- 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.
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- 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".
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- 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.
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- Zundel complained of reasonable apprehension of bias
by that judge. The same judge rejected those argument and later ordered
him deported.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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".
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- We should care.
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- But as history tells us, most don't give a damn.
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- http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=20078
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