After another great hike on Saturday I had a pretty simple plan for today:

AM - Lay in bed listening to Test Match Special

PM - Lay in a park finishing Harry Potter

The first part went pretty well. Had it gone exactly to plan then India would have been all out for 101 with Tendulkar making 100. As it was I got my other wish: that Monty would do for him again.

The unexpected turn of events occurred when I headed down to Princes Island Park, which is on island in the Bow River in the middle of Calgary. I'm sorry to tell my British reader that the weather here is absolutely fantastic so a day in the park seemed like a good idea.

As I got to the bridge beside the park I saw a bloke standing there handing out leaflets. He had a shaven head, jeans, boots and a black t-shirt on. I couldn't help but notice as I rode past that the t-shirt had the legend "WAFFEN SS". His arms were heavily tattooed but most prominent was the large swastika on the back of his hand. Slightly disturbed I crossed the bridge and found a place to sit and read.

However it didn't feel right, I wanted to do something about the guy with the leaflets. What would Chuck Norris do I thought? Roundhouse kicked them into next year - obviously. However the roundhouse kick is not really my thing so I had another thought. I thought I would stand up for free speech. I packed up my stuff and went back over the bridge to read what he was handing out.

Like Milton Friedman and the free market, I'm a fundamentalist for free speech. I actively want fascists and hatemongers to speak up, in public. I want to know who they are and I want other people to see who and what they are and to know they are out there. You can't ban ideas and imagine that they have gone away. And you can't just hope they go away either, people need to stand up for what they believe in.

I picked up a leaflet. The young man turned out to be from an organisation called Aryan Guard. The leaflet was entitled "Wake up Calgary" and the subject was a recent multiple stabbing incident that had been in the news last week. According to the leaflet the police were looking for "black men"! I asked the guy what this was all about. I couldn't really make out much of his response but when he started going on about "third world immigration bringing third world crime" I had to stop him. I told him I didn't care for his t-shirt very much. I told him my father had been a conscientious objector in WW2 but had come to join the army because he felt that fighting fascists and defending his country was too important not to be part of. I said I thought his shirt was in bad taste but I believed in his right to wear it and hand out his leaflets. Just like I had a right to protest. I don't think he expected what I did next.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" I shouted "Please take a leaflet from the fascists"

"Fascist literature available here -get it while it's hot"

"Don't forget to pick up your race hate as you pass by the fascists"

"Lets celebrate free speech in Canada with some of this fascist nonsense"

After about five minutes I saw him on the phone and it seemed he was calling for re-enforcements. Sure enough another tattooed guy with a wad of leaflets soon came down the path. I greeted him warmly. He didn't seem amused. He asked me to stop as they didn't want any trouble. I assured him that trouble was the LAST thing I wanted too, I just wanted to support their right to free speech. He didn't really know what to say to that.

So I carried on...

"Please take a leaflet -they've tried awfully hard"

"It's not easy being a skin-head in this sun - do please help out the fascists"

I tried some personal appeals:

- to the guy with a hot dog in each hand: "Ah Frankfurters - fine German sausage! Give him a leaflet!"

- to the girl with the tiny chihuahua on a lead: "Madam that dog cannot possibly protect you from the imminent racial apocalypse: please take a leaflet and get informed"

I wouldn't say I had drawn a crowd but there were certainly some people sitting down in the shade and watching the scene with a certain bemusement. This line got the biggest laugh (thanks Morrissey)

"They wear black on the outside" I said as one black t-shirted volunteer crossed the square to buy a drink "Coz black is how they feel on the inside... ironic isn't it??"

I did try some more serious exhortations to passers by

"Please take a leaflet and remember that fascists are on our streets"

Not long after I started a middle aged couple with 3 children came over. They told me they were from Hanover and they really admired what I was doing. A couple of girls who were rehearsing a play in the park also came over, they even wanted a photo!



I must have carried on for about 45 minutes. Then the police showed up. A couple of officers talked to the leafleteers and one guy came to speak to me. He was quite cool and said how they had received some complaints about the folks handing out leaflets and were taking them away to examine them for hate-crimes or something. He told me he had arrested one of the guys in the past and all of them had been moved on from another location in the city. I told him what I had been doing and he seemed quite sympathetic but his main concern was to maintain order and not raise tension. I told him I was happy to cease and desist now that they were here. Part of me wanted to protest that the fascists weren't being allowed their right to free speech but I kind of bottled that bit. Anyway - they had had their chance, I'd had my chance and the police had come and were doing what they were supposed to do: investigate a complaint.

Finally I went back to the park and finished the book. It was fantastic!