HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU ABOUT THE "ZUNDEL BAN"!
A SECOND PERSON HAS BEEN BANNED - ZUNDEL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, DOUGLAS CHRISTIE!
By way of background, a press release had been prepared in the Zundel-Haus to alert the media that Doug Christie was going to speak from the Charles Lynch Press Gallery today.
I saw this press release but never placed it on the Zundelsite because to the very last minute, I wasn't sure if this press conference would, indeed, take place.
I assume it was faxed out of the Zundel-Haus to media this weekend.
Here is that press release:
Canadian Free Speech League
Press Conference
Douglas Christie, General Counsel for the Canadian Free Speech League, will speak and answer questions at the:
Charles Lynch Press Gallery
in the Center Block of the Parliament Building on Tuesday, January 19, 1999 10:00 a.m.
His topic will be the denial of truth as a defense to a human rights charge, which has happened in the Ernst Zundel case, and is proposed by the provincial Attorneys General in criminal charges under section 319 of the Criminal Code.
Mr. Christie will point out the dangers of such amendments to the Criminal Code. He maintains: "The Human Rights Tribunal in the case of Ernst Zundel has created the most obscene precedent by denying not only the defence of truth, but even preventing the Commission's own witness from saying that truth would remove a statement from an offence. The provincial Attorneys General recommended in October 1998 that truth be removed as a defence from the promotion of hatred. The nation that can make telling the truth an offence has surrendered all moral authority. It is a disgrace to call such a country free or democratic."
Mr. Christie appears as the General Counsel of the Canadian Free Speech League, a federally-incorporated society whose goal is the maintenance and preservation of freedom of speech.
Canadian Free Speech League,
810 Courtney Street, Victoria, B.C. VOW 1C4 phone: 250-385-1022
A few minutes ago I placed the following second press release right on the blinking-light link on the Zundelsite homepage:
The Lawsuit Against
the Canadian Elite
January 19, 1999
A dramatic development has occurred!
Doug Christie, Ernst Zundel's lead defense attorney, has learned through an article in the Ottawa Citizen, that ***he, too, has been banned*** from using the Press Conference Room on Parliament Hill.
In half an hour, between 9:30 AM and 9:45 A.M., Christie will go to Parliament Hill and demand from the Sergeant at Arms ***a document in writing*** proving or verifying that he has been banned.
It should be noted that, according to media reports, Christie was banned ***not*** by a ruling of Parliament but by the Speaker of the House. It is reported that this was done with the consent of ***most*** members of Parliament.
It means that some did not agree.
Christie was not planning to discuss the ban of Ernst Zundel from the precincts of Parliament but the Human Rights Tribunal ruling in the Zundelsite trial in Toronto that TRUTH had been removed as a defence!
Canadian national media are invited to cover this breaking story.
Be an eye-witness to history-in-the-making!
So what happened? Are the Members of Parliament tantruming like spoiled children who did not get their way? Have they lost their minds to do something that careless and far-reaching - to ban an attorney of the professional caliber of Doug Christie who has argued free speech cases more than anyone else in Canada, often in front of the Supreme Court, and prevent him from speaking about a precedent of national importance?
I have my private thoughts!
Last night, before I knew all this, I talked to Ernst who gave me a quick run-down between media interviews, the gist of which was this:
This Zundel suit against the Canadian political elite is treated as far from trivial. Eight stone-faced, pin-striped lawyers plus their various associated were there, waiting for the Zundel legal team, as was the national media.
The judge in the opening court session listened very carefully and took many notes. The five political parties made a pitch that they are not "sue-able" since, legally, they don't exist as an entity or some such legalese - an argument that will prove very interesting.
Ernst thought that Doug was very effective and made every point on behalf of freedom of speech that needed to be made. Ernst said with a small tremor in his voice that Doug was making arguments ". . . like Cicero."
When I asked Ernst how he felt about the day, subjectively, he said that the impact of this challenge to the powers-that-be would be profound if the judge allows this case to go ahead. It means the day will come when they will all be cross-examined!
The onion peeling will begin!
Ernst spoke briefly about how privileged he felt to have been chosen by Providence to be the human instrument in challenging the Evil that is embedded in current government circles.
As happened Friday, this judge (whose name I don't even know at this point) has reserved judgment on whether he will allow this lawsuit to proceed. We will know soon.
It's now 10:15 A.M. Ottawa time, and Doug should be in the Parliament Building. Just now I had another call from Ernst whom I had asked to keep me posted intermittently.
Ernst said that Doug took a cab to Parliament and did a radio interview already on the way, and that, he, Ernst, having been banned from the Hill like some medieval brute, is watching from afar "on civilian grounds". Quite a few Mounties are mulling about and congregating around the steps of the Parliament Building.
"The long-range effects of all of this are yet to be assessed," said Ernst wryly before he hung up.
To mind comes a comment by one of our Revisionist friends that has always played in the back of my mind as I am watching this incredible drama around this unusual man and his life's struggle to rehabilitate the honor of his father's generation and to free his country, Germany, from the Curse of the Holocaust Myths:
"Zionist Jewish groups have repeatedly found themselves looking like the legendary B'rer Fox after his bouts with the Tar Baby. The more they flail away at Zundel, the stucker they seem to get."
Which shall be your Thought for the Day!