The
Heritage Front AffairA report to the Solicitor General of Canada
The
Heritage Front Affair
In early February 1992, the Source told a Toronto Investigator of a
discussion with Zundel concerning a "Toronto Star" article
on the "Anniversary of the Wannsee Conference". In the
Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Germans approved the "Final
Solution". According to the Source, Zundel was interested in having
Droege lay a private prosecution against the paper and reporter for spreading
false news. Zundel had already had discussions with Doug Christie to find
out about all the ramifications of such an action. Zundel felt that if
he pursued the prosecution, he would be in violation of his "gag
order".
This information was not passed to anyone outside CSIS.
David Irving is a British writer who denies that the holocaust ever
happened, and who has visited and lectured in Canada a number of times.
During a November 1992 visit, the Government undertook deportation procedures.
According to a CSIS assessment, Doug Christie advised that although Zundel
had returned to Toronto to assist, Irving requested that he (Zundel) not
appear directly connected to him. Apparently, Zundel agreed to this request
as Doug Christie had advised that such a connection would not help if Irving
challenged the Canadian Immigration position. The Source further learned
that Christie had told Irving to hold a press conference to tell people
that he had left Canada after receiving his departure notice by travelling
from Vancouver to Seattle. In effect he had violated his departure notice
and was challenging the Canadian government to act. Christie strongly denies
giving such advice to his client.
The information was obtained prior to the Deportation hearing. Doug Christie
was Irving's counsel, and Irving did, indeed, use the defence of his having
left Canada and then returned. The information, however, does not appear
to have been forwarded by CSIS to anyone. The information is not identified
as having been forwarded to anyone outside CSIS.[1]
On June 24, 1993, the Source learned that Droege had discussed with
his lawyer, Harry Doan, how to avoid bail restrictions which forbade him
to have any contact with Heritage Front members. The Committee learned
that the lawyer Harry Doan had suggested that all the members of the HF
resign their membership. This would allow Droege to have contact with his
associates and not be in contravention of his bail release conditions.
Doan categorically denies having made such a suggestion, and added that
he has never given any advice to clients on how to evade a court order.
He said that his involvement with the group was limited to legal work.
Before the Committee, Wolfgang Droege noted, "Right now, you see,
to get around my bail conditions, actually there is no actual membership.
There is no membership, you see, right now what we are doing is we are
only running a group of supporters".[2]
There is no evidence that this information was passed to anyone by CSIS.
The Review Committee learned that Fischer's lawyer, Harry Doan, will
use the Defence that ... [possible infringement of solicitor/client privilege][3].
We have also learned that the information was not provided to anyone other
than the Review Committee.
We discussed any possible infringement of solicitor-client privilege
with the source handler. The Source considered that some conversations
were not solicitor-client information, and brought them to the handler.
He, in turn, decided if the information was threat-related and thus whether
the information would be reported. He added that no solicitor-client information
was ever reported to anyone else; not to the police, and not to the prosecution.
In effect, the handler was a screening control similar to that used by
CSIS for the screening of Court-approved intercepts.[4]
We saw no other references to conversations possibly covered by solicitor-client
privilege.
1 The "Record Tracking" section is blank. Messages when forwarded
to domestic departments, agencies, or police forces, are tracked.
2 pp. 119-120, Testimony before the Committee, November 16, 1994
3 (Deletion of text by SIRC).
4 SIRC Interview of Handler.