Other Press on computers, lawyers say by Pat Micelli TORONTO (CUP) — Students reading details of the Karla Homolka murder trial on a computer network are not vio- lating the publication ban, says noted criminal lawyer Edward Greenspan. Calling up the newsgroup files on the Internet (an inter- national computer network) may defeat the purpose of the ban but*not the ban itself, Greenspan said in an interview this week. “I don’t see anything wrong with individual members of the public defeating the spirit of the ban.” The confusion arises because _ people think there is a ban on the details of the trial, but there is only a ban on publishing that information, said Greenspan. Homolka was tried for man- slaughter July 5, 1993 for the The Other Press is a proud member of: deaths of two young girls. She was sentenced by Justice Francis Kovacs to twelve years in jail. Kovacs’ ban prevents Canadian media from publishing details of the trial until Homolka’s husband, Paul Teale (formerly Bernardo), is tried on related charges. University of Toronto student paper The Varsity grabbed media attention recently after printing a step-by-step guide showing stu- dents how to access Homolka newsgroups censored by the uni- versity. Although the media flurry was ignited by a Jan. 17 Globe and Mail article quoting Greenspan as saying theVarsity had “clearly bro- ken the spirit of Judge Kovacs’ publication ban,” the lawyer con- firmed in a recent interview that the paper technically did not vio- late it. “Although [the Varsity guide] may be viewed as inciting people to go and obtain the informa- tion... the crime is publishing, not making the information available.” Since the media coverage, stu- dents have given the guide much more attention. “People were go- ing through the recycling bin to find old copies,” said the guide’s author, Sam Lee. “After it was on [local radio stations] there were some students in front of the computer terminals at [the li- brary] with Varsities wide open beside them.” But Erin O’Brien, fourth-year U ofT student and a critic of the Varsity article said even if charges are unlikely to be laid, there are still ethical and legal reasons why students should not try to access the information. O’Brien argued that one of the reasons for the.ban is to ensure that an unprejudiced jury can be assembled for the trial of a cooperative of student papers from post-secondary instutions across Canada Campus bookstore pulls holocaust denial books by Christopher Poulo TORONTO (CUP) — Wilfrid Laurier University’s bookstore has removed three copies of a Holocaust denial book after student complaints. _ Copies of Did Six Million Really Die? published by Holo- caust denier Ernst Zundel were removed from the shelves of the Waterloo, Ontario university’s bookstore in early January, hav- ing been there since September. Bookstore acting manager Shelley Worden said the deci- sion to stock the books was a mistake. “[The book] is on the verge of hate literature. Well, it is hate literature. We don’t want to be seen as stocking hate literature. We've pulled them.” “We didn’t realize it was the exact transcript of his argu- ment,” Worden said. Last September, a student had approached the Wilfrid Laurier bookstore asking for Did Six Million Really Die? According toWorden, the student suggested the bookstore order some shelf copies. “He said, ‘It’s such a controver- sial topic, maybe you [bookstore] should order some more copies.” The store ordered the student’s copy and Worden also decided to place three more on the shelves. Worden defended the decision to order the book for the student, a decision she based on the book- store’s ordering policy. “We will order anything a cus- tomer wants,” she said. “It was a mistake to order the other copies.” Did Six Million Really Die claims the Holocaust was an elaborate hoax. It was the focus of controversy three years ago, when Zundel, the publisher, was charged with the crime of “spreading false news.” Zundel was acquitted in the widely-publicized case. Bernie Farber, national director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the store should not have ordered the book. “Store owners have a moral obligation not to peddle racist trash,” Farber said. “Store own- ers that sell racist, pornographic, anti-Semitic material get every- thing they deserve.” Karen Mock, national director of the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith, said book stores should be careful when stocking hate literature. While Mock thought the bookstore acted properly to re- move the extra copies from the shelves, she added the real prob- lem lies not in placing such ma- terial on the shelf but in misclassifying it. She said such books should be placed in a section classified as hate propaganda and not misclassified as if they are his- tory. “It’s a matter of using discre- tion, using responsibility.” CENSORSHIP: It's ok to read about homolka Homolka’s husband. “There is a very direct rela- tionship between breaking the ban individually or collectively, and what may or may not hap- pen with the Paul Bernardo case,” said O’Brien in an interview this week. Greenspan confirmed there is a chance Ontario would not be able to assemble a jury since this is “the most high-profile case in the history of Canada.” In such a situation charges would be stayed and he would go free. But others argue that a publica- tions ban simply cannot achieve its goal of keeping information about the trial from the public. “The [guide] was supposed to show how easy it is to get infor- mation on Internet even in a case where the information is so tightly censored,” said Varsity editor Simona Chiose. Many universities, including January 24, 1994 McGill, Western, Queen’s, Carleton, and Waterloo, have taken the Homolka newsgroup files off their system. In amemo explaining why he counseled McGill to shut down Homolka user groups, legal ad- visor Raynald Mercille said al- though a university is not pub- lishing the information by hav- ing it available on a computer network, the network distributes newsfiles to other locations in Canada, and that could be seen as publication. But Toronto criminal lawyer Paul Copeland said he doesn’t think universities have anything to worry about. “There are two issues here — whether it technically violates the ban, and whether the Attorney General's office has any energy whatsoever to prosecute it. I don’t think they will... It’s a very passive form of publication.” DRINKING: A ban on advertising high- octane brew? by Susan Guzzo TORONTO (CUP) — The Brew- ers Association of Canada wants to stop the advertising of high-alcohol beers on university campuses. . The association’s proposed “National Responsible Marketing Code” calls for a voluntary ban on the promotion of such high- octane brew as Labatt Maximum Ice and MolsonTriple X in pubs, student residences and fraterni- ties. ButAndre Boudreau, manager of the University ofToronto’s pub The Hangar, says the code is merely a public relations ploy on the part of the Brewers Associa- tion. “They are just trying to look good to people who don’t un- derstand the real issues,” said Boudreau. Boudreau said he sees no need for an advertising ban on extra- strength beers. He said consum- ers decide what beer to drink based on their prices, not their promotions. “It is interesting that no one says we should ban the promo- tion of sherry or double scotch on the rocks — yet people drink the stuff,” said Boudreau. “The difference is that they know what they’re drinking and they know it’s going to cost more. So aware- ness is the key, a ban on promo- tion is not.” According to Jan Westcott, executive director for The Brew- ers of Ontario, the provincial chapter of the national associa- tion, the brewers are simply be- ing more cautious in promoting the stronger beers, which have up to twice the alcohol content _ of regular beers. “The beer industry regularly conducts promotions of its prod- ucts On university campuses. However, we decided to be more circumspect in the case of high- alcohol beer. This means that we are not actively going on cam- puses to promote high-alcohol beer,” Westcott said. Jim Delaney, U of T’s student _ affairs liaison responsible for al- cohol policy, said he felt discon- tinuing the sale of the beers might be more harmful in the end. “We have to operate accord-- ing to demand. If people want it and we don’t have it, they’ll get it elsewhere. Frankly, I would rather see them get it from us because I know that our staff serves more responsibly.”