IN THE SPRING of 1983 the attention of Canadians was

Focused on a small town in the western province of Alberta.

rhere Jim Keegstra, a small town high school teacher, had

taught his students that a Jewish conspiracy manipulated

people and governments in an ongoing attempt to control

the world.

Such theories are not new, of course. They are the

basis of blood libel accusations that date back to the Dark

Ages. But this is the 1980s, and Canada is a modern,

democratic society. The shock surrounding this revelation

was compounded when reporters discovered that Keegstra

had been teaching his lessons in hate for over a decade.

When the press descended on the small town--Eckville,

Alberta--to interview some of Keegstra~ students, they

discovered that the teacher had convinced many of the

young people that the Nazi murder of six million Jews

never took place. He had persuaded many that Jews had

manipulated world events since at least as far back as the

French Revolution in their efforts to take over the world,

that Jews were obliged by their religion to hate Christians

and rob and steal from them and that Jews engaged in a

variety of perverted sexual practises in their worship of the

anti-Christ.