(IPS) feature

One of Canada's most outspoken feminists is fighting back against critics who say she went too far when she said US foreign policy "is soaked in blood.

Tanzanian-born Sunera Thobani, a professor of women's studies at the University of British Columbia, told a government-funded women's conference here last week that the US government unleashes "prolific levels of violence all over the world."

''From Chile to El Salvador, to Nicaragua to Iraq, the path of US foreign policy is soaked in blood," she said in comments that received front-page coverage in Canada's daily newspapers.

Thobani got a standing ovation from her audience of 500, most executives of feminist organisations and shelters for abused women and children.

Canadian Multiculturalism Minister Hedy Fry sat on a panel at the time but left the meeting after the speech. The next day, Prime Minister Jean Chretien joined opposition members of parliament to denounce Thobani's statement.

The contents of the speech, and Thobani's right to make it, have been debated on most of the country's newspaper editorial pages ever since and the speech has caused waves across the border, where US media have picked it up. This has been an added embarrassment to the government, already under pressure from Washington to tighten immigration and refugee laws.

After the text was posted on The Drudge Report website, Canadian media were flooded with e-mails from angry US readers. Her speech and media coverage remained on the Drudge site, which receives three million hits or visits a day, for four days.

On Thursday, Thobani demanded an investigation into why a federal police officer revealed that an unnamed individual has filed a complaint under Canada's hate crime laws that she incited hatred against Americans during the speech.

The complaint has been turned over to the Ottawa police department. Thobani is not expected to be charged with any crime but she says she has hired a bodyguard because she has since received threats and pornography.

'Pure harassment'

Thobani, a former president of the National Action Committee on the status of women, said in an interview she had not received any details of the complaint and is curious to know who made it.

"This is just pure harassment," she said. "They are trying to silence dissent in this country."

She has asked Toronto lawyer and human rights advocate Clayton Ruby to file a complaint of on her behalf against the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Police don't normally name subjects of investigations unless charges are laid.

"If you point to the factual record of US foreign policy, you are now accused of spreading hate," she said. "It really is unbelievable."

Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada allows for a jail sentence of less than two years for anyone convicted of the 'public incitement of hatred' against an identifiable group of people, when the comments lead to a breach of the peace.

An 'identifiable group' is defined as any section of the public distinguished by race, religion, or ethnic origin.

However, the same section also provides some broadly worded legal defences. For instance, no one can be convicted "if the statements were relevant to any subject of public interest, the discussion of which was for the public benefit, and if on reasonable grounds he believed them to be true."

Murray Mollard, a lawyer and executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, said a charge against Thobani would be an uphill battle for prosecutors. Mollard also said the state shouldn't prosecute someone who criticises public policies in a democratic forum.

"This is absolutely the wrong thing to do," he said. "We need to have an open debate about our response to Sept 11."