freedom of association, but she disagreed with him on the question of justification under section 1 of the Charter.

A subsequent decision by the Alberta Court of Appeal reduced that to a one-year suspended sentence, one year of probation, and 200 hours of community service work.

[20][21][22] In 1986, Keegstra ran unsuccessfully for the party's leadership with the support of white supremacist Don Andrews and Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel.