In the wake of the worst imaginable snowstorm - 35 inches! - Ernst Zundel drove with one of his attorneys from Toronto to Ottawa. This trip took place in order to take depositions of the various directors of the Liberal Party, the Progressive Conservative Party and the National Democratic Party as a preliminary in the lawsuit launched against the Canadian political elite for barring him from the Parliamentary Press Gallery last June.
As many will remember, Ernst had announced this press conference to the Canadian media because he wanted to inform the Canadian citizenry that, according to a ruling of the Human Rights Tribunal, ***truth was no longer a defense*** in Human Rights Commission trials.
As you will see, the Zundel saga continues. After the depositions were taken, Ernst thought he should at least take a look at the place where his presence had not been welcome while the then current Parliament was in session.
According to Ernst, here is what happened next:
We first entered at the main entrance (Peace Tower) and were immediately met by two blue-shirted, uniformed Parliamentary security guards.
We told them we wanted to see the Parliamentary Press Gallery rooms.
They directed us to the basement entrance "scanning room" where we had to take off hand luggage, travel bags, coats, hats, remove all coins etc. - just like at an airport.
We then proceeded into the hallway. I waited in the hallway with the attaché case of my attorney and my own travel bag while my attorney went to the washrooms.
During the time she was absent, first one, then two, and finally three uniformed guard inquired what I wanted, asking me: "You are Mr. Zundel, are you not?"
When I told them I was, they told me that I was not supposed to be in the Parliament Building at all.
I told them that they were obviously misinformed - that I had been banned only for the session which ended in June 1998.
They told me that they did not know that - that as far as they were concerned, I was still banned, and my name had not been removed from the list.
I pointed out that this was obviously a mistake, and the three officers told me, separately, that they had to follow orders of their superior, the Sergeant-at-Arms.
I told them not to worry - that I would leave as soon as my attorney showed up, that I always tried to follow the rules and "behave" within the rules.
At this moment my attorney appeared. I briefly explained the situation to her and told her about getting me removed from that black list.
She spoke to one of the security officers, now behind the counter at a desk. He was kind enough to give her the contact address of the Sergeant-at-Arms to get that ban lifted.
While she was busy at the counter, two RCMP officers entered the building in full uniform. One proceeded to the security officers behind the counter and spoke to them, looking in my direction.
The other RCMP officer walked towards me where I was standing talking to one of the uniformed security guards discussing my law suit against all the MPs. He also addressed me by my name.
He interrupted our conversation and asked me if I spoke French. I replied in French that I did.
He proceeded again to interrogate me in a friendly matter-of-fact way, wondering what I was doing?
I pointed to my attorney who was some 10 meters away and explained.
He told me I should not be in the building.
I replied that the guards had told me already, and that I would leave as soon as my attorney had obtained the address and details from the uniformed clerk behind the counter about getting my name removed from that blacklist.
We left at 4:20 p.m. by the downstairs exit next to the scanning room, watched by approximately 7 or 8 uniformed guards, one plain clothes official and the two Mounties.
I want to go on record stating that I felt once again discriminated against, humiliated and angry that I should be on a blacklist as some "troublemaker" or "undesirable" simply because I had wanted to inform the Canadian citizenry last June that, according the Human Rights Tribunal ruling, truth was not a defense. My name should have been expunged from that list at the end of the Parliamentary session in June 1998.
Any record that I am a troublemaker is incorrect - for as soon as Parliament banned me, even though I felt the ban was uncalled-for and unwarranted and, in my opinion, unlawful and contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I obeyed the ban and did not set foot in Parliament while the session lasted during which I was so unfairly banned.
January 6, 1999 starts a new session of Parliament. The Sergeant-at-Arms who is responsible for that blacklist owes me an apology and immediate removal and expunging of any reference in his records that I am a "troublemaker."
Ernst Zundel
Thought for the Day:
"A great man represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society; or, to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in his being there."
(Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)
Back to Table of Contents of the Jan. 1999 ZGrams