Last fall, during the hysteria following the Breivik massacre, The Sunday Times assigned a reporter to investigate Chris and other people associated with the International Civil Liberties Alliance. After the ST published an article “outing” Chris, he was suspended from his job at the LCC. After seven months, the process of dismissal has finally concluded.
All I can say about the case is that Chris Knowles is one of the finest people I know. He has never said or done anything that would remotely warrant his being fired.
And he’s not the only one — all across Britain, dozens of people have been harassed, intimidated, fired, prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned for the “crime” of criticizing the Islamization of the UK.
This is a travesty.
The following statement was just posted on the ICLA Website:
Statement from Chris Knowles of the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) in relation to being summarily dismissed from Leeds City Council in the absence of due process due to his political beliefsMy name is Chris Knowles. I was formerly a Director of the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA).
Today I was summarily dismissed from my employment with the Children’s Services Department of Leeds City Council. This follows a suspension that was initiated about seven months ago, as a result of an allegation about me that was published in The Sunday Times.
I intend to initiate proceedings in the Employment Tribunal for Unfair Dismissal, and proceedings for breach of human rights (freedom of expression). I was sacked without any disciplinary hearing and without being told what it is I am alleged to have done wrong.
When I attended Leeds City Council, I was not told I was to be summarily dismissed. There was a Police Chief Inspector who proposed to attend the meeting, but my barrister said that if she remained present then he would also need to be present. The police officer then agreed to leave the meeting.
I still have not been told specifically what I have allegedly done wrong. I believe that the police officer was there simply to intimidate me.
I have been a member of the trade union Unison for approximately seventeen years, but that union refused to represent me, apparently because my views disagree with Unison policy. I was notified of Unison’s refusal just a short time before I was summoned to this meeting, despite their being having been aware of my case for some time.
One would think that it is the job of a Trade Union to defend the rights of its members. Apparently that obligation does not extend to the defence of the right to freedom of expression.
— Chris Knowles
As a matter of ironic coincidence, the 7/7 bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan was also once an employee of the Leeds City Council.
15 comments:
What a depressing report. In a normal world there would be mass resignations from that poor excuse for a union. But we all know that won't happen.
The enemies of freedom are waging ‘guerre á outrance’. And so must we.
Seneca III
The enemies of freedom are waging ‘guerre á outrnace’. And so must we.
Sue the council until their nose start bleeding. Show zero mercy.
Very surprised the council has took the risk of possible legal action too placate a trade union.I bet their legal dept are hastily re-writing the original employment contract and local authority disciplinary procedure to fit the new thought crime agenda.
I wonder how those outside the United Kingdom view this case and whether they feel it would have happened in their own countries, possibly in Scandinavia it would. It is just that I have the feeling that the police state is now further advanced in Britain than elsewhere in Europe or North America. It is becoming quite frightening. I am informed that Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, the murdered black teenager has been lionised at these olympics, which only goes to show that these are the most multicultural olympics the world has ever seen in a country that is now so firmly in the grip of cultural marxism that they wish to state to the world that the England of the past with those despicable racist and imperialist English is of the past. Here the white man has been put in his place. Other white countries show take note and follow our leadership. However, as another anti-multiculturalist from Leeds, the erstwhile university lecturer, Frank Ellis who was also forced out of office by the Marxists, has pointed out, in the 60 years plus since mass non-white immigration into this country thousands of the indigenous population have been murdered by non-white immigrants, mostly in the course of robberies but none of their relatives is ever afforded the publicity that the Lawrence family have. I have reached the conclusion that the Marxists feel we deserved it because we are privileged whites and deserve to be robbed and murdered by less privileged non-white immigrants. Where were the relatives of the July 7th terrorist murder victims? No, that would offende the Muslims, just as the request for an address by the widow of the Munich Games Israeli athlete was deemed to be offensive to Muslims. Europeans cannot be anti-semitic but Muslims can. Europeans cannot deny the holocaust but Muslims can. Non-whites can hurl abuse at indigenous Europeans in this country and nothing is done. Whatever they do the English are in the wrong. This is designed to wear us down and demoralise us into giving in or just fading away as Frank Ellis has suggested. I can see a day soon when we have reached the status of the white farmers in South Africa, fair game for non-whites to murder as we are now pariahs in our own land.
Who needs terrorism when you have British unions and British employers? Any utterance of an "incorrect" phrase can mean the career that you worked at for 30 years of your life being ended at the drop of a hat.
To anon @ 6:00 pm--
It hasn't reached South African levels yet but your govt is working overtime to get there.
You said:
"I wonder how those outside the United Kingdom view this case" - for this American woman, and for many like me, I view it with great foreboding. Remember the elegiac the lights are going out all over Europe.... Today it would be more accurate to say, the lights all over Europe are being smashed & vandalized. The broken shards are being grabbed by the same vandals who fervently believe the indegenes have no right to exist.
Here in the US, to name just one serious breach, last 9/11 a state employee from New Jersey went to Ground Zero and in his own version of a fitting memorial act, he proceeded to rip pages out of the Koran and set them on fire. The video may still be on You Tube somewhere. After burning several pages he closed the book and walked back into the crowd.
Having made no attempt to hide himself, he was quickly identified and just as quickly fired from his state job. The governor of New Jersey, a purported conservative with a tendency to bully his interlocutors (a mode that stales quickly) gave his public approval of the firing.
It cost the state at least 25,000.00 to defend itself against this action. The employee took it to court, was reinstated with back pay, and (iirc) was awarded some amount for his troubles.
He must have lucked out on the judge in his case - N.J. is fast filling up court vacancies with Muslim judges who think wife-beating is legal. These appts are being made by that selfsame Governor Christie, who says foul things if anyone objects. Yes, he does receive a great deal of campaign money from various Muslim Brotherhood front groups & individuals.
Ironically, NJ, having lost so many of its citizens in 9/11, has lots of small memorials to their 9/11 dead. All of them, as far as I know, were built by groups and individuals who grew tired of waiting to see Ground Zero come up with a memorial. All of them can see the great empty space where their family members perished.
Chris Knowles said, "One would think that..." to which I must sadly respond: "thinking" plays no part in their summary dismissal of a loyal employee.
I literally lighted a candle in your honor this afternoon - does soing so matter a damn? Only to me: gestures & rituals are my only defence against an increasingly Kafkaesque world.
God have mercy on them, from the journolists sans integrity to the bureaucrats who choose the instruments of your persecution .
Then again, how does the current situation - even with the draconian punishments by employers - compare with times gone by?
Here in Warsaw, commemorations are taking place for the anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Rising against Nazi occupation. (including a powerful minute's silence, when even all cars stop on the street to beep their horns).
Yesterday, to mark the start of the uprising, was a concert called "Zakazane Piosenki" (forbidden songs) - a collection of popular songs during the uprising, often composed during a few hours near the heat of battle. Some of the verses sung caught my eye as being, compared to ourselves today, almost from another planet. Here is (translated) a fragment of one of the songs:
Fly, our eagle, upwards fast.
Serve glory, Poland and the world.
Who survives - will be free.
Who dies - free today.
The soldiers singing this lived at a time when they could be captured by a German at a moment's notice, then put up against a wall and shot in the back of the head. Worse still, their families could suffer a similar fate, or be deported to a concentration camp. Yet here they are, singing "who dies will be free today"...
Compared to this, what are the dangers we face today? An arrest? Problems with a bank account? Being fired from one's job in a council? Are these "threats" on anything comparable to what our ancestors had to face? Yet most Brits (and others) prefer to stick their heads down and not speak up. When only a fraction of the courage of the Warsaw Rising partisans, or other WWII soldiers, could be enough to change things drastically - for the better.
Chris,
I did suggest to you a while back that you see this entire process, right from day one, as an adversarial position, and treat your employers accordingly in your dealings with them. I'm saddened to see that everyone else working in the UK must now view their employer as a potential adversary, every day they go in to work.
I can only repeat what I said earlier, and of course that's just based on my own experience, so you can take it or leave it - use the relevant legislation to force the council to cough up all sorts of interesting documents - the Information Commissioner's Office can advise you on how to go about this.
And take the council to an industrial tribunal. Hire a sharp lawyer and make sure that they understand everything about the case - to your satisfaction - before giving them the job.
Industrial tribunals are there to be won - I know. I've done that before. If you can use the law of the land (see the ico website) to lay your hands on any documents which incriminate your former employer, that could be extremely helpful once you get to your tribunal.
Someone somewhere must have made a decision to give you your P45. Who made that decision? For what reason? Did they have the authority to make that decision? (If they didn't, and the person above them, who did, doesn't want to put their name to anything, you could have found a chink in their armour.)
If you can get a name and aim any ammunition you have at them as an individual, as opposed to "the council" that could work to your advantage too.
Anyway, I'm really disappointed things have gone this far, and of course you have my best wishes for the future - just remember industrial tribunals are there to be won!
(And you should get legal aid for all the prep work, I believe. Just make sure - very sure - you have a good lawyer.)
I won an industrial tribunal years ago by providing documents which showed exactly what my employer had been doing. Bank statements (showing dates of pay, bouncing cheques etc.) Phone bills (showing dates of phone calls etc.)
Expecting them to try the old ad hominem routine, I even drove round all their customers and got references from them all - it was hilarious when they tried to do their ad hominem attack (which my solicitor was expecting) and he have them about two seconds to look through a pile of references from their own clients ... not enough time to see who had provided me with one, then he put them on the spot & asked them to name one name ... one customer who had ever had a bad word to say about his client (me) ...
Of course they were now on the spot. They were making this all up, and we all knew it. But if they mentioned a particular name,, and I had a glowing reference from them, they'd be busted. I swear a minute passed. It was a long minute. Their face turned red. They had to admit that no one had ever had a bad word to say about me. Result!
That's the kind of thing that works. Get them to say something then produce a document that contradicts it.
You know how it goes, but the point is that this sort of thing can work, and it does work. Industrial tribunals are there to be won - people win them every day.
Get as much documentation from them as you can - anything and everything relating to your case - if they can't provide documentation saying so and so made a formal decision to sack you on such and such a date, for such and such a reason, so much the better. Ask directly for that document. The ICO will advise you how to do this.
If you've asked for it, and they don't provide it, the ICO will help you out. I believe they will take over and they will have to provide it to them.
If they can't because no such document exists, then that's ok too. Violation of procedure, and there's also extensive employment legislation - the council has to observe that too, they can't just please themselves, no matter what they might think.
You can't just go around sacking people nowadays. Read up on employment law too - make sure your solicitor knows their stuff.
Anyway, once again, best wishes. This could still work out ok - fingers crossed eh.
Sue them all for as much as you can and accept no deals.
They must be made to suffer and seen to suffer.
They tried to make an example out of you because you belong to a group that fights for freedom of speech in order to frighten others from legally voicing their thoughts.
Congratulations, you're now a dissident. You have a moral obligation to all the other dissidents who didn't have the legal resorces available to you to strike back as viciously as legaly possible.
Make a singularly memorable example out of those who would try to make an example out of you.
Interested to read the comments coming in from Poland. Most Britons probably don't even realise there are Africans there. They assume that Eastern Europe is homogeneous and hence those "disgusting" racist comments during the Euro 2012 matches. As regards the Warsaw Uprising, most of us always assumed it was just Jews who were involved and so it made interesting reading. The difference in Britain is that the British do not even realise that they are the victims of a Marxist totalitarian revolution. The people involved are just Westminster politicians from the erstwhile Labour Party (Now the Socialist Workers' Party) and Cultural Marxists in what used to be left of centre parties. Had they been strutting around in uniforms then they might have looked up from watching the X factor. It reminds me of Logan's Run when the 30-year-olds were told they were being renewed when they were being extirminated. The British are saying "Oh isn't this new multiculturalism so new and exciting and vibrant, Britain was such a boring and dull place", little realising that they are in the Marxists' sights to be "renewed" i.e. exterminated. If only more did have the courage of you Poles but the English only find that when they are being led and at present they are being led like sheep over a cliff.
@Anonymous - sorry for the late reply: I posted the comments just before I left on a long holiday, and only saw your comment now. Maybe it's a bit off-topic but possibly a subject worth discussiong, so I'll try to tackle it:
I believe you had in mind the Jewish ghetto uprising of '43. The Warsaw uprising of '44 (whose anniversary was being commemorated when I wrote my earlier comment) was an attempt to liberate the whole city, in much the same way as Paris, and in line with Stalin's request that Poles "rise up" against the Germans. When the Soviets reached the East bank of the Vistula river, they stopped - and the insurgents were left facing the Germans by themselves. The Soviets also banned Allied aircraft from refuelling on their soil, so supplies were limited. The (mainly RAF) planes that did get through reported being shot at by the Soviets - even more than by the Germans! This is all detailed in a book about the rising by the historian Norman Davies. Eventually, the Germans overpowered the insurgents and systematically destroyed (using flamethrowers, and other means) around 80% of Warsaw's buildings. Around 300,000 people were also killed (mostly civilians, in cold blood).
There were even British and other troops taking part in the rising - mainly RAF servicemen shot down over occupied Poland who managed to make contact with Polish partisans.
Given the affinity that many left-wing teachers must have felt for the Soviets, I'm not sure how much of this was taught in UK or Western European schools? :)
Poland now, however, is not the Poland of the Warsaw Rising. Thankfuly, much safer - but also (sad to say) sharing some of the less favourable characteristics of its neighbours to the West. Specifically - political correctness has arrived here in a big way, especially in the media. Maybe related to slightly different subjects - whereas in Britain, criticism of Islam is pretty much verboten, here it's other issues - such as any doubting of the "official version" of the Smolensk air crash which killed 96 of Poland's most prominent figures. But the mechanism by which censorship is enforced - extreme ostracisation and ridicule - is basically the same. Although thankfully the vast majority Poles (the ones I talk to anyway) are more clued-on when it comes to Islam: any claim here that it's a "religion of peace" would likely be met with a barrage of laughter!
The media now is almost wholly pro-EU, and in favour of "modernising" not just Poland, but Polish society. Away with those pesky traditions like Catholicism - or even commemorating the Warsaw Rising. The bias is so heavy it is almost laughable: only yesterday, in the online version of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's biggest newspaper (on an international level, allied to, among others, the Guardian), the blame for the flooding of a new tunnel in Warsaw's underground system was pinned on a mayoral CANDIDATE several years ago!! Someone who didn't end-up being elected, but who, conveniently, represented the Catholic, conservative side of Polish politics. Also this week, Szymon Majewski, a top Polish comedian and talk-show host, had his program removed from TVN - one of the 3 main news channels. He said that, in addition to ridiculing the conservative opposition, he wanted to make jokes about the (liberal) governing party. This was too much for the boss of the TV station, who told him straight that the (mostly government-supporting) viewers did not expect to hear such jokes about the government!
As for Africans - there's lots of them here, courtesy of enticing students from African "brother countries" during the Communist era. And many play the race card just as much as in the UK.
The BBC Panorama "documentary" on Poland before Euro 2012 featured an interview with a representative of the anti-racist organisation "Nigdy Wiecej", which was training the stewards for Euro 2012. Last year in Gdansk, this organisation won an award for cleaning off racist graffiti. It was later found that they themselves had painted it on - as they couldn't find any real racist graffiti to paint off. And I read somewhere that the guy featured in the BBC interview was the SAME ONE as the one removing the racist graffiti he himself painted! I don't have the link as it's something I read briefly - but I believe they were both called "Jacek", so it could well be...
Nonetheless, that BBC programme let us know how easily many people believe "reputable" media: In two days after the programme, the price for a London-Warsaw return ticket by Wizzair for the following week had dropped from 120 to 70 pounds. The BBC bosses must have been very pleased with themselves after a job so "well" done!
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