rense.com

Zundel Denied Basic
Rights To Fairness, Justice
Political Kidnapping To End With Canadian Deportation
By OfficialWire NewsDesk
2-28-5
 
TORONTO, CANADA (OfficialWire) -- With no criminal record in Canada and having lived there from 1958 to 2000, Ernst Zundel, 65, has now been in solitary confinement, in Canada, for 2 years after what many people have described as a political kidnapping by U.S. authorities. Zundel is about to be deported from Canada after a largely secret proceeding against him. The Crown and the presiding judge met secretly throughout his case, in the absence of Zundel and his lawyers. The Crown repeatedly presented evidence and made arguments to the judge in a "Star Chamber" type proceeding.
 
At the public proceeding, Zundel was told literally hundreds of times, when he asked for specific evidence of the case against him, that there was "nothing in the unclassified materials". He was repeatedly blocked from asking questions of witnesses on the basis of "national security".
 
The presiding judge made repeated serious errors, forgot submissions and repeatedly misstated the appropriate legal test about what evidence should be kept secret. The same judge then evaluated the secret evidence.
 
Zundel complained of reasonable apprehension of bias by that judge. The same judge rejected those argument and later ordered him deported.
 
The Federal Court of Appeal rejected his appeal regarding bias. It appears that the Crown will not wait to see whether the Supreme Court of Canada will hear the further appeal Zundel has already filed on the bias issue. In stead, the Crown will deport him NOW.
 
The Supreme Court of Canada has been asked, in Adil Charkaoui's case, to consider the constitutionality of the law which allows secret evidence by which Zundel is deported. The Crown will not wait until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear that appeal. If the law is ultimately ruled to be unconstitutional, Zundel will likely hear about it from a German jail cell.
 
Probably no one cares because Ernst Zundel is notorious and reviled. The powerful and the popular do not need to rely on the fairness of our legal system. The marginalized and the reviled do. The Canadian legal system has failed Zundel.
 
As a result, he will not initiate any further court proceedings in Canada. Repeated requests that Canadian courts recognize his rights to basic fairness and justice have been unanswered. Zundel will not beg for those rights.
 
Zundel has gone through the entire security certificate process, unfair though it was, to a conclusion. He has no right to appeal or to judicial review. He has gone to every available level of court in Canada.
 
For 42 years, he has vigorously defended his freedom of expression within the Canadian justice system. All legal avenues have now been exhausted, as has his faith in the Canadian justice system and this security certificate system, which has been characterized by a Canadian journalist, after witnessing part of Zundel's proceeding, as a "frightening charade of justice".
 
We should care.
 
But as history tells us, most don't give a damn.
 
 
http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=20078
 


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