Late last night I received final word that the hard-working, dedicated Zundel legal team has, indeed, check-mated the Holocaust Enforcers, at least for the time being.
As a result, the Human Rights Tribunal hearings, which were to start again on Monday, and were to continue throughout a grueling summer right into August, at an estimated cost to Ernst of approximately $100,000, have been adjourned "sine die" - which means, indefinitely!
The Zundel team, supported by a growing band of genuine speech advocates who put support (and not just smarmy words!) where it belonged, prevailed one more time over Canada's audacious would-be censors and claque of Lobbyists. After an almost three-year-struggle, where all the self-proclaimed Internet Freedom-of-Speech "protectors" were nowhere to be seen or, worse, were denigrating and disparaging in various posts about the Zundel trial in their respective newsgroups - in the end, history will know and honor that it was Zundel who prevailed.
Ernst and I had a good laugh on the phone yesterday when he recounted how the attorneys for the Holocaust Lobby hurried out of the court room and straight into another Hebrew Huddle, "...flapping their black lawyers' gowns in the breeze and looking just like Draculas. . . " out into the halls of the courtroom, where they convened, ". . . and nattering like geese, if I may mix two metaphor. . . " after Judge Campbell ruled briskly and decisively in Mr. Zundel's favor.
As I informed my readers yesterday, in the wake of that ruling, one of Zundel's attorneys, Doug Christie, had given the would-be censors a deadline, 3 p.m. April 14, 1999, to let the Zundel-Haus know if they intended to continue with their farce on Monday and risk rolling up the carpet to expose the mess that they had busily swept underneath for some three years or so? For all the world to see?
At 3:01 p.m., Zundel-Haus time, the fax machine started humming - but what came back was evidence of a clerical mix-up out of the enemy camp. Sorry, wrong papers!
Ernst kindly pointed out the clerical incompetence.
Back came apologies for the delay.
The afternoon turned into evening. There must have been some serious divisions of opinions.
Finally, at 11 p.m., the fax machine sprang into action and started spitting out a terse but telling message: ***It was surrender all around*** - surrender to the new facts of life created by Judge Campbell's gutsy ruling!
Finally, last night, the following fax was received out of the legal offices of McCarthy Tétrault, Complainant Sabina Citron's legal firm):
April 14, 1999
VIA FACSIMILE
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
Deputy Registrar
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
900-473 Albert Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1J4
Attention: Gwen Zappa
Dear Ms. Zappa:
Re: S. Citron & Toronto Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations v. Zundel - Contract Number: CO - 980080
I have had forwarded to me Mr. Christie's letter of April 13, 1999 addressed to René Duval and of April 14, 1999 addressed to the Chair of the Tribunal hearing the complaint against Mr. Zundel.
From Mr. Christie's correspondence, it is clear that Mr. Zundel intends to appeal the remedy in Mr. Justice Campbell's recent decision on Judicial Review dealing with allegations of bias against member Devins.
The Complainants and Intervenors who were Respondents on that Judicial Review have now indicated that they will be appealing Mr. Justice Campbell's ruling on the disqualification of Member Devins.
In the circumstances, the Commission takes the position that it would be inappropriate to reconvene the hearing until the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled on whether it is proper to proceed at all with the hearing and, if it is, how the Tribunal should be constituted. The Commission therefore agrees with Mr. Christie's observation in his April 13, 1999 letter that the hearing must be adjourned so as not to render the proposed appeal moot.
The Commission also agrees that it would be prudent to confirm the adjournment promptly so as to spare both the participants and the Tribunal Chair the unnecessary expense associated with an attendance in person in Toronto on Monday, April 19, 1999.
I have canvassed counsel for the Complainants and for the Intervenors supporting the complaints, and they have informed me that they agree with the Commission's position. I understand that Mr. Fromm has written separately to indicate his support for Mr. Christie's proposal for an adjournment.
On the basis of the foregoing, the Commission requests that the Chair of the Tribunal issue forthwith a written Order adjourning the hearings in this matter sine die pending the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal with regard to Mr. Justice Campbell's ruling.
Yours very truly
Mark J. Freiman
(signed)
cc. Robert Armstrong/Wendy Matheson
Douglas H. Christie
Edward Earle
Marvin Kurz
Robyn Bell
John Rosen
Joel Riebler/Judy Chan
Paul Fromm
<end>
So what does this mean?
Up-front, an editorial Zundelsite comment: The Holocaust Enforcers must have been furious! They must have been beside themselves! Ernst won on every front!
Secondly, if they decide to fight on by taking Judge Campbell's ruling to the Appeal Court of Canada, it means that the war front against Canada's Thought Police has shifted from the agenda- and ideology-driven and unsupervised Human Rights Tribunal Hearings to legally constituted courts - where Truth is not yet forbidden by statute as a defense in a trial involving Facts and Truth in History, and where the good old Anglo-Saxon Rules of Evidence still apply.
How sweet it is!
I was told this morning that people trying to get through to the Zundel-Haus last night found it impossible: The phone was always busy!
That must have been some victory! Wish I could have been there!
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Please pass along my personal joyous congratulations to Ernst and team for this latest upset.
"At times this society seems so perverse, when finally they refuse a bowl of sewage for their midday meal, it seems as though a great victory for good sense has been won.
"Isn't that ironic?"
(Letter to the Zundelsite)