Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.06.2017, Blaðsíða 10

Bjartmar O.Þ. Alexandersson wonders
about the Canadian paradox when it
comes to a member of the Canadian
Race Relations Foundation.
On the 11th of May, Robert Spencer and
Christine Williams came to Iceland to
speak at a conference on Islam and the
future of European culture. I went to
that lecture and was astonished, not only
because of the obvious fear-based sales
pitch they were making, but because I
wondered, why would a woman who is
among the Directors of the Canadian
Race Relations Foundation, an appointee
of the government’s Minister of Cana-
dian Heritage, be speaking with Robert
Spencer about this issue in this way? She
was advertised by the group that orga-
nized the lectures as a "fighter for hu-
man rights," and they used the CRRF’s
name repeatedly in their materials.
Did anybody say
surveillance?
The Canadian Race Relations Foun-
dation, per its official description, “is
Canada's leading agency dedicated to the
elimination of racism and all forms of ra-
cial discrimination in Canadian society."
As Williams is a board member of foun-
dation with this core value, then why
did she say, in an interview on Iceland’s
conservative talk radio station Útvarp
Saga, "I think that time has come that
we need to run sur-
veillance in mosques."
Williams also wrote
an article for Spencer’s
website Jihadwatch.
com, known for Is-
lamophobic articles
and for sharing fake
news, entitled "My
personal warning to
Icelanders." She wrote:
"I indicated that if I belonged to a group
that gave others reason to be suspi-
cious, I would quickly allay such suspi-
cions by offering to answer questions
in meaningful discussions. I would
also allow the host society to surveil my
mosque, since I have nothing to hide."
They have nothing
to hide, right?
Here Williams shows a lack of knowl-
edge of the human rights protected by
the laws of most Western countries.
This is basically her recipe: Sell fear to
people, turn that fear into suspicion, and
then finally surveil the newly suspect
people. That surveillance is okay since
the innocent have nothing to hide, right?
Being one-quarter German, I
can tell you that this recipe has al-
ready been tried before, and the
end result was not really good.
How about some
answers, Canada?
I started to ask myself, why is an individ-
ual connected to the Canadian govern-
ment saying that we should discriminate
against people based on their race or re-
ligion, and put them under surveillance?
There were too many questions on
my mind regarding Williams’s state-
ments in Iceland. Why was this indi-
vidual saying these things and work-
ing with the government at the same
time? I decided to get some answers.
I contacted the Canadian Race Rela-
tions Foundation about the comments
Williams made here
in Iceland. I left mes-
sages for three days,
with no answer. Finally
I got in contact with
them, and their answer
was: "No comment."
I contacted The De-
partment of Canadian
Heritage to get also
some reactions to her
comments, and to see if we could get
an interview with the minister, Mé-
lanie Joly. After four days of phone
calls and emails I finally got a response
from Pierre-Olivier Herbert, the min-
ister’s press secretary statement was:
"Our Prime Minister has said it many
times, Canada is strong because of our
differences, not in spite of them. We
are currently looking into this matter".
All my questions have not
been answered, so I will con-
tinue my search for answers.
Words:
Bjartmar
Oddur Þeyr
Alexandersson
Photo:
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gpv.is/ugh08
STDs are on the rise, and the Health
Minister has set up a working
group which will have delivered
their findings on June 1. But this is
not the first time the Icelandic au-
thorities have intervened to keep
local genitals safe. In 1920, doctor
Guðmundur Hannesson published
his booklet ‘Social Diseases and
Protection from Them: Directions
for the Common People, Especially
Sailors’. At the time, rubber protec-
tion was well-known abroad, but
Icelanders were wary of anything
that could lead to promiscuity and
discussion was rare.
For that reason, strategies for
avoiding pregnancy were also a
problematic topic. An addendum
to Björg Þorláksson’s 1928 book
‘Spousal Love’ did broach the sub-
ject of contraception, the rationale
being that women should avoid
more childbirths than their health
would allow. Three years later, doc-
tor Katrín Thoroddsen caused a
furore when she gave a lecture on
the subject, titled “Free Love.” But
her opinion prevailed and from
1935, doctors were obliged to give
contraceptive advice.
Traditionally, the surest way to
avoid pregnancy was to abstain,
and society encouraged this by
forbidding children to those with-
out their own farms. People gen-
erally married in their late 20s but
had many children thereafter. In
the 1930s, childbirth decreased
markedly. Some historians sur-
mise that this was partially due
to an older technique known to
some—pulling out—gaining com-
mon currency. This seems to have
produced better results than ad-
vice previously offered by some
doctors: running up and down
stairs until the pregnancy was ter-
minated. VG
10 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2017
OPINION
BLAST FROM THE PAST
“...Why is an indi-
vidual connected
to the Canadian
government say-
ing that we should
discriminate...”
Meet the nationalists:
Who The Hell
Is Christine
Williams?

When Contra-
ception Came
To Iceland
Christine Wiliams in one of her good moods, spreading her message of hope and love
Scouring the DarkNet for clues did not answer any questions about the
mysterious Christine Williams (not the" Young And The Restless" character)
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