- Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
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- Below is yet another scurrilous anti-Zundel article so
typical of Canada's boot-licking Zionist press. As I have counseled before,
ignore the insults - after all, journalists must make a living, too, in
a repressive state - and ponder what it really says.
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- This is, so far, the most outspoken article affirming
that a horrible injustice has taken place in branding Ernst as a "threat
to the security of Canada", and that it's time to come forward with
the "evidence" against him - or, if such evidence does not exist,
to set him free.
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- Of course, not even a shred of evidence exists. The
sparrows chirp that from the roof in Canada! Ernst Zundel is in prison
because the Jewish Lobby wants him there! For that, they even stooped
to kidnap him, as we will prove in court.
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- Incidentally, a similar article appeared in the Washington
Post, which shall be your Zgram tomorrow.
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- [START]
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- The National Post: Playing Into Zundel's
Hands
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- By Andy Lamey
- December 17, 2004
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- Ernst Zundel is Canada's most notorious Holocaust denier.
Over the past 20 years, he has been in and out of courtrooms many times.
Last month, a Toronto judge heard closing arguments in what may well be
Zundel's last Canadian trial. At issue in the hearing is whether Zundel,
age 65, is a security threat. If the judge rules he is, Zundel will be
deported to Germany, where he grew up, and charged with violating that
country's law against Holocaust denial.
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- Zundel is a repellent figure, one who represents a horrifying
combination of racism and historical blindness. But the way the government
has conducted its case against him is flawed. Civil liberties have been
compromised and procedural justice ignored. Never hearing from Zundel again
may be an appealing prospect, but achieving that goal through the use of
draconian legal measures is too high a price to pay.
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- The most disturbing aspect of the government's case is
its use of a national security certificate. Security certificates, which
can be used against any non-citizen in Canada, even permanent residents,
allow the state to proclaim someone a security threat - and so deportable
- after a trial that is extraordinary in two ways: Not only is secret
evidence allowed, but that evidence can never be challenged.
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- Perhaps there are rare instances where the government
needs to invoke evidence it can't reveal for reasons of national security.
But the very idea of unchallenged evidence is frightening. The foundation
of Canada's legal system is its adversarial nature, according to which
the defense has a fundamental right to critically examine and rebut the
government's case. Take away that right, and the result is not a legal
trial, but an Orwellian exercise in which a judge must decide whether or
not to accept the Crown's case on faith.
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- There are five other people besides Zundel being held
on security certificates in Canada, all Arab or Muslim men accused of terrorist
connections. (Mohamed Harkat, of Ottawa, may be the most well-known).
Any anti-racists who delight in seeing Zundel subjected to a star chamber
proceeding have to ask themselves how they would feel if the same tool
were employed against an innocent immigrant. Even if some of the other
suspects held on security certificates turn out to be connected to terrorism
- a far from foregone conclusion - they deserve to have a lawyer with a
security clearance challenge the evidence against them during the secret
portion of their trial, as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association advocates.
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- With Zundel, there is an added concern. It involves
his status as a long-term resident of Canada. Zundel is not a Canadian
citizen, but with the exception of two years spent in the United States,
he has lived here since 1958.
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- Deporting people who have spent the majority of their
lives in Canada is an unjust practice. It most frequently arises in cases
involving Jamaican and other immigrant families who arrive in Canada with
infant children, after which the children grow up in Canada without the
parents ever having taken out citizenship on their behalf. When the child
gets in trouble with the law as a teen or young adult, the state then attempts
to deport him to his "native Jamaica." As University of Toronto
immigration expert Joseph Carens has written, this practice is "a
scandal, a blatant and severe injustice against non-citizens." Deporting
Zundel after 40 years of residency would add legitimacy to this indefensible
practice.
- The final question Zundel's case raises involves not
procedure, but substance: Is he actually a security threat? Secret evidence
is impossible to rebut, but the public portion of the government's case,
it must be said, is weak. It consists of a long list of racists and neo-Nazis
with whom Zundel has had contact over the years. The insinuation seems
to be that they could be inspired by Zundel to commit some undefined act
of violence, against some unidentified target, at some unknown point in
the future.
- But when it comes to Zundel himself, the Crown concedes
that he "has virtually no history of direct personal engagement in
acts of serious violence." This is a significant admission, given
that the government classified Zundel as a security threat once before
- in 1995, to stop him from obtaining citizenship. In effect, the government
is admitting that it was then wrong and that its previous prediction of
violence never materialized - which only suggests how arbitrary and unchecked
its definition of a security threat has become.
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- A better approach would be for the government to do one
of two things: If it has evidence that Zundel is linked to genuine acts
of violence, it should bring that evidence forward in a proper criminal
prosecution, and if Zundel is convicted, send him to a Canadian prison.
If the government cannot produce such evidence, Zundel should be set free
to live out his remaining years in Canada, during which time he should
be allowed to fester in obscurity rather than continue to be transformed
into a figure of global fame, a process which Canada set in motion when
it first brought Zundel to trial in 1985.
- Either of these paths would be better than the one we
are now on: fighting an authoritarian racist with measures that are themselves
authoritarian, and can only result in serious injustice against non-citizens
who will most likely be minorities.
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- Long-term Zundel watchers have suggested that in his
many legal battles, Zundel's goal is usually not to win his case. It is
to score a propaganda victory by bringing our legal system into disrepute.
"The Canadian government," Zundel crowed at his deportation
hearing, "short-circuited their much-vaunted due process."
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- To our great sorrow and shame, we have proven the old
fascist right.
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- [END]
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