Before he died 10 years ago, retired New Brunswick chemistry professor Robert Harry McCorkill willed his estate to a US white supremacist group, the National Alliance (NA)
McCorkill was recruited into the National Alliance in 1998. He later lived at the group’s hilltop compound in West Virginia, where he edited the final book written by its founder William Pierce.
His estate including valuable rare antique coins, is estimated to be worth about $250,000 dollars. When his sister learned of the donation to the NA, she felt compelled to challenge the will in court.
A New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench judge has now ruled the will is void under Canadian law. Judge William Grant said, “The evidence before the court convinces me that in the case of the NA [National Alliance] the purpose for which it exists is to promote white supremacy through the dissemination of propaganda, which incites hatred of various identifiable groups which they deem to be non-white and therefore unworthy”
In his 44 page ruling he went on to say that the will violated Canadian public policy as the group promotes hatred and use of violence. “Those purposes and the means they advocate to achieve them are criminal in Canada and that is what makes this bequest repugnant. It would also “unavoidably lead to violence because the NA, in its communications, both advocates and supports its use by others of like mind such as skinheads.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, or CIJA, and B’nai Brith Canada were both interveners in the case. They argued that the money from an eventual sale of McCorkill’s collection would revitalize the Alliance.
It’s now “a severely diminished group barely holding onto its shrinking membership,” CIJA said in a statement. “The injection of about a quarter million dollars might have breathed new life into this dying organization. Let this decision stand as a stark reminder that we must remain ever vigilant in our efforts to not allow such hatemongers the oxygen to spread their toxic vitriol.”
The group once had almost 1,400 members, but as of 2013, The Southern Poverty Law Centre estimates there were only about 100 members.
The Canadian Association for Free Expression unsuccessfully argued the will should stand. Lawyer Andy Lodge submitted that quashing the will would be taking a court into an area where no court has gone before by “evaluating” beneficiaries, adding it would open a “Pandora’s box.”
If no appeal of the ruling is made within 30 days, the estate would be divided between McCorkill’s sister and a brother.
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