Kenneth McVay - Nanaimo

Kenneth McVay has been described as an "ordinary man who refused to concede the Internet to the purveyors of hate." But the crusade he undertook to root out and expose electronic hate literature was anything but ordinary.

Neither a Jew nor an academic, Kenneth McVay's meticulous research and the electronic database he has built on hate literature have been recognized by academics, students, professionals and the media.

Backed by a volunteer team of 65 sympathetic computer activists around the world, Mr. McVay continues his battle against those who spread hate through the Internet. He has built a database of 2,500 electronic files -- more than 2 million words -- on fascism and the Holocaust which is regularly accessed for scholarly research.

He has been particularly concerned that young people flocking to the Internet, and impressionable first-time users are provided with a positive counter-balance to the hate propaganda they will find there.

Mr. McVay moved his family to Canada from the U.S. in 1967 and leads an outwardly unassuming life in a small city on Vancouver Island.

His efforts against electronic hate literature have made him Canada's resident expert on the subject and a much sought-after lecturer. It has also made him the object of numerous death threats.

Working to bring hate out in the open and expose it, Kenneth McVay provides a more effective antidote than censorship.