". . . May I remind you that I have never been charged, let alone convicted in Canada for violating Canada's Draconian hate laws, which have been in force since the early 1970s. The materials I publish are not hate, and perfectly legal and constitutionally protected in Canada, as my Supreme Court victory of August 27, 1992 clearly demonstrates.
I have no criminal conviction in this country, yet I am constantly vilified, character assassinated by politicians and the media and targeted by public officials for unending harassment, new attempts to charge and criminalise me etc . . . simply to please my political opponents who have the ear of politicians and bureaucrats and dislike my German viewpoint on history.
The proposed changes in the sections of the (proposed) legislation which directly affect me, are, in my opinion, just the most recent and most blatant abuse of government power, this time excercised on a ministerial level---simply to please my political enemies who publicly and vigourously demanded that these changes be made, after I won my apprehension of bias motion against SIRC in Federal Court.
As Members of Parliament you have a solemn obligation and a moral duty to enact fair and impartial legislation---not laws to satisfy agenda-driven lobbies, and which deprive citizens of their human rights.
I have lived in Canada for over thirty-eight years. In all that time, I have been a productive and law-abiding citizen. I am a life-long pacifist, and have ALWAYS advocated peaceful and legal means of expressing political dissent . . . and never once have I, or any of my followers, been arrested for violence of any sort.
I operate a perfectly legal business, pay my taxes and provide employment to many. What I write, publish and broadcast is protected by both the Canadian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.
Despite twenty long years of persecution, prosecution, extortion, character assassination, financial and business losses caused by various levels of government and relentless media vilification, harassment, demonstrations, and assassination attempts by arson and pipe-bomb, I remain law abiding and peaceful. To have some anonymous CSIS hatchet man claim that I am a threat to the security of Canada is an obscenity and an utter travesty of justice!
Judge Darryl Heald correctly saw the SIRC hearings for what they were---a biased and politically motivated attempt to railroad me out of Canada and into a waiting jail cell in Germany.
Parliament saw SIRC for what they were---a group of patronage appointees, contemptuous of Parliament, willfully misleading and mentally evasive when being questioned about their activities in the role of watchdog for CSIS, especially in the Grant Bristow affair.
Now I am asking you to see what this proposed legislation REALLY is. It is one more attempt by an agenda-driven minority lobby group who has the government's ear to silence and destroy me via government action where they have failed for the last twenty years. Despite their unrelenting efforts, they have not succeded in having me permanently silenced, bankrupted, criminalised, incarcerated, deported, or assassinated.
I have remained unbowed and unbroken, defending the honor of my father's generation, my heritage, my homeland and her unfairly maligned people against what I consider a damnable lie masquerading as history. The government of Canada on various levels has been a willing and active participant in this disgusting twenty-year long odyssey of persecution, and therefore owes me my citizenship, an apology, financial compensation, the restoration of my reputation, and a solemn promise to end my totally illegal and unjustified persecution!
Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations allows citizens to address their grievances to the government for the violation of an individual's human rights. It states:
"Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law."
If my claim for compensation from the government of Canada is once again summarily dismissed, as it was previously, then I will take my case to the highest levels of the United Nations. There I will detail every infraction of every law, and every denial of my civil, legal and human rights by the government of Canada against me, beginning with the arbitrary denial of my citizenship in 1968, until the present.
I will no longer tolerate, or suffer in silence, any interference in operating my legal business nor in exercising my rights to freedom of thought, opinion and expression. I expect to travel freely across borders without any chicanery or hindrance whatsoever. I will no longer tolerate being called a hatemonger, or having my character and reputation maligned. I will not allow harassment by mobs and demonstrations outside my home that restrict my ability to carry on my work, my ability to move freely on the street where I reside, and endanger my personal safety and that of my family, friends, and co-workers. I will not be an unsolved crime statistic in the case of three politically motivated acts of terrorism against me, namely a $400,000 arson and two pipe bombs. And I will no longer tolerate being endlessly investigated, targeted for harassment by Canadian Customs and Immigration, sued, charged, and dragged before numerous tribunals and courts, when it has been proven over and over again that what I say, write, and do is perfectly legal and protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
With this letter you may consider that Ernst Zundel has drawn his line in the sand!
Attached you will find a portion of a report entitled "Promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression" by United Nations Special Rapporteur Mr. Abid Hussain, authored in 1993. Read for yourself what my rights are as detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and what the proper role of the State is in preserving those rights, which Canada swore to uphold!
· Paragraph 23: . . . the protection and promotion of human rights require - and in legal terms, obligate - the State to take action or refrain from doing so whenever human rights so require, either to protect individuals from undue interference by the State or by third parties, or to safeguard their effective participation in the social, cultural, civil, economic and political life of society.
· Paragraph 26: Prohibition to interfere with the freedom of opinion is directed not only at interference by the State but also at interference by private parties.
· Paragraph 29: The European Court of Human Rights expressed the opinion that freedom of expression is applicable not only to information and ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock, or disturb the State or any sector of the population.
· Paragraph 30: A judge from India held that there can be no freedom unless thought is free and unrestricted; not free thought for those who agree but freedom for the thought others or we ourselves dislike. It is only from the clash of ideas that truth can emerge, for the best of truth is the power of thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market of ideas. Freedom of expression is central to that competition.
· Paragraph 31: Freedom of expression is protected in article 19 with respect to "information and ideas of all kinds". This implies that every communicable type of idea, information, opinion, news, advertising, art, critical political commentary, etc. falls within the scope of protection.
· Paragraph 48: For the purpose of protecting national security, the right to freedom of expression can be restricted only in the most serious cases of a direct political or military threat to the entire nation. How can CSIS or the government, claim with a straight face, that I am a direct political or military threat to Canada?
· Paragraph 53: As a general rule, States should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid meeting their obligations with respect to the safeguarding of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. In these instances, limitations on freedom of expression can be justified only when the public order of the State is truly compromised. Such a limitation may be in effect only for a limited period of time and under specific circumstances, and any restrictions must be clearly established so that everyone may know precisely what is prohibited, and what is subject to such limitations. Where and when have I disturbed the public order of Canada in over thirty-eight years?
In 1983, I wrote to then Attorney General Roy McMurtry and asked him to provide me with written guidelines as to what constituted hate literature under Canadian statute. I enquired so I could apply those standards to my writings in advance of publication, and avoid running afoul of the law. I never received a response to my request. Either my writings were legal under the guidelines and posed no threat, or the Attorney General, for reasons best known to himself, wished to keep me in the dark.
Instead what followed were criminal charges that led to nine years of litigation in the courts and the public humiliation of my being handcuffed, strip-searched and jailed repeatedly, my being under the most sweeping and oppressive gag order in Canadian history, the destruction of my lucrative graphic arts business, a relentless attack against my character and the deliberate destruction of my reputation, and an illegally issued deportation order! Through all this I had to pay for the financially crippling legal and peripheral costs in defending those rights already guaranteed me by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
All of my writings for the last thirty-eight years have reflected my lifelong pacifist viewpoint, and have advocated only the democratic, legal and peaceful expression of differing viewpoints. Never have my followers, nor have I, been involved in any type of violent activity. Therefore, the deprivation of my human rights . . . due to an institutional bias resulting from WW II propaganda posing as history in Canada has been an utter travesty of justice, and the blatantly false claim that I pose a threat to the security of Canada is preposterous and disgusting!
From this moment forward, I will no longer tolerate the flagrant abuse of my human rights by Canadian officialdom. I am, by submitting this letter, lodging a formal complaint against the government of Canada for the continuous abuse of my human rights. I am demanding my citizenship, financial compensation, a public apology, the restitution of my honor and reputation, and an assurance from the government that as of this moment my persecution has stopped.
I await your prompt reply and immediate action.
Sincerely,
Ernst ZündelThought for the Day:
"The biggest risk we face is a lack of credibility for the entire political process among Americans from every constituency.''
(Matthew Dorf, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc. March 10, 1997)