- TORONTO -- Mr. Justice Pierre
Blais presiding athe tenth day of dissident publisher Ernst Zundel's detention
hearing broadly hinted that he was considering releasing Mr. Zundel with
conditions. However, the conditions would seem to be complying with a January,
2002 ruling of a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal demanding the removal of
large portions of the Zundelsite, including the pamphlet DID SIX MILLION
REALLY DIE? - already cleared by a Canadian court.
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- "I am a website hostage," defendant Ernst Zundel
remarked from the witness stand.
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- The judge's remarkable hinting as to a possible outcome
of the extraordinary lengthy bail hearings first emerged near the end of
Crown Attorney Donald MacIntosh's interminable cross-examination of Mr.
Zundel. "I put it to you that you have nothing but contempt for the
Canadian Human Rights Commission," MacIntosh challenged.
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- "No, I don't agree with you," Mr. Zundel responded.
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- "You called them a "hick tribunal." I
put it to you this is an expression of contempt," snapped MacIntosh.
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- I was referring to the Tribunal, not the commission,
Mr. Zundel clarified.. "It was a body where truth was no defence.
I was angry sitting in solitary confinement in the orange uniform of an
axe murderer or serial killer for my ideas," Mr. Zundel added.
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- At this point, Mr. Justice Blais interrupted: "There's
a human rights tribunal order against you. Now, you're in Canada. Will
you comply?"
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- "How can I comply?" Mr. Zundel responded. "How
can I force my wife in the U.S. who has a constitutional right to run the
website?"
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- "This is important in a bail hearing," the
judge warned, " to see if he'll comply with legislation and orders
in Canada. This is an important point to see how he'll deal with this.
This order has not been challenged and it applies to him."
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- Defence lawyer Douglas H. Christie was on his feet quickly.
"I object. Mr. Zundel hasn't had legal advice. The Canadian Human
Rights Commission hasn't charged him with contempt.."
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- The judge continued the veiled threat - purge the website
or sit in solitary. "If he says, "No, I cannot," I have
serious doubts about that. Compliance could be a part of the conditions.
Reaching 1.2 million people on a monthly basis," Mr. Justice Blais
remarked referring to the monthly hits on the Zundelsite. And then, as
he so often does, he teased, "But I'm not there yet."
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- In a tantalizing hint that he may be considering granting
bail to the dissident publisher, Mr. Justice Balis twice noted: "So
far, I'm not impressed by the evidence I have heard on the question of
bail."
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- The judge also questioned Mr. Zundel on the warrant for
his arrest issued by a German court in Mannheim on February 17, 2003. Quoting
the warrant, he noted, "the accused must expect imposition of a significant
prison sentence." Then, he asked Mr. Zundel: "You don't believe
you'd receive a fair trial in Germany."
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- "No," answered Canada's best know prisoner
of conscience.. "That's why I filed a refugee claim."
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- "If you were ordered deported to Germany, would
you show up for removal?" the judge probed.
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- In a clear voice, Mr. Zundel responded: "In Fort
Erie, on February 17, I signed an undertaking to accept voluntary removal
to Germany, after I'd exhausted all legal possibilities. I will not run
away. If Canada, has come to that point, I will leave. Believe me."
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- In the afternoon, lead defence attorney Douglas H. Christie
sought to clarify the issue of compliance with the decision of the Canadian
Human Rights Tribunal which, along the way, had ruled that truth was no
defence in the matter of the Zundelsite.
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- "Have you ever been convicted of breach of the Canadian
Human Rights Tribunal decision of January 18, 2002?" the battling
barrister from Victoria asked Mr. Zundel.
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- "No," was the answer.
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- "Have your whereabouts in Canada been known since
February 19, 2003?" Mr. Christie asked.
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- "Yes," said Mr. Zundel, indicating he'd been
in custody in solitary confinement, first at the Niagara Regional Detention
Centre and more recently, since May 16, at the Metro West Detention Centre
in Rexdale.
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- "Has anyone sent you documents from the Canadian
Human Rights Tribunal about breech of the order?" Mr. Christie queried.
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- "No," Ernst Zundel responded.
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- Using the language of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal,
Mr. Christie asked: "When you were in the U.S., did you communicate
telephonically by means of a facility within the jurisdiction of the Parliament
of Canada, material likely to expose Jews to hatred or contempt."
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- "No," Mr. Zundel responded emphatically.
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- "Did you put anything on the Zundelsite?" Mr.
Christie asked.
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- "No, I did not," the defendant replied.
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- Mr. Zundel indicated that he had approached several law
firms to pursue a delayed appeal against the 2002 decision and order by
the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
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- In a question that seemed to go directly to the heart
of Mr. Justice Blais's concerns, Mr. Christie asked: "What are your
intentions in regards to the Human Rights Tribunal decision prior to any
judicial review?"
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- "I am a website hostage," Mr. Zundel replied.
"I'm between a rock and a hard place. I'm in no position to dictate
to my wife. I heard you say as a bail condition," Mr. Zundel said
addressing the judge, "that a formula has to be found to persuade
my wife to give up her rights as an American citizen so that her husband
will not rot in a Canadian jail in solitary confinement. If I am ordered
not to communicate with her, it would be the end of our marriage."
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- Then, Mr. Chrisite concluded: "If you could comply
by not communicating with your wife about your website, would you?"
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- "Yes, I would comply," Mr. Zundel answered.
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- The day concluded with Doug Christie's stirring summation
arguing for the granting of bail to Mr. Zundel. "Mr. MacIntosh said
yesterday that one of the reasons of keep Mr. Zundel in jail is that if
he's out he'd be raising money for his defence. In 33 years of legal practice
and over 3,000 bail hearings, I've never heard one like this. I'm amazed
my learned friend should be so candid as to say Mr. Zundel should be jailed
to keep him from raising money."
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- Referring to Crown Attorney Donald MacIntosh, Mr. Christie
said: "My friend says Mr. Zundel is a lightning rod for the far right.
A lightning rod is a mechanism to channel dangerous electricity and render
it harmless, to prevent buildings from burning down. There's no evidence
he'll not show up for court. He may be a nuisance, but he's no threat to
national security," Mr. Christie argued.
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- "If there was a real evidence of a threat to the
security of Canada, it would have been made public. Not once has Mr. Zundel
been accused of being associated with or condoning violence," Mr.
Christie continued.
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- Then, turning to the bombshell evidence that the Canadian
Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) knew, in 1995, of a bomb being
sent to Mr. Zundel and did nothing to apprehend it or warn him, Mr. Christie
explained: "The evidence before you in the book COVERT ENTRY is prima
facie evidence of CSIS's hostility to Ernst Zundel, a pretty good reason
to have Ernst Zundel discredited and kicked out of Canada. There should
be a public inquiry as to whether CSIS was complicit in the delivery of
a bomb to Mr. Zundel."
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- Mr. Christie then took aim at the secret hearings in
this case and the defence's inability to know what was said or to refute
the evidence. He suggested that much secret evidence against Mr. Zundel
might be highly unreliable or come from sworn ideological enemies."We
don't know anything of the secret evidence heard against Mr. Zundel. However,
when we were before the Security and Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC),
Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress testified that Ernst Zundel
was a threat to national security. Then, we played a tape where Farber
said Ernst Zundel was a joke."
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- Looking directly at he judge, Mr. Christie said: "I
rely on the independence of the judiciary. I cannot rely on the bureaucracy.
It has a love of power. It has unlimited money, well paid lawyers, and
witnesses at secret hearing." Becoming personal, Mr. Christie told
Mr. Justice Blais: "Your Lordship and I see the world in very different
ways. Your Lordship sees the government as necessary and trustworthy. I
see government as a danger to individual liberty. However, all human beings
value freedom."
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- Mr. Christie dismissed the Crown's case, where no witnesses
have been called. "Look at all those pages of alleged associations.
There's not a credible threat there. It's a case of guilt by acquaintances.
The guilt by association has become so extreme it's hysterical. If this
was a real trial, a prosecutor tendering such evidence would be considered
an outrage.
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- Further on the bail application, Mr. Christie argued:
"There's every indication he'll obey. He's been under bail orders
longer than anyone I know. He was never found in breach." Referring
to the Supreme Court's overturning of the "false news" law, after
Mr. Zundel's appeal in 1992, Mr. Christie pointed out: "The law was
made clearer and better because of the activities of this man who has always
obeyed the law."
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- Addressing the apparent threat that Mr. Zundel must somehow
shut down or gut the Zundelsite, in return for bail, Mr. Christie pointed
out: "His wife firmly and passionately believes in freedom of speech.
Ernst Zundel hasn't breached the order. Until and unless he is charged
and found guilty, we have the presumption of innocence. This poor man should
not be held responsible for a breach that has not occurred. What would
any citizen say of a tribunal composed of removable political appointees.
It was typical of an Albanian court in the darkest days of Stalinist repression
and this body sought to order changes in a U.S. website."
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- Informed of the apparent blackmail intended by the Canadian
Court, Ingrid Rimland, Ernst Zundel's wife, wrote from her home in Tennessee:
"Think about it - if I want my husband back, it looks like I'll have
to trade them my website! It's just as Ernst told the judge: 'I am the
world's first website hostage.' I am now brooding on a poll where I could
put it to the American people: 'Are you willing to let me trade your precious
First Amendment to the Kanadian Kommissars so I can get my kidnapped husband
back to Tennessee? If no, you are going to have to help me. If yes, there
goes your freedom out the window - you may be sure of that!'" --
Paul Fromm
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