ZGram - 4/4/2003 - "Toronto Star: Kick Zundel out!"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

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

April 4, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

The Toronto Star, also known in the streets as the Red Star, has 
besmirched itself once again with its own poison in an editorial 
titled "Show Zundel the door."  You find it below, interspersed with 
some Zundelsite comments, followed by a reply from the Director of 
Canadian Association for Free Expression, Paul Fromm:

[START]

Apr. 3, 2003. 01:00 AM
TORONTO STAR

Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel is making a mockery of the refugee 
claim process. That's no surprise.

What's more disturbing is how Immigration Minister Denis Coderre is 
neglecting to stop the charade.

Zundel, a German-born resident of Canada for some 40 years, is no 
stranger to notoriety or manipulating the system.

He moved to Tennessee in 2001 in the midst of a long-running human 
rights probe, complaining Canada wanted to silence his views. Indeed, 
a human rights tribunal ordered him to remove anti-Semitic hate 
literature from his Web site. He did not.

(Zundelsite comment:  For the Nth time, he couldn't have removed a 
comma if he had wanted to.  He does not now, nor has he ever, known 
the password to the Zundelsite!  The much-contested website  happens 
to belong to me!)

The United States sent him back Feb. 19 for overstaying a visitor's 
visa. Zundel, whose bids for Canadian citizenship have always been 
rejected, then claimed refugee status.

America doesn't want him, nor does Canada.

[Zundelsite comment:  First of all,  he was never given a reason for 
the refusal the first time.  His second citizenship bid was not 
rejected - Ernst withdrew it after waiting seven years.  And for the 
record:  He had no problems whatsoever in America.  Ask anyone. 
Unwary American bureaucrats were disgracefully used by nefarious 
forces to act as body snatchers.)

However, Germany does, and has issued a warrant for his arrest on 
charges under its hate laws. He was convicted in absentia in 1991.

(Zundelsite comment:  As I remember it, he was convicted for trying 
to organize the Leuchter Congress, which should have been good news 
for Jews and Gentiles alike - namely that no one but no one was 
"gassed", since science does not lie, not even for the "Nazis".  But 
the arrest warrant that is outstanding now is there for a different 
reason:  It is meant as a salutary lesson for having exercised free 
speech - a hard-won right, according to a Zundel Supreme Court 
decision in 1992)

Yet this week the Immigration and Refugee Board ordered Zundel to 
continue being held in a Niagara Region jail pending his refugee 
claimant hearing. No date has been set, and likely won't be for 
months.

Zundel's case is a black mark on the entire refugee claim system, 
already under justifiable criticism.

(Zundelsite comment:  Words to the wise!  )

The board has a massive backlog and the largest workload in its 
history.  Nearly 53,000 cases were on the books at the end of 2002.

Government lawyers say Ottawa is still investigating whether Zundel 
is inadmissible on the grounds of national security. They argue he 
must not be released because he is a public danger who would spread 
white supremacist views.

Locking him up is not the answer. Getting rid of him is.

Every time he has a hearing, he gains a platform for his bottomless 
well of hatred. Every public appearance is an excuse for his 
smirking,  misguided followers to gather.

Such nonsense must stop.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service declared Zundel a danger 
fully 10 years ago.

(Zundelsite comment:  Actually, it was eight years ago.  But a more 
cogent question is:  Did anything dangerous happen in eight years? 
Was Canada in peril?  Ever?  Is it now?  What threadbare nonsense is 
this!)

What more evidence does Ottawa need?

(Zundelsite comment:  How about REAL evidence - not shrieking, smears 
and innuendo? )

Refugee claimants deserve a fair and expeditious hearing. If 
blindingly obvious cases such as this one can't be dealt with in a 
timely way, it brings Canada's  refugee system into question.

(Zundelsite comment:  MORE words to the wise!  Hear, hear!)

How can Coderre justify this needlessly long process? This isn't a 
case of an unknown claimant for whom officials truly do need time to 
investigate properly.

Zundel's continued presence here is intolerable. Kick him out now.

[END]

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Send your contributions to Letters to the Editor via email to 
lettertoed@thestar.ca; via fax to 416 869-4322; or by mail to One 
Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E6.

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Reply to this editorial from the Canadian Association for Free Expression
Box 332,
Rexdale, Ontario, M9W 5L3
Ph: 905-897-7221; FAX: 905-277-3914

[START]

April 3, 2003

The Editor,
The Toronto Star.

Dear Sir:                       BY FAX  416 869-4322-- For Publication

	Your editorial "Show Zundel the Door" (Toronto Star, April 3, 
2003) confuses real abuse of the refugee system with a genuine case.

	A refugee is a person with a well-founded fear of persecution 
on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or beliefs, provided that 
he is non-violent. Germany has draconian anti-free speech laws that 
are not comparable to anything we have in Canada. Truth is no 
defence. Publisher Ernst Zundel faces five years imprisonment and a 
heavy fine should he be returned to Germany.

	One may not like his eccentric take on history, but isn't 
tolerance and diversity what Canada is all about?

	You state: "Government lawyers say Ottawa is still 
investigating whether Zundel is inadmissible on the grounds of 
national security. They argue he must not be released because he is a 
public danger who would spread white supremacist views."

	In Zundel's case the threat to national security argument is 
completely bogus. After the abuses of the old Security and 
Intelligence Branch of the RCMP, Parliament created CSIS in 1982. To 
avoid abuse or needless snooping, a threat to national security was 
carefully defined. It included espionage, attempts to overthrow the 
government by violence, activities directed by a foreign state or 
"serious acts of violence against persons or property for the purpose 
of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective."

	Zundel is a pacifist. He has never been convicted of any 
crime, much less a crime of violence, under Canada's Criminal Code.

	His views may be reprehensible to many. However, the CSIS Act 
makes it clear that non-violent advocacy does not constitute a threat 
to national security. Specifically, a threat to national security 
"does not include lawful advocacy, protest or dissent."

	Ernst Zundel is a publisher, not a terrorist.   Let him stay.



								Paul Fromm
								Director

[END]


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