- Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel can be deported immediately
as a danger to Canadian security, a Federal Court of Canada judge has ruled.
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- In a searing 64-page ruling yesterday, Mr. Justice Pierre
Blais labelled Mr. Zundel a racist hypocrite who has nurtured a pacifist
image to conceal his support of right-wing extremism and his global propagation
of anti-Semitic material. "Mr. Zundel seems to thrive in this troubled
sea, surrounded by ambiguity and hypocrisy," the judge said.
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- "Mr. Zundel's activities are not only a threat to
Canada's national security, but also a threat to the international community
of nations."
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- No appeal is possible under the controversial national
security certificate procedure, meaning Mr. Zundel could be on a plane
to his native Germany at any time.
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- Judge Blais said Mr. Zundel's Toronto home was "a
revolving door" for every member of a global white supremacist movement.
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- He said Mr. Zundel deftly exploited Canada as a "safe
haven," and used his skills as a communicator and Internet pioneer
to give new life to the white supremacy movement.
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- Mr. Zundel, 65, has been living in solitary confinement
in a Toronto jail since his arrest on May 1, 2003. In keeping with the
security certificate process, much of the evidence at his hearing was heard
in secret.
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- Defence counsel Peter Lindsay said that he plans two
last-ditch attempts to obtain a stay of the deportation order -- both based
on the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada has not yet decided whether
to hear a pair of security-certificate-related cases.
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- "Mr. Zundel expected this result," Mr. Lindsay
said last night after visiting his client in jail. "He didn't think
he was going to get a fair shake."
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- "He could be gone tomorrow," said Bernie Farber,
executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress. "All I know is,
it's going to be quick. Canadians can breathe easier now."
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- Judge Blais needed only to decide whether the security
certificate was "reasonable." He went much further, stating that
the secret information erased any doubt of Mr. Zundel's status as a global
power who has hobnobbed with a who's who of the racist right.
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- He described Mr. Zundel as a man who, inspired by Hitler
and latter-day Nazi sympathizers, set out to support the neo-Nazi movement
in dozens of countries. "He also tried, by all means possible, to
develop and maintain a global network of groups that have an interest in
the same right-wing, extremist, neo-Nazi mindset," Judge Blais said.
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- Mr. Zundel left his Toronto residence, known as the "Carlton
Street bunker," several years ago, and moved to Tennessee to live
with his new wife. However, he was seized and returned to Canada by U.S.
authorities for violating an immigration requirement.
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- Mr. Lindsay said last night that while representing the
marginalized and unpopular is a lawyer's highest calling, it was a horribly
disillusioning ordeal.
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- "I will never, ever do another security certificate
case," he said. "A lawyer can play no meaningful role in the
face of secret evidence. The lawyer's only role is as a fig leaf, to make
the process look acceptable."
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- Mr. Lindsay said his attempts to secure a stay involve
two Supreme Court leave applications:
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- A Federal Court of Appeal decision that Judge Blais was
not biased and could hear the Zundel case.
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- An appeal of a constitutional challenge by suspected
terrorist Adil Charkaoui to the constitutionality of the security certificate
procedure.
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- Judge Blais said that what he heard in secret linked
Mr. Zundel to leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations movement and
many others who often resort to violence.
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- He said that if Mr. Zundel truly repudiated violence,
he would have shunned these people.
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- Judge Blais said that Mr. Zundel is an egotist who could
not hide his pleasure at the enormous influence he exerted as a "guru
of the right."
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- "I remember how proud he was when he mentioned in
cross-examination that his Zundelsite received hits from 400,000 people
a month, and that after his arrest, the number grew to 1.2-million people
accessing his website each month," Judge Blais said.
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- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
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