Each month, Ernst writes his "Power" letters. These letters are Ernst's intimate, chatty missives for his extended "Zundel family" - his financial supporters who live in many countries - many of them old and in retirement. These people save and skimp and pray so that Ernst Zundel can keep fighting. They love him half to death. They like to read in detail how he is doing it.
Last week - as I was editing and formatting these "Power" letter, as I do every month - I thought that, in the wake of what transpired in the two ". . . truth is no defense" press conference bans on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, it would add a powerful human touch for many of my ZGram readers to know how it all came about.
Therefore, what is coming your way for the next seven days is a series of simple, folksy summaries. Here's story Number One:
I spent Christmas with close friends and relatives, which gave me a few days of beautiful quiet, time for reflection and the frame of mind to plan ahead, to map out short-term and long-term goals for the months and years to come. I needed that break to immerse myself in the Holiday Spirit.
As an early Christmas present from my German attorney, Jürgen Rieger, came a terse fax that we had, indeed, won the case against the indexing of 7 articles on the Zundelsite - none written by me, or by Ingrid Rimland.
Weird the way things work in the German vassal state. I won, but I still had to pay thousands of Deutschmarks in legal bills for the privilege of winning, for my attorney had to fly from Hamburg to Cologne several times to appear on my behalf. Even though it bugs me, my attorney advises me to grin and bear it, for an appeal against this illogical decision would be new, added costs. He suggested I should write off the expenses as "costs of doing business" in today's age. Wow! That's where we are at?
Now the New Year is upon us. For me, it started very much like the old one ended - with a dizzying, almost hectic pace. There is now one more "indexing" case outstanding in Germany for texts which were accessed on two other websites linked to the Zundelsite. They never even asked Ingrid Rimland for permission to link - nor did they need to, or were expected to. Linking is extremely common - linking to websites, friends and foes, as does the Zundelsite to Nizkor and the Wiesenthal Center - that's what the Internet is really all about! Networking for Freedom!
I will keep you posted on the progress of that new lawsuit.
The new judge in the SIRC hearings against me, Mr. Grant, informed my attorneys in writing that he had granted our objection as to possible apprehension of bias of Bob Rae, one of the SIRC sitting members, who had a right to give legal advice and editorial input in my case.
Judge Grant told us that Mr. Rae had agreed not to involve himself in the case. However, since Mr. Rae has for years frequently and viciously criticized me in public and in the media, I did not think a mere "hearsay" assurance was good enough. I thus asked my attorneys for a written undertaking by Mr. Rae to that effect.
Boy oh boy! That seems to have caused some consternation up in Ottawa! The shock of SIRC staffers was complete when my attorney and I showed up unexpectedly in person at the SIRC headquarters on the afternoon of January 6, '99 at approximately 3:00 P.M., asking where the letter was - and what took them so long? A visibly shaken lady staffer assured us that if we returned in an hour, we could pick it up. Which we did!
January 6, '99: Zundel still banned from Parliament - a near arrest!
My mother had a saying about being careful and telling me not to skate on thin ice. Well, those words came to my mind when my attorney and I had an hour to spare before we could pick up the SIRC-Rae related letter. We decided on the spur of the moment we would go up to Parliament Hill and check out the situation with that June 4, 1998 ban against me - which was supposed to have expired, we thought, with the last session of Parliament in the Summer of 1998!
Good thing we did check it out! A rude surprise awaited us!
We went through the normal rigorous security checks with X-ray machines and metal detectors, and I was surprised at the suspicious glances I got from the security staff, who were evident everywhere! My lady lawyer went off to the washroom, and I simply stood idly in the halls inside the center block of the Parliament Building, holding her attaché case and waiting for her to return.
Suddenly I saw ever more unformed security personnel descend upon me. I stood there, encircled by them, answering questions they fired at me. My attorney emerged from the bathroom and moved past what she thought was a captive audience I was entertaining - when, in fact, I was the "captive audience", and they were "entertaining" me!
While she negotiated with representatives of the Sergeant-at-Arms about the ban, she quickly found out from them that I was still on the blacklist and still being banned, and was, in effect, subject to arrest - for just being there!
By this time, two uniformed Mounties, Canada's famous, picture postcard Federal Police, had been called in by the security contingent, and they in turn asked me if I spoke French. I affirmed that I did, and thus found myself grilled in French - for good measure!
By now I realized I had to defuse the ever more tense situation, and jokingly I said to them, while looking each one of them in the eyes as I turned from left to right: "Relax. I comprehend the situation I am in. I am, after all, a German who believes in law and order. We Germans know all about obeying an order by a superior!"
They all started grinning and laughing.
I assured them that I would not cause them grief with endless paperwork to be filled out - that as soon as my attorney was done with the Sergeant-at-Arms matter, we would leave peacefully.
With that, I began to move slowly, still joking and laughing, towards the door, flanked by the Mounties on either side and the other security officers behind me like a comet's tail.
Inside my heart I was doing a slow boil at the new indignity and public humiliation they had put me through and vowed to undertake all possible legal steps to safeguard my rights. Once outside in the gusty, icy Ottawa air, we shook our heads in disbelief! Had the Parliament of Canada gone batty, or what?
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Tomorrow: Part II of "Two Weeks in the Life of Ernst Zundel"
Thought for the Day:
"He that complies against his will
Is of the same opinion still."