Copyright (c) 1997 - Ingrid A. Rimland
"As it is not alleged that the applicant himself is speaking the communications in issue over the telephone, he does not fall within the first branch of s. 13 of the CHRA, that of "communicat[ing] telephonically" a discriminatory message.
If the applicant falls within s. 13(1), it must be under the second branch of the provision, namely, "to cause to be so communicated."
It is the submission of the Respondent that by telephoning Dr. Rimland, the Webmaster of the Zündelsite, and working with her on newsletters and exchanging ideas by fax and by telephone between Toronto and California, the applicant uses the telecommunication facilities of Canada in a manner that brings him within the meaning of s. 13(1) of the CHRA.
It alleges further than the Zündelsite is presently only accessible from Canadian computers with Internet access over the same telecommunication facilities of Canada.
Thus, the argument appears to be that the applicant uses Canadian telecommunications facilities to speak or fax to Dr. Rimland and Canadian users use the telecommunication facilities to access the United States Website and that these uses of the Canadian telecommunications facilities bring the applicant within the meaning of s. 13(1) of the CHRA.
This argument is invalid for two major reasons:
The applicant does not control the Zündelsite and copyright of the HTML coded site resides with Dr. Rimland:
The control of the information contained on the Zündelsite resides with only one person, its creator and Webmaster, Dr. Ingrid Rimland. Dr. Rimland has the password to the site and she alone has the password. The applicant does not know and has never known the password to the Zündelsite. Dr. Rimland has refused to give it to the applicant when he asked for it in the past.
There is no dispute or question that the applicant and Dr. Rimland are intellectual and moral partners who greatly admire each other's abilities and who work closely together to defend their German heritage.
Both are ethnic Germans who feel strongly that the German ethnic group has been many times wrongly and falsely accused of atrocities during World War II.
In this, the Zündelsite reflects their feelings, aspirations for Germans and defence of their ethnic group. In this sense, the Zündelsite is very much "Ernst Zündel's" Website.
But moral and intellectual cooperation and respect does not constitute legal ownership, consent or control.
The applicant does not write his publications in Toronto, enter the HTML code, and then upload the material to a website in California which he controls through a password. The site is created, designed, and altered by Dr. Rimland alone and it is she alone who controls the password to the site.
If the applicant is ordered to "cease and desist", he has no power whatsoever to order Dr. Rimland to disband the Zündelsite. She resides in a foreign jurisdiction and it is she who controls and creates the site.
Any order against the applicant could not be enforced against Dr. Rimland. And the applicant has no legal control over the messages which Dr. Rimland decides to put on the Internet.
The copyright of the site resides in Dr. Rimland and therefore virtual ownership of the site."
You heard it.
There is nothing but nothing the CHRC can do to the Zundelsite itself. What
they CAN do - and no doubt WILL do - is waste yet another ton of Canadian
taxpayers' money in trying to stop Ernst Zundel by yet another round of
quasi judicial persecution and quasi legal harassment.
In the process of wasting Canadian taxpayers' money, they will be wasting
a lot of European Canadian taxpayers' money, many of whom are of German
descent.
You see, this is no longer Sabina Citron and her Holocaust Promotion Lobby
fellow travelers against Ernst Zundel and his hardy Zundelists.
It's going to be the clan against the tribe. Big time!
Since ethnic Germans are still the third largest ethnic community in Canada,
the bees will not like the soaking of the Holocaust Promotion Lobby's water
hose one bit.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Character is the diamond that scratches every other stone."
(F. E. Hulme)