ZGram - 2/22/2003 - "Update on the Zundel Front"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

February 22, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Our server was down briefly yesterday - NOT because of sabotage, but 
because of huge, huge traffic.  It took a few hours and some extra 
money to get it up again.  That is the reason why yesterday's ZGram 
was only sent to you this morning. 

So far, the highest voting count "pro-Zundel" was 35% that I know of. 
At that point, apparently, the CTV station decided to pull the poll 
and drop it as fast as they could.  One small victory!

Since then, I learned of another poll, this time at www.canada.com 
About half an hour ago, it looked pretty much like the CTV poll when 
it started - but this one is a bit more detailed, with four 
categories, to wit:

Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel is asking for refugee status in Canada. 
What should happen?

13.64% --- We should welcome him and give him a fair hearing.

1.95% ---We should welcome him, but prosecute him for hate crimes.

19.81% ---We should refuse to let him in.

64.61% ---We should re-route him on the first plane back to his native Germany.

To me, this means that Canada, in general, is sick and tired of 
having to foot the bill for the Holocaust Lobby.  Less than 2% feel 
the need to prosecute Ernst for "hate crimes" - which, by the way, he 
was never criminally charged with, much less convicted for in Canada. 
The Human Rights Tribunal that ruled that the Zundelsite contained 
"hate", is an administrative body - and is the very entity that also 
ruled that "Truth is not a defense."

And, as a sidebar, remember how the Mayor of Toronto, Barbara Hall, 
when challenged by defense attorney, Doug Christie, to point out to 
the Tribunal just where she found some "hate",  sat there silent with 
a beet-red face ...until the Tribunal Chairman took mercy and called 
a coffee break. 

And, never forget, the Zundelsite is MY baby, not Ernst's Zundel's 
baby, and always has been.  Just because the Human Rights Tribunal, 
that disgrace to Canadian justice and fairness, refused to let me 
tell them so on the very first of the hearing in 1997, has ruled it 
is a "hate site", does not make it true at all.  This is the very 
outfit that  admitted in its ruling five years later that HAD THEY 
PERMITTED ME TO SPEAK, WHICH THEY DID NOT, the entire obscene 
hearings would never have gotten off the ground! 

If they now want to challenge the First Amendment in America, let 
them just go ahead and try. 

=====

Many people have asked me why Ernst  asked for asylum in Canada when 
that was the very country he vowed never to foot in again.  Remember 
that he did not do so voluntarily.  As far as I am concerned, he was 
kidnapped under false pretenses - allegedly he missed an immigration 
hearing and overstayed his visa - by American law enforcement 
officials doing (having to do?) the bidding of the almighty Holocaust 
Lobby and its aficionados in our government.  I don't know.  Maybe 
Canada is a signatory to whatever treaty says you don't deport a 
person to the very country where he will go to jail for years because 
he challenges  the Holocaust?  I am only allowed to speak to Ernst 10 
minutes every day, and we have more important things to discuss. 

=====

My strategy of forcing the mainstream media onto the Zundelsite seems 
to be paying off.  So far, we have had 75 articles in major Canadian 
papers  - and, by and large, we have not been misquoted.  Mark Weber 
of the Institute for Historical Review, who handles my media queries 
for me, always tries to paint the larger picture and international 
ramifications that the Zundelsite matter and this arrest have brought 
to the fore one more time. This is NOT about Ernst Zundel and Ingrid 
Rimland per se.  This is another attempt to force censorship laws 
onto the Internet.   For the most part, the tone of most write-ups 
and electronic broadcasts has been poisonous, but already the 
uncomfortable "tar baby" aspects of this case creep in:  What to do 
with Ernst Zundel who is getting ready to expose, once more,  the 
sham of those outfits feeding at the Canadian taxpayers' trough. 

An interesting article, making my point, appeared in the Ottawa 
Citizen, dated yesterday:

[START]

'Just watch me' kick Zundel out: Coderre
Coderre vows to keep Holocaust denier from exploiting refugee system

Norma Greenaway
The Ottawa Citizen

Friday, February 21, 2003

CREDIT: Louie Palu, The Canadian Press

GRAPHIC:  Ernst Zundel peers from a van window after being delivered 
to Canadian officials in Fort Erie by U.S. immigration officers.

A tough-talking Immigration Minister Denis Coderre indicated 
yesterday he's prepared to act to thwart Holocaust denier Ernst 
Zundel's attempt to claim refugee status in Canada.

"Just watch me," declared Mr. Coderre when he was asked what measures 
are available to him to bar someone from getting access to the 
country's refugee system, a process that can last years.

Though privacy requirements prevent Mr. Coderre from discussing the 
Zundel case by name, the minister acknowledged the Immigration and 
Refugee Protection Act gives him the power to order the removal of 
someone from Canada before the refugee process begins if, for 
example, that person is a convicted criminal.

"Yes, I have the possibility," Mr. Coderre told reporters. "But I 
won't go further. I'm not talking about the case."

Mr. Zundel, who was forcibly returned to Canada from the United 
States on Wednesday, is a German citizen who lived most of his life 
in Canada. In 1968, he briefly sought the leadership of the federal 
Liberal Party in the contest won by Pierre Trudeau. The Nazi 
sympathizer moved to Tennessee in 2001 after angrily denouncing 
Canada's attempts to silence his anti-Semitic views.

Mr. Zundel was forced out of the U.S. for allegedly overstaying his 
visitor's visa, and is being held in an immigration detention centre 
at Thorold, Ont. He is seeking refugee status because Canada no 
longer considers him a permanent resident.

Mr. Zundel was convicted in the early 1990s of breaking Germany's 
anti-hate laws and fined $9,000. There also is an outstanding warrant 
for his arrest on suspicion of incitement of hate, stemming from his 
Web site, German Embassy official Harry Adelt said yesterday. The 
Canadian Human Rights Commission also ruled last year that Mr. 
Zundel's Web site spread hatred.

For its part, Germany appears to be adopting a hands-off approach. 
Mr. Adelt said the government has no plans "at this moment" to seek 
Mr. Zundel's extradition, a process he described as complicated and 
time consuming. "But if the Canadians want to deport him, they can do 
it," he said.

Government insiders said Mr. Coderre is seriously considering using 
the administrative process within his department to order Mr. Zundel 
deported rather than allowing him to make a refugee claim to the 
independent immigration and refugee board.

Lawyer James Chalk, national director of the Association of 
Immigration Counsels of Canada, says Mr. Coderre would be foolish not 
to use the provision and nip the controversy over Mr. Zundel as soon 
as possible.

"If I were the minister I would be shooting every angle to get him 
out of my hair," he said.

Using existing ministerial power to declare Mr. Zundel inadmissible 
to Canada because of his criminal record could result in his being 
shipped out within two weeks, Mr. Chalk suggested.

The Canadian Alliance and Liberal MP Irwin Cotler led demands inside 
and outside the Commons for Mr. Coderre to evict Mr. Zundel as 
quickly as possible.

"The minister has the option under the immigration act to summarily 
dismiss any refugee claim and to clear the way for deportation and 
that's what he should be doing," said Alliance MP Diane Ablonczy, the 
party's immigration critic.

Mr. Cotler, a Montreal MP and leading human rights activist, says 
it's ludicrous to think Mr. Zundel would qualify as a refugee who has 
a well founded fear of persecution if deported to his native Germany. 
He argued Germany is a democratic country where he would get a fair 
trial, and that Mr. Zundel should not even be allowed to apply for 
refugee status.

NDP Leader Jack Layton called the Zundel case a "tragic outfall" of a 
system that he maintained must be honoured to protect the rights of 
legitimate refugees. He insisted Mr. Zundel's refugee claim will be 
rejected in the end but that the government has to follow the "laws 
that are laid down."

(Source: 
http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=0469158e-fe63-46c4-aa33-b6e07bfbae23 
)

[END]

=====

And, yes - Ernst has retained Rocco Galati, described by yesterday's 
Globe and Mail as "...a Toronto lawyer known for strong words and a 
mercurial courtroom demeanor - and for representing refugee claimants 
whom Ottawa declares deportable threats to national security...as 
Canada figures out what to do with him."

How about letting him go back to planting his peach trees in the 
hills of Tennessee where he belongs?

====

Finally, if you really strive to even begin to understand the finer 
points of this newest attempt to silence and deport Ernst Zundel, 
search for the article "The case is troubling, but the principle is 
clear" by Alex  Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International 
Canada.  I don't have time to find the URL for you on my ever more 
sluggish computer.

For further information, go to the Zundelsite, www.zundelsite.org - 
and don't forget to help support this newest round with your 
donations.

Ingrid