Haven't been updating much due to the business of the other members and the illness of the lead writer. However we shall, as always, preserver. 

We wrote about this case some time ago. Robert McCorkell left his estate to the American-based hate group the National Alliance in his will. Of course one could understand there might be a bit of a concern about a hate group, some of who's members have been connected to and convicted of racially based crimes, receiving that kind of scratch. So a few interested parties, not the least of whom is Robert McCorkell's estranged sister, have challenged with will in court. The National Alliance and their supporters have been crying and gnashing their teeth claiming that challenging the terms of a will is without precedent.

They are, of course, incorrect as wills are challenged all the time and those challenges are sometimes upheld (one such example would be Dian Fossey's mother who challenged her daughter's will and won).

Paulie has been, perhaps not so surprisingly considering his own ties to National Alliance members, one of the more histrionic of the McCorkell advocates. A few days ago in anticipation of an upcoming hearing Paulie posted the following:

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Back to Court Monday to Try to Get Isabelle McCorkell on the Witness Stand

Fredericton, NB. On Monday, John Hughes, lawyer for Fred Streed, executor of the Estate of Robert McCorkill, will appear before the New Brunswick Court of Appeal here to seek Leave to Appeal from a December 17, 2013 decision by Court of Queen's Bench Justice William T. Grant denying him the right to cross-examine Isabelle McCorkell (yes, different spelling), the sister of the late Robert McCorkell.

Mr. McCorkell who died in St. John in 2004, left a substantial collection of ancient coins and artefacts to the U.S.-based National Alliance. The will received probate in May, 2013. Almost immediately the Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Alabama denounced the bequest and said it should be stopped. he was echoed by Richard Warman in Ottawa. Soon, after, Isabelle McCorkell who lives in Ottawa and is the long estranged sister of Professor McCorkill, announced she was seeking an injunction to freeze the estate until she could bring an application to have the bequest reversed as it was contrary to the public interest. Miss McCorkell had shown no interest in the estate through the nine long years it too to probate.

The Attorney General of New Brunswick, the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs piled in as interveners all singing from the same hymnal: that the bequest should be nullified as the National Alliance was "racist" and "White supremacist" and, therefore, contrary, to the public policy of Canada.

This shocking effort to hijack a testator's property brought the Canadian Association for Free Expression into the fray in opposition to the effort to erase Professor McCorkill's clear intent.

Early on, another judge had denied Mr. Hughes and the Estate the chance to cross-examine Miss McCorkell on her affidavit and the apparent contradictions in her position. For instance, she claims to be of very modest means and is unable to put down security for costs, as is customary in New Brunswick with out of-of-province litigants. Yet, she is able to afford one of Moncton's biggest and priciest law firms that has been very active on her behalf.

The Motion for Leave argues: "It is apparent from these interventions (the NB Attorney General, B'nai Brith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) supporting the Application (of Isabelle McCorkell) that a degree of co-operation of unknown proportions made possible the Application, and somehow protects the Intended Respondent (Isabelle McCorkell) from the usual costs of litigation."

The Application was scheduled to be argued in St. John, January 27-28, but Mr. Hughes will be seeking a postponement of the hearing date should he get Leave to Appeal from the Order denying him the right to cross-examine the litigant instigator of this Application. Mr. Hughes is also seeking the quashing of Judge Grant's Order directing Mr. Streed personally (not the Estate) to pay $3,000 in costs to Miss McCorkell and the three parties supporting her.
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Please Help CAFE Defend Free Speech from Those Who Would Submit Beneficiaries to Some Politically Correct Litmus Test

Gotta get the donation plug in, eh Paulie?

Anyways, that hearing was today.

How did that turn out?

Robert McCorkill/National Alliance estate – The National Alliance (NA) loses, again. Rumours are swirling today that US National Alliance point man Fred Streed (executor of the estate of Robert McCorkill) has lost another legal battle and is personally on the hook for $1,500 in legal costs to McCorkill’s sister who is challenging the bequest on public policy grounds. That, plus 500 clams each to the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the B’nai Brith League for Human Rights, and the Attorney General of New Brunswick.

That’s in addition to the $1,500 he already personally owe’s McCorkill’s sister and $500 each to CIJA/B’nai Brith/the Attorney General of New Brunswick when he lost the first time on this issue. Ouch, no beer in the rathskeller for you tonight!

Background – the NA was at one time the largest US neo-Nazi group although it’s power and numbers have dwindled after the death of its former leader William Pierce. A Canadian academic/chemist named Robert McCorkill had become involved in the NA and on his death in New Brunswick in 2002, left his collection of coins and artefacts valued at roughly $250,000 to the group. Fred Streed, a US citizen with a long history of involvement in the NA is executor of McCorkill’s estate and has been working (at a glacial pace) with a New Brunswick lawyer to transfer the collection to the NA so they can liquidate it and use the cash.

To their great credit, the Southern Poverty Law Center blew the whistle on the effort and the transfer of the estate has since been challenged by McCorkill’s sister with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the B’nai Brith League for Human Rights, and the Attorney-General of New Brunswick all intervening in support of her challenge on public policy grounds (like funding neo-Nazi groups whose founder’s writings promote genocide and ethnic cleansing maybe isn’t such a great idea).

Fred Streed now has to pay not $3000.00, but $6,000.00 for, in essence, wasting the court's time.

We have to imagine that having to pay a couple thousand to Jewish organizations must really stick in the craw of a long-time neo-Nazi like Mr. Streed.

But it's something that certainly puts a smile on our Collective faces.