- TORONTO (CP) - Cartoons in
an American right-wing newspaper that depict blacks and Mexicans as inferior
races are "disgusting," Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel told his
detention review hearing Wednesday.
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- "I never saw that cartoon before this morning,"
Zundel said after federal government lawyer Donald MacIntosh showed him
a copy of a cartoon from the newspaper WAR, which stands for White Aryan
Resistance.
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- Zundel said he had the newspaper's publisher, Tom Metzger,
on his talk show in the early 1990s, but the German native and former Toronto
resident denied any knowledge of Metzger's views advocating violence against
minorities.
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- Zundel's review is being held to determine if he should
be released from jail pending a reassessment of whether he's a security
risk.
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- Observers in the courtroom weren't shown the cartoon,
but another one from the newspaper that compares Jewish and black people
to rats and cockroaches was posted Wednesday on the Anti-Defamation League's
website.
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- Zundel admitted he had previously seen cartoons from
the newspaper similar to the one MacIntosh showed him in court.
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- "Sometimes people mailed me excerpts of his paper
that had cartoons of this type," he told Federal Court Judge Pierre
Blais.
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- Zundel added that although Metzger had appeared on his
radio program, the publisher's views were never discussed on air.
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- "He never spoke to me like that," Zundel said.
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- MacIntosh said Metzger regarded himself as "America's
most dangerous racist" and counselled skinheads to engage in racial
violence.
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- Zundel denied any knowledge of those activities, telling
the court that he and Metzger only discussed publishing issues on the radio
show.
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- Metzger is no stranger to the Canadian and American legal
systems.
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- He and his son, John, were jailed for five days and deported
in 1992 when they attempted to enter Canada to address a racist rally in
violation of the country's hate laws.
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- In 1990, an Oregon jury rendered a $12.5-million judgment
against Metzger and his son for inciting the murder of an Ethiopian immigrant
by skinheads.
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- He was also jailed for 45 days in 1982 for attending
a cross burning.
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- Zundel acknowledged that his office had received publications
from the Ku Klux Klan, but said it was not at his request.
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- "People send me all kinds of publications,"
he said.
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- Zundel is seeking freedom pending a review of a federal
security certificate issued earlier this year that says he's a security
risk. The certificate could send him back to Germany to face charges of
suspicion of incitement of hatred.
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- Throughout the review, which began in May, government
lawyers have repeatedly tried to link Zundel with other Holocaust-deniers
and white supremacists.
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- Zundel, 64, was jailed in February when he was deported
to Canada from the United States, where he had moved in May 2000, for overstaying
a visitor's visa.
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- He immediately applied for refugee status in Canada but
was denied release by the Immigration and Refugee Board three times before
Ottawa suspended the application May 2, one day after the security certificate
was issued.
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- Once Zundel's detention review is complete, a judge must
decide whether the security certificate, much of it based on secret evidence
from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, is reasonable.
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- Once approved, the certificate becomes an immediate removal
order.
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- Zundel remains in solitary confinement at Toronto's Metro
West Detention Centre.
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