- Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
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- I have been waiting for the conclusion of the April 13-14
Zundel hearings in Toronto to see where our NO SURRENDER front will move
next. In tomorrow's ZGram, I will summarize my changed strategies about
my hunger strike which will move to Washington, D.C. if all goes well,
but will likely have to be postponed for a week, as I will further explain
tomorrow.
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- Up-front, I have a request for you from a very angry
reader, polacco.de.menasce@tiscali.fr , who would like to give a sadistic
Canadian lawyer, Alan Young, a piece of his mind. As you will remember,
Young had written that people like Ernst Zundel ought to be tortured into
accepting the Holocaust Dogma. My French friend wrote to me:
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- "I know how busy, to use a mild term, you are, but
this man Alan Young must have his nose blown with sand paper. I have got
"the Toronto Star" on a site but not its ADDRESS. Please get
it for me and If you want I will send you copy of my letter to this high
flown scoundrel."
- My computer is still agonizingly slow and crashes often.
I don't have the time to look up this information. Please do it for me
and send my friend not only the Toronto Star email and address but also
the address and e-mail of Alan Young. Thank you.
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- =====
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- Here, now, is Paul Fromm's write-up of the first day
of the two-day Zundel hearings. I need to add that this day was far more
dramatic than the write-up suggests - Paul Fromm must have been very tired.
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- According to various reports, Ernst was again at his
best, reading points into the record that are crucial. In fact, Ernst's
testimony has been described as so powerful that the opposition declined
to cross-examine him, for fear he might say even more that they don't want
him to say.
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- As far as I know, this happened previously only once,
when the feisty German-Jewish writer, Joseph (Ginz)Burg, a man who hated
lies, testified on Ernst's behalf in one of his Holocaust-debunking trials
in the 1980s. The Jews never forgave (Ginz)Burg for that testimony and,
in fact, in typical Talmudic hate beyond the grave, refused to allow him
to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, and it is one of the sublime ironies
of history that it was up to Ernst Zundel a few years later to read the
eulogy at (Ginz)Burg's coffin in a Catholic church, right beneath Christ's
cross. ((Ginz)Burg was an avowed atheist!) Ernst insists he heard some
rumbling of approval coming from the coffin! I always loved that story,
and it is going to be in my Zundel movie script.
- Now on to the write-up:
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- [START]
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- TORONTO. April 13, 2004. Forty minutes into publisher
Ernst Zundel's national certificate hearing in Toronto, this morning, defence
team lead counsel Peter Lindsay dropped a bombshell when he announced that
he had subpoenaed investigative journalist Andrew Mitrovica who wrote the
book Cover Entry: Spies, Lies and Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service.
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- This book contains a powerful chapter exposing CSIS's
widespread opening of the mail of Canadian populists and their special
attention to Ernst Zundel in 1995. Even more shockingly, the book reveals
that CSIS knew a pipe bomb was headed for Mr. Zundel and, while it tried
to warn its mail-opening snoops not to touch packages from B.C. return
addresses, it did nothing to warn postal workers, Air Canada employees
or, of course, the intended assassination victim, Ernst Zundel.
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- Today's hearing had been scheduled to begin at 9:00
but was delayed until after 9:30. For security reasons, Peter Lindsay had
been denied access to Ernst Zundel the day before at the Metro West Detention
Centre. He had had to meet with him behind bars in a court holding cell
in order to take instruction at court this morning. "I'm not criticizing
any of these four men who are providing security for Ernst Zundel,"
Mr. Lindsay told Mr. Justice Pierre Blais. "I had to consult with
Mr. Zundel in a locked jail cell beside a toilet. Surely, in the seven
floors of this building, we can provide a private place for attorney-client
consultation," he said referring to the ongoing deprivation and degradation
inflicted on the German-born dissident.
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- Mr. Lindsay filed newspaper reports and court documents
relating to the staying of charges against David Barbarash and David Thurston,
accused of mailing pipe bombs to people such as Ernst Zundel in 1995 and
of mailing razor blades in booby trapped envelopes to hunters and fur industry
people, as well as Mr. Zundel. The charges were stayed in 2000 when the
RCMP decided it would not comply with a judge's order to provide disclosure
for fear of jeopardizing other investigations and informants and foreign
intelligence agencies.
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- Thus, the alleged perpetrators of the 1995 mail bomb
assassination attempt on Ernst Zundel's life were never prosecuted. Indeed,
Peter Lindsay revealed, "Thurston's lawyer Michael Klein confirmed
that they were never charged with anything relating to the attempted murder
of Ernst Zundel or to mailing dangerous substances" to Canada's most
famous political prisoner.
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- As has been his habit since he took over the defence
from Victoria lawyer Douglas H. Christie, Mr. Lindsay asked presiding Judge
Pierre Blais: "Have there been any secret hearings since last time?"
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- "I had one," Mr. Justice Blais replied. "I
was asked by the Minister's counsel to have a meeting. I expect to have
some information that I'm still waiting for," he added, apparently
referring to some sort of additional secret documents.
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- "How many sessions were there and how long did
they last?" Mr. Lindsay asked.
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- "He has no right to know," snapped chief Crown
attorney Donald MacIntosh.
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- An increasingly impassioned Mr. Lindsay argued: "I
take this very seriously. These secret proceedings have been criticized
by judges. I don't think it compromises the secrecy of the evidence to
know how much evidence is heard in private. Was it half an hour? One day,
five days?" he asked.
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- "There's no obligation to disclose this. You should
not disclose this," MacIntosh told the judge.
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- "I will not go further than what I said,"
Mr. Justice Pierre Blais said, picking up the cue. "I met with counsel
for the minister and received evidence," the former boss of CSIS told
Mr. Lindsay. "I will not give more information than that. For security
reasons, when or how long those meetings are, I will not say."
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- Mr. Lindsay questioned the catch-all "national
security" that has been used to curtail even the most innocuous questioning
in this extraordinary case. "How is security compromised by my knowing
how many days of secret evidence was heard?"
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- "We're here to hear the case," the judge snapped
peremptorily.
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- When Ernst Zundel retook the witness stand, he was asked
about a January 3, 1995 letter from Janice Dembo of the Toronto Mayor's
Committee on Community and Race Relations. She "was a Jewish lady
from South Africa," Mr. Zundel told the court. The letter was sent
to Marion Boyd, the then-NDP Attorney-General of Ontario. "I have
never seen a letter from a bureaucrat on how to harass a person,"
Mr. Zundel said. The letter complained of the "lack of legal action
against Ernst Zundel." It recommended sales tax audits, visits by
various municipal code inspectors, and removal of his mailing privileges
under Sec. 43 of the Postal Act. It concluded that, as Mr. Zundel had applied
for citizenship, "deportation may be the most expedient method of
ridding Canada of Mr. Zundel's noxious presence."
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- "I do not know how to spell out an invitation to
a vendetta better than this letter," Mr. Zundel testified. "There
were dire consequences for me. For 10 years I've been hounded." He
explained that he'd initially been told that he had to remit GST only on
sales of books or tapes. This ruling was cancelled and some time after
Dembo's inflammatory letter, Revenue Canada told him he had to remit GST
even on donations -- the bulk of his income.
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- In the spring of 1995, Mr. Zundel testified, he was
visited by a string of building inspectors, fire inspectors and even a
soil inspector, as well as various tax auditors.
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- Mr. Zundel cited a 1995 comment by Prime Minister Jean
Chretien addressing a Yad Vashem meeting in Toronto: "There's no place
in Canada for holocaust deniers."
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- "It's a vendetta," Mr. Zundel said forcefully.
"After my house was firebombed, a policeman called from 51 Division
and said: 'Ernst, there's a virtual vendetta against you. Be careful when
you go out. Don't go to the same restaurant twice. Go out, if you must,
with bodyguards. We can't protect you all the time.'"
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- His voice rising, Mr. Zundel said: "It's the same
method they used against Francois Beaudoin. He faced a Superior Court judge
in Quebec, but he didn't face secret hearings and secret evidence."
Mr. Zundel was referring to the former head of the Business Development
Corporation. A Quebec judge found that he's been hounded and mistreated
and his life ruined by Chretien operatives who resented his refusal to
grant a loan to one of Mr. Chretien's business cronies.
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- Mr. Justice Blais interrupted the testimony. "Those
cases are before the courts. We'll not tolerate that. We're not here to
hear speeches" from Mr. Zundel.
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- "Some latitude should be given to my client to
express his theory as to what's happening to him," Mr. Lindsay argued.
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- An increasingly angry judge snapped: "I made the
ruling about that."
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- Both Donald MacIntosh and Murray Rodych repeatedly interrupted
both Mr. Zundel's testimony and the subsequent questioning of CSIS spokesman
Dave Stewart with objections of "We've already heard this before."
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- Both the Crown and the judge seem in a rush to judgement.
After Mr. Zundel's examination in chief was over, Murray Rodych declined
further cross-examination: "On instructions of the minister, I have
no more questions," he told the court.
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- At the end of the day, the judge warned: "I'm not
afraid to start earlier and stay longer. The closer we get to the end,
the longer we'll stay."
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- -- Paul Fromm
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- [END]
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- Reminder:
- Help free Ernst Zundel, Prisoner of Conscience. His
prison sketches - now on-line and highly popular - help pay for his defense.
Take a look - and tell a friend.
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- http://www.zundelsite.org/gallery/donations/index.html
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