ZGram - May 4, 2003 - "Update on EZ: Friday's aborted hearing" - Part I

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

May 4, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I am sending you today two back-to-back ZGrams about the latest 
developments in Ernst Zundel's case.  I asked Ernst to give me a 
brief description of what happened, and he said:  "Deportation by 
fiat." 

In other words, the government of Canada side-stepped due process and 
pulled the emergency brakes, once the powers-that-be realized that 
the seamy story of CSIS's knowledge of a parcel bomb sent to Ernst in 
the spring of 1995 could well mean that the agency itself could be 
exposed to the public at the very least as an accessory to attempted 
murder, since people who knew and warned their own agent did not see 
fit to intercept this parcel bomb - or at least warn hundreds of 
people in harms way at the Zundel-Haus, at various Post Offices and 
traveling on Canada Air.

Events are still developing and news is still breaking.  Today, there 
is supposed to have been a  "Star Chamber"-like hearing in Toronto 
where neither Ernst nor his attorney were allowed to be present.  The 
Canadian lapdog media are treating this whole affair as though 
deportation to Germany is now a foregone conclusion, only needing to 
be rubber-stamped by a beholden and compliant judge.

Below is a mainstream media write-up, to be followed by a report by 
Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression.

[START]

Zundel a security threat: Feds

By COREY LAROCQUE Review Staff Writer

Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 02:00

Local News -

NIAGARA FALLS – Ernst Zundel’s controversial stay in Niagara might soon be
over after federal Immigration Minister Denis Coderre trumped his claim for
refugee status, declaring Zundel a threat to national security.

Zundel, notorious for his controversial views on the Holocaust, complained
the process smacked of a "banana republic-style dictatorship."

Catherine Simmie, a member of the Immigration Division, adjourned a hearing
in Niagara Falls after about 20 minutes Friday morning. The hearing was to
determine whether Zundel, 64, would remain in jail or could be released
while his status in Canada is sorted out.

But immigration officer Bill Reid told the hearing he had served Zundel
with a national security certificate and an arrest warrant Thursday.
Zundel's lawyer received the documents Friday.

A lawyer for the immigration department argued immigration laws require an
adjournment when those documents are issued and the federal court of Canada
takes jurisdiction over the proceedings.

Zundel's lawyer Doug Christie agreed.

"It seems mandatory there has to be an adjournment," Christie said. He
added the federal court is required to hold its own detention review within
48 hours of the certificate being issued.

"That 48-hour period begins to run from the moment that warrant was
executed and served."

Immigration officials in Niagara Falls were not sure whether that review
would take place here or in Ottawa. Zundel has been staying at the Niagara
Detention Centre in Thorold since the United States deported him Feb. 19
because his visa expired.

Canadian Immigration officials want Zundel deported to his native Germany
because his belief the Holocaust didn't happen and other anti-Semitic
writings make him a threat to national security. They say his presence he[re]
could incite a white supremacist movement. Zundel wants refugee status here
because he faces hate crime charges in Germany.

"Now that the security certificate is filed, all the other immigration
proceedings are suspended," said Immigration spokeswoman Simone MacAndrew
in Ottawa.

A Federal Court judge is expected to begin a detention review to decided if
Zundel should remain in jail while the judge decides whether the security
certificate is appropriate. Much of that takes place behind closed doors.

When a judge does determine a security certificate is reasonable, it
automatically becomes a removal order, she said.

About 40 Zundel supporters, who had come from as far away as Toronto and
London, filled the hearing room on McLeod Road yesterday. They clapped as
Zundel entered, carrying a cardboard box of documents.

Some were members of the Canadian Association for Free Expression, which
staged a demonstration outside of the immigration office. They stood in the
parking lot with a banner reading, "Jailers, Obey the Law. Free Zundel Now."

"What we're talking about is a lot of people who are interested in free
speech. This man shouldn't be in jail," said organizer Paul Fromm. He went
into the hearing hoping Zundel would be released. There were people in
Toronto willing to host him Friday night if he had been released.

Now, Zundel's supporters are hopeful the federal court will hold its
detention hearing as soon as possible.

"We hope that hearing could be held tomorrow," Fromm said.

After the hearing was adjourned Zundel turned to his supporters and
complained the government had "usurped due process."

"It is in the best style of banana republic-style dictatorships," he said.
"They could not face an open court hearing. They're going to ship me off to
the Fatherland."

He spoke for about five minutes before two Niagara Regional Police officers
returned him to his cell.

There were angry exchanges in the hearing room between Zundel's backers and
Canadian Jewish Congress representative Len Rudner.

"Ernst Zundel is an anti-Semite. This is a step in the right direction,"
Rudner told reporters.

A woman yelled at Rudner because Jewish organizations had added her to a
list of "hate mongers" because she had written letters to support Zundel.

"Well, you're a fascist. I'm not a white-supremacist," she shouted.

Rudner fired back: "If you think I'm a fascist, it shows how little you
know about history."

[END]