I’m familiar with Prof. Kent from a number of papers he has published on this general subject:Greetings,
This letter has been prepared by Dr. Stephen Kent and MA Student, Ms. Samara McGrath. Dr. Kent is a professor with the Sociology Department at the University of Alberta. Ms. McGrath is working on completing her Masters at the University of Alberta under Dr. Kent’s supervision.
The goal of this project is to look at the individual experiences of people who have beliefs that may be encompassed by the term Freeman on the Land. We fully recognize that many of you may not refer to yourselves as Freeman on the Land. You may prefer to call yourself human, flesh and blood, sovereign, free, or a variety of other terms. We appreciate these individual beliefs. Our use of the term Freeman on the Land is for simplicity’s sake and because it is such a recognizable term. For the purpose of this study, the term freeman on the land will encompass any belief system that involves individuals seeking to remove themselves from the current form of governance in favor of an alternate system based on common law.
Recruitment of participants for this study will occur online and participants will submit their responses through the mail. This allows for participants to maintain some privacy and for participants to respond to the questions as their schedules allow. It is also hoped that by use of the internet and mail, individuals from a larger geographic area may participate. The questions posed to participants will be open ended and are meant to simply guide participants in the telling of their own individual stories. Questions will explore how you found your beliefs, how your beliefs have evolved over time, how you practice your beliefs, how you feel about the current state of society, and how you feel about the outlook for the future. It is expected the questionnaire may take 1-2 hours to complete.
The study is not sponsored or funded so there will be no financial compensation offered for participation. However, it is hoped that participants will find benefit in telling their own individual stories, which may be in contrast to news media stories and court cases. Society as a whole may benefit from a better understanding of the individuals behind these movements and their unique beliefs.
Participation is completely voluntary. If you are 18 years or older and are interested in participating, please visit the following website to obtain further information (http://www.dropbox.com/s/sen5gxbrualzk9 ... ETTER.docx) and the questionnaire (http://www.dropbox.com/s/39k62l9k8avtks ... naire.docx). Please feel free to share this information with anyone you know who may want to participate.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Ms. Samara McGrath & Dr. Stephen Kent
Researcher Supervisor
snbirch@ualberta.ca steve.kent@ualberta.ca
- Stephen A. Kent & Robin D. Willey, “Sects, Cults and the Attack on Jurisprudence”, (2013) 14 Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion 309 (http://lawandreligion.com/sites/lawandr ... 20Kent.pdf)
Stephen A. Kent, “Freemen, Sovereign Citizens, and the Threat to Public Order in British Heritage Countries” (seminar paper) (http://griess.st1.at/gsk/fecris/copenhagen/Kent_EN.pdf)
Personally I am very excited by this project. I think it would be extremely useful to have a better understanding of the kinds of persons who become affiliated with these groups, as well as their backgrounds. I have a ‘mental model’ of the typical Freeman, Sovereign, or Detaxer, but I’d be very interested to see some good hard data to check whether or not I am off base.
As this is a sociological research project it is vulnerable to bias from self-reporting factions of an overall population, but still – data of this kind will, I think, be helpful. And a very useful counterbalance to the worthless opinion-based ramblings that we have thus far received from law school commentators who have no first-hand data on these groups, and apparently no interest in acquiring such.
So best of luck to Prof. Kent and Ms. McGrath and I hope their results are published in open and refereed academic sources.
SMS Möwe