Discerning Zundel watchers - who seem to multiply these days, thanks to the Internet, sporting grins as wide as the Kansas horizon - are being treated, even as we speak, to yet another illustration of bona fide shenanigans by censorship-eager pals of the Commie persuasion.
Free Speechers are now being treated to the stage footlights of a baffling drama where they observe a strangely elusive Mr. Farber, spokesperson for the Canadian Jewish Congress, attempting to do a Houdini.
Here I take a summary from the May/June 1999 issue of the Canadian Free Speech League, to give you the details:
On April 13, 1999, Justice Douglas Campbell of the Federal Court Trial Division issued three rulings on three judicial reviews.
The first was regarding Reva Devins and whether she was, as a result of participating in condemnation of Zundel in 1988 as a member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, subject to a reasonable apprehension of bias.
He held that she was.
Two other reviews remained before him: secondly, the Tribunal's judgment on truth as a defense, and thirdly, their ruling on the admissibility of expert Alexander Jacob.
He ruled on these last two that they must succeed because of the participation of member Reva Devins.
This caused the eight prosecutors of the complaint to immediately launch three appeals, seeking to overturn the Campbell ruling. They sought to expedite those appeals, and in support of the motion to expedite, filed an affidavit of Bernie Farber for the Canadian Jewish Congress to justify their request.
Lawyer for Ernst Zundel, Barbara Kulaszka, sought a time for Doug Christie to cross-examine Mr. Farber, and was told any day, at the convenience of Mr. Zundel's lawyers.
On Friday, May 21, Ms. Kulaszka set the date for Thursday, May 27, and Doug Christie obtained tickets on Canada 3000, which were irrevocable.
On Tuesday, May 25th, word was received that Mr. Richler, a lawyer for the Canadian Jewish Congress, could not be available for the cross-examination, and they would therefore ***not*** produce Mr. Farber at the time and place specified.
Doug Christie went to Toronto anyway to hold them to the date, which was one day before it was necessary to file the reply on the other side's motion to expedite the hearing of the appeal.
Mr. Richler did not show up, nor did Mr. Farber, although no court commitments were cited for the failure to attend - the usual reason for non-attendance.
A certificate of non-attendance was obtained from the reporter and a motion was brought in Federal Court to compell immediate attendance.
Justice Linden declined to allow an oral hearing on the issue, but ordered that the Zundel lawyers would have until June 1 to file a motion to extend the time for filing their response to the motion to expedite the appeal.
The motion was filed June 1st, asking for Mr. Farber to be produced for cross-examination June 22st, 1999, and allowing Mr. Zundel's lawyers until June 30th to reply to the motion to expedite with the transcript of the Farber cross-examination as evidence in support of their position.
Mr. Farber's lawyers refuse to produce him, and there the matter sits.
In the meantime, Paul Fromm, exectutive director of C-FAR (Canadians for Foreign Aid Reform) as an intervenor in the case, has endeavored to cross-examine Mr. Farber on his affidavit, and June 2nd was offered by one of Mr. Farber's lawyers.
Canadian Jewish Congress lawyers maintained that Mr. Farber would only be offered for cross-examination ***once***. Therefore, if he was produced on June 2nd, he would not be produced later for Mr. Christie.
Paul Fromm proceeded anyway, and again Mr. Farber refused to show up.
This time, the CJC lawyers said that Mr. Fromm was not qualified to cross-examine because he wasn't a lawyer and had no permission from the court to appear for C-FAR.
Round and round it goes. It appears that attempts are being made to prevent cross-examination of Mr. Farber on his affidavit, which naturally leads to questions about his veracity. <end>
Well, durnit! Mr. Christie is now in Toronto again, standing poised to cross-examine Mr. Farber - even as we speak. We trust that Mr. Farber has had a good night's sleep.
This yo-yo business is extremely expensive for Mr. Zundel, but it provides yet one more lush-in-meaning interlude for future students of the battle for Freedom of Speech - and for the rights of the Canadian public to take a peek, whenever they so wish, at the adventures of the Zundelsite.
Therefore, I say: Stay tuned!
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Israel is strong, and American and Canadian Jews are the strongest."
(John Loftus, former prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations and author of "The Secret War Against the Jews" at a breakfast address for B'nai Brith Hamilton, as reported in the Canadian Jewish News, Nov. 28, 1996)
Back to Table of Contents of the June 1999 ZGrams