Churchill’s trial

As the move towards the imposition of a Bill of Rights in Australia gathers momentum, the “Churchill Trial” came to a conclusion this week in Denver, Colorado. The trial has interesting implications for Australia, particularly in the area of “human rights” and the long running “history wars”. Also the ever-growing aggressive nature of indigenous rights, claims and demands for racial privileges. 

The trial involved Professor Ward Churchill, well known genocide writer and promoter of ethnic-anguish-about-the-past, who was sacked in 2007 from his post at the University of Colorado for falsification of historical evidence, fabrication in the description of historical documents, plagiarism of academic works and his obnoxious comments regarding the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York. Of that event Churchill described the victims as “little Eichmanns” and repeated the mantra expounded by genocide warriors in Australia that “even those with innocent roles in a system bear collective responsibility for perpetuating it.” Churchill went on “if you make a practice of killing other people’s babies for personal gain, comfortability, quality of life, [then] eventually they’re going to give you a taste of the same thing.” What this has to do with millionaire Bin Laden is unclear. 

The University of Colorado gathered a team of distinguished academics from across America to investigate Churchill’s work and found that his misconduct was serious, repeated and deliberate. 

For his dismissal from the Colorado university, Churchill sued, claiming that his rights under the “Bill of Rights” (Freedom of Speech) had been violated. The jury found that his rights had been violated but awarded him a mere $1 in damages. The verdict seems to suggest that a citizen’s right to “freedom of speech” includes the right to falsify documents, falsify research and invent historical occasions. All of this seems to have a familiar ring to Keith Windschuttle’s The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. In Churchill’s case his academic crimes mainly centred on the alleged white involvement in the 1614 – 1618 smallpox epidemic in New England and another outbreak in Fort Clark. His work in this area is much admired and quoted by genocide–fantasists around the world. 

In his own defence Churchill says “You’re allowed to profess if you are a professor.” which seems to tie in neatly with his claims under the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech argument … which the jury bought. But there is a little more to the outspoken Ward Churchill than his smallpox fantasies. 

Ward claims descent from native American Indians and he is heavily involved in indigenous politics and dogma. In his book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America David Horowitz lists Ward Churchill as a usual suspect. It is fairly well documented that Ward Churchill belonged to or was well connected with the terrorist group from Chicago, the Weatherman Underground and is associated with Professor Bill Ayres, the Weatherman co-founder. The group’s famous Days of Rage exploits saw over 30 bombings across America. A Bob Dylan song has the line “You don’t need to be a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows”. An existing interview has Ward Churchill recalling, while resisting arrest, that he attacked a Chicago police officer and “rammed his head into a concrete post”. 

All of this goes to show that no matter how much you detest our Western culture, it’s laws and traditions. No matter how much you slander our past. No matter how bad you say life is in the West … you can always fall back on its courts when things go bad for you. As the social-engineering and spin develops in the next few months regarding Senator McClelland’s inquiry into an Australian Bill of Rights, just keep in mind Churchill … both of them!