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May 09, 2004
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
Almost ten years after it happened, the controversy around
the parcel bomb that was sent to the Zundel-Haus in 1995, apparently with
the knowledge and approval of CSIS, is squarely on the table and will be
aired in future Zundel hearings. For those new to the ZGram list, here is a
snapshot of what happened:
On the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Germany, a Toronto
punk was paid $200 by "unknown" elements to set fire to the
Zundel-Haus. His act was caught with a surveillance camera as he poured
flammable liquid around the base of the structure and put a match to it.
Flames immediately shot up between the walls to the fourth floor and
destroyed a priceless library first, causing extensive damage to the rest of
the building. Ernst Zundel was away on a lecture trip; otherwise he would
have been killed, since his bedroom was also on the fourth floor.
Toronto Jews danced the hora on the sidewalk. A few days
later, Jewish Defense League hoodlums, among them the notorious Irv Rubin,
showed up to photograph the arsoned building. Zundel bodyguards as well as
police cruisers chased them and even caught them, but after a brief phone
call by Irwin, the JDL members were quickly let go.
The damage to the Zundel-Haus was estimated at more than
$400,000 dollars. Street gossip soon located the arsonist's name and
whereabouts, which were turned over to the police. Police chose not to
follow up.
A few days later, there was some terror mail sent to the
Zundel-Haus - a mouse trap with a razor blade, allegedly laced with AIDS,
along with a crudely misspelled letter warning, "Next time it will be
BOOM!"
These items were turned over to Toronto police who, again,
chose not to follow up.
As I remember it, a Jewish activist group took credit for
this act by sending a letter to media.
Then a parcel arrived in the mail. Ernst received it and
noticed immediately that it was suspiciously heavy. His crew and volunteers
from all over the world were swarming about the gutted building, trying to
rescue what could still be rescued, and starting to repair and rebuild. Some
inner voice told Ernst not to open the parcel. He put it to the side and
warned his people not to touch it, resolved he would check it out on the
weekend when the house was quiet.
There it sat for several days, on his desk! In the havoc of
the post-arson days, Ernst told me once he almost forgot about it!
The weekend came. Ernst started inspecting the parcel which
had the return address, a P.O. box, of someone he had briefly talked to in
British Columbia on his lecture tour. He shook the parcel, and it rattled.
Just as he was about to open it, the phone rang, and this very acquaintance
was on the phone.
Talk about being watched over by heaven!
Ernst asked this man if he had sent a parcel, citing the
address. The man said, no - it was a P.O. box he had not used in more than
two years. That's when Ernst knew that the parcel contained a bomb.
This parcel bomb was exploded that night by a police robot.
It was so deadly that it would have killed anybody in a radius of 300 feet.
One police officer insisted with a smirk that Ernst had sent
it to himself, to make himself more interesting and get himself back in the
news as a victim!
In the book "Covert Entry" that was published a
few years ago, Globe and Mail investigative reporter, Andrew Mitrovica,
makes the claim that CSIS, Canada's civilian spy agency, had foreknowledge
of the bomb and warned its undercover agents, one of them a former thief
named John Farrell, not to touch a parcel coming from the West Coast
addressed to Ernst Zundel. Farrell later spilled the beans about this matter
to Mitrovica. This bomb traveled on several Canada Air passenger planes and
could have endangered not only airline staff and passengers but also postal
workers anywhere along the way.
Now that CSIS is the very agency that tries to incriminate
Ernst Zundel as a "national security risk", both John Farrell and
Andrew Mitrovica are slated to testify via subpoena. You can imagine that
neither is eager to do so. It does not take an Einstein to know that CSIS
would be breathing down their necks if they elaborate under oath what has
been claimed in Covert Entry.
So far, Farrell has bolted the subpoena. Mitrovica is
fighting it. The Globe and Mail write-up below is about Mitrovica's attempt
to get out from under scrutiny what has been documented in his book.
[START]
Writer fights Zundel subpoena
Author, judge object to taking stand at Holocaust
denier's deportation hearing
By KIRK MAKIN JUSTICE REPORTER
UPDATED AT 6:32 PM EDT Thursday, May. 6, 2004
A Federal Court of Canada judge showed no sympathy
yesterday for an author fighting to stay off the witness stand at
Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel's deportation hearing.
Mr. Justice Pierre Blais said that author Andrew Mitrovica
should be prepared to account for splashy allegations of wrongdoing in his
recent book, Covert Entry, on the Canadian Security Intelligence Services.
"He seems to not care about national security,"
Judge Blais observed sternly, waving a copy of the book. "He seems to
care more about selling books."
Lawyers for Mr. Zundel are hoping to use Mr. Mitrovica's
testimony to shake the general credibility of CSIS. They are particularly
eager to question him about a 1995 incident in which CSIS allegedly knew a
pipe bomb was being sent to Mr. Zundel through the mail, yet failed to
warn him.
"It is appropriate that I should be able to challenge
the most important witness against Mr. Zundel -- and the most important
witness is CSIS," lawyer Peter Lindsay said yesterday. "If we
don't hear from Mr. Mitrovica, we simply are not going to get to the
bottom of these matters."
CSIS provided information which Judge Blais has heard in
secret sessions, and which purportedly shows Mr. Zundel to be a national
security risk. The Zundel defence team is not privy to the information,
yet it must still convince Judge Blais that it is unreliable. Should it
fail, Mr. Zundel will be deported to Germany to face a five-year prison
term for the crime of denying the Holocaust.
Mr. Mitrovica's lawyer, Brian Rogers, argued yesterday
that writers are mere conduits for information whose work ought to stand
for itself. He said Mr. Mitrovica's plight goes to the heart of press
freedom and represents the latest in a chain of cases that have chilled
writers and journalists.
"This is an issue that is very important, very broad,
and will no doubt go to the Supreme Court of Canada in due course,"
Mr. Rogers said. He said that Mr. Mitrovica's sweeping subpoena demands
virtually every piece of paper in his possession pertaining to CSIS.
"If they get their way and he is called [to testify]
. . . this will be a one-person commission of inquiry into CSIS," Mr.
Rogers said. He argued that Mr. Lindsay ought to have subpoenaed the CSIS
agents quoted in Mr. Mitrovica's book, rather than pursuing someone who
merely published their "hearsay" accounts.
"Mr. Lindsay should be going after the horses, not
Mr. Mitrovica; the farmer who is guarding the barn door," Mr. Rogers
said. "He is the wrong guy."
Judge Blais, a former federal solicitor-general, said he
found it surprising that Mr. Mitrovica would try to shield himself in a
cloak of journalistic immunity instead of wanting to help ensure that
potentially illegal acts are dealt with properly.
The judge reserved his ruling on four separate attempts to
quash defence subpoenas. Besides Mr. Mitrovica, others hoping to avoid
testifying are Ontario Court Judge Lauren Marshall, a former lawyer of Mr.
Zundel's; Canadian Jewish Congress President Keith Landy, and Frank Dimant,
executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada.
After initially agreeing to respond to her subpoena, Judge
Marshall sent a lawyer on Tuesday to fight it. Her lawyer, Paul Stern,
told Judge Blais yesterday that anything his client could say is either
irrelevant or improper.
[END]
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Reminder:
Help free Ernst Zundel, Prisoner of Conscience. His
prison sketches - now on-line and highly popular - help pay for his defence.
Take a look - and tell a friend.
http://www.zundelsite.org/gallery/donations/index.html
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Write to Canada's Prime Minister and complain
over the unfair treatment Ernst Zündel has received.
Prime Minister Paul Martin
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Email: Martin.P@parl.gc.ca |
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