This report was filed last night by Paul Fromm, Director of
the Canadian Association for Free Expression:
TORONTO, Sunday, July 25. Free speech supporters converged
from London, Niagara, Hamilton, Mississauga, Uxbridge, Oshawa, Whitby,
Toronto and Mississauga to stage the sixth in a series of protests outside
the Metro West Detention Centre in Toronto for imprisoned German-born
publisher Ernst Zundel. The 65-year old political prisoner is now in his
18 month of solitary confinement in a Canadian jail.
The free speech supporters were organized by the Canadian
Association for Free Expression, the Northern Alliance and the Canadian
Heritage Alliance. All three groups have blasted the whole Zundel process.
The German revisionist publisher is held under a "national
security" certificate. The much compromised Canadian Security
Intelligence Service (CSIS) contends that Mr. Zundel is a threat to
national security because he's a terrorist.
"Mr.
Zundel is a life-long pacifist," Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian
Association for Free Expression thundered over screams, obscenities and
hoots from a motley and masked group of ARA protesters bussed in a tawdry
yellow school bus by their shadowy Establishment supporters.
"Mr. Zundel was a model immigrant. For 42 years, he
paid taxes and created jobs. His crime? He thought for himself and
challenged a view of history sacred to powerful interest groups in our
society," Fromm explained. "We oppose secret hearings where the
defence is not told the evidence, the charges or the witnesses and,
therefore, cannot answer them," said Fromm to cheers from the mostly
young free speech supporters.
The 25 Anti-Racist Action protesters, at least one of whom
was armed with illegal mace, arrived on a school bus. "Who paid for
the bus?" protest organizer Marc Lemire asked. "Those scumbags
don't look as if they have $10 if you turned them upside down ands shook
out all their change."
In
the past, the ARA has been supported by anti- free speech lobby group the
League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith and by Metro Toronto City Council
and the provincial Trillium Foundation. This despite the fact that the ARA
sports the symbols of anarchism and claims to oppose governments and
authority.
When the ARA pulled up in their school bus, they tried to
charge out with 2 by 4's with a ARA banner attached. Their rather pudgy
leader started screaming on his megaphone to "stop" since most
of the ARA types who tried to rush the protest were already on the ground.
Until the police arrived, the ARA just screamed on their
megaphone and stayed a good distance back. Their shady looking leader was
screaming on his megaphone "another cheeseburger". The drugs
have scrambled his brains and, perhaps, he thought he was at Burger King.
Paul Fromm had alerted 23 Division in Rexdale that the ARA
would be trying to disrupt the CAFE Support Ernst Zundel protest. A half
dozen police were visible on the edges of the provincial jail property
when he ARA arrived. The police did nothing as the confrontation escalated
and several ARA slashed at free speech protesters with their wooden
sticks. A quick flurry of blows from some sturdy young free speechers sent
the masked street people squealing back for safety. When the police
arrived, as usual the ARA got louder and more threatening.
One
loud self-identified Indian, who seemed to smell of Aqua Vela, was
screaming from behind his covered face, that he was going to kill the free
speech supporters. Then, another ARAer, grabbed the microphone and started
a chant that said: "Paul Fromm - liar liar we are going to set your
ass on fire". Strangely, the officers on the scene did not considered
this a death threat. This curious kid gloves treatment was similar to the
police turning a blind eye in 1995 when the ARA was putting out posters on
how to firebomb Zundel's house. Months later someone firebombed Zundel's
house, and no charges have ever been laid against anyone. Surprise
surprise?
Among the screeching females in the ARA ranks was one
masked woman who sported a hat with a large communist red star.
After Paul Fromm took the microphone and gave a great
inspiring speech about the situation Ernst Zundel faces, loud chants of
"Free Zundel" filled the air. He challenged the screaming
anarchists. "You claim to be against the state, but you're here
supporting unlimited detention of a man who's not even charged with a
crime. You're here supporting secret trials. You're doing that State's
work for it and you claim to be anarchists!"
City TV and CTV were present, although the reporters
didn't interview any of the free speech supporters..
"The policing was disgraceful," Fromm told a
dinner gathering after the event. "They failed to separate the two
sides. The ARA should have been directed to stand across the street. The
police did nothing to stop the physical confrontation." Observers
noted that a van with mounted officers was parked nearby but not used.
