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January 21, 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
The Zundel hearing resumes in Toronto, Thursday, January 22 before Mr. Justice Pierre Blais. The January dates scheduled are January 22, 23, 26 and 27.
The first order of business is to hear Mr. Justice Blais's long-awaited decision on whether to grant bail to Canada's most famous political prisoner. The Crown alleges that the German-born publisher and pacifist in a "terrorist" and, therefore, a threat to national security.
However the bail issue is decided, the hearings then revert to consideration of the reasonableness of the certificate and CSIS's claim that Ernst Zundel is a terrorist.
The hearings open at 10:00 -- be there by 9:30 -- at the courthouse at 361 University Avenue in Toronto.
In response to a phone call from Ernst Zundel, I visited the prison today and collected a heaping, overflowing box of material from Ernst's cell. Security is constantly hounding him to reduce the material there. The horde also contained some mail that the prison authorities wouldn't deliver to Ernst.
It was gratifying to see the thick envelopes of letters people had written Ernst and his substantial collection of your Christmas cards. Many people have sent him helpful clippings and articles.
It was sad to see some of the material the repressive regime refuses to let him have. There were hard cover books -- verboten! A kind supporter had sent Ernst some hand knitted socks to keep him warm in a cold winter with a concrete floor in his cell and a set of drawing pencils. He was not allowed to receive these. Another kind friend had sent him German chocolate bars. He's not permitted to receive any food or medication. With Ingrid Rimland's permission, the work crew at our mailing tonight had the chocolate bars.
I find it an uneasy task going through other people's belongings. When I considered all the things he's not permitted to receive, I suddenly remembered the "escape" stories I'd read as a schoolboy -- books like
ESCAPE FROM COLDITZ CASTLE and THE WOODEN HORSE. These books written in the 1950s and 1960s dealt with escapes by Allied PoWs from German camps -- men like Wing Commander Bader. The tone of these books was respectful of the Germans -- strict but honourable enemies. It was the German guards' duty to see the Allied airmen didn't escape and the Allied soldiers' duty to try to escape. This was before Holocaustomania set in spreading a red hot hatred of Germans and a general defamation of the German people ("Hitler's willing executioners.")
However, the detail that stuck in my mind was the fact that, although this was war, the Allied PoWs were permitted to receive Red Cross parcels containing chocolate, cigarettes, soap, tea and toiletries. Here is Canada that's always prattling about its human rights commitment, a man convicted, indeed charged with no offence, is held in solitary confinement. Here, in Canada the Good, Ernst Zundel is denied the human decencies that the "evil Nazis" permitted our servicemen prisoners.
It makes you think, doesn't it?
Paul Fromm
Director
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
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Write to Canada's Immigration Minister and complain
over the unfair treatment Ernst Zündel has received.
Immigration Minister Denis Coderre
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 995-6108
Fax: (613) 995-9755
Email: Coderre.D@parl.gc.ca |
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