ZGram - 11/10/2003 - "Ernst Zündel: 'I'm a website hostage'"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

November 10, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

There you have it - the gist of the November 7 bail hearing, as 
summarized by Paul Fromm:

"I'm a Website Hostage" - Ernst Zundel

  November 7, 2003 - TORONTO.

Mr. Justice Pierre Blais presiding athe tenth day of dissident 
publisher Ernst Zundel's detention hearing broadly hinted that he was 
considering releasing Mr. Zundel with conditions. However, the 
conditions would seem to be complying with a January, 2002 ruling of 
a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal demanding the removal of large 
portions of the Zundelsite, including the pamphlet DID SIX MILLION 
REALLY DIE? -  already cleared by a Canadian court.

  		"I'm a website hostage," defendant Ernst Zundel 
remarked from the witness stand.

  	The judge's remarkable hinting as to a possible outcome of 
the extraordinary lengthy bail hearings first emerged near the end of 
Crown Attorney Donald MacIntosh's interminable cross-examination of 
Mr. Zundel. "I put it to you that you have nothing but contempt for 
the Canadian Human Rights Commission," MacIntosh challenged.

  	"No, I don't agree with you," Mr. Zundel responded.

  	"You called them a "hick tribunal." I put it to you this is 
an expression of contempt," snapped MacIntosh.

  	I was referring to the Tribunal, not the commission, Mr. 
Zundel clarified.. "It was a body where truth was no defence. I was 
angry sitting in solitary confinement in the orange uniform of an axe 
murderer  or serial killer for my ideas," Mr. Zundel added.

  	At this point, Mr. Justice Blais interrupted: "There's a 
human rights tribunal order against you. Now, you're in Canada. Will 
you comply?"

  	"How can I comply?" Mr. Zundel responded. "How can I force my 
wife in the U.S. who has a constitutional right to run the website?" 

  	"This is important in a bail hearing," the judge warned, " to 
see if he'll comply with legislation and orders in Canada. This is an 
important point to see how he'll deal with this. This order has not 
been challenged and it applies to him."

  	Defence lawyer Douglas H. Christie was on his feet quickly. 
"I object. Mr. Zundel hasn't had legal advice. The Canadian Human 
Rights Commission hasn't charged him with contempt.."

  	The judge continued the veiled threat - purge the website or 
sit in solitary. "If he says, "No, I cannot," I have serious doubts 
about that. Compliance could be a part of the conditions. Reaching 
1.2 million people on a monthly basis," Mr. Justice Blais remarked 
referring to the monthly hits on the Zundelsite. And then, as he so 
often does, he teased, "But I'm not there yet."

  	In a tantalizing hint that he may be considering granting 
bail to the dissident publisher, Mr. Justice Balis twice noted: "So 
far, I'm not impressed by the evidence I have heard on the question 
of bail."

  	The judge also questioned Mr. Zundel on the warrant for his 
arrest issued by a German court in Mannheim on February 17, 2003. 
Quoting the warrant, he noted, "the accused must expect imposition of 
a  significant prison sentence." Then, he asked Mr. Zundel: "You 
don't believe you'd receive a fair trial in Germany."

  		"No," answered Canada's best know prisoner of 
conscience.. "That's why I filed a refugee claim."

  	"If you were ordered deported to Germany, would you show up 
for removal?" the judge probed.

  	In a clear voice, Mr. Zundel responded: "In Fort Erie, on 
February 17, I signed an undertaking to accept voluntary removal to 
Germany, after I'd exhausted all legal possibilities. I will not run 
away. If Canada, has come to that point, I will leave. Believe me."

  	In the afternoon, lead defence attorney Douglas H. Christie 
sought to clarify the issue of compliance with the decision of the 
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal which, along the way, had  ruled that 
truth was no defence in the matter of the Zundelsite.

  	"Have you ever been convicted of breach of the Canadian Human 
Rights Tribunal decision of January 18, 2002?" the battling barrister 
from Victoria asked Mr. Zundel.

  	"No," was the answer.

  	"Have your whereabouts in Canada been known since February 
19, 2003?" Mr. Christie asked.

  	"Yes," said Mr. Zundel, indicating he'd been in custody in 
solitary confinement, first at the Niagara Regional Detention Centre 
and more recently, since May 16,  at the Metro West Detention Centre 
in Rexdale.

  	"Has anyone sent you documents from the Canadian Human Rights 
Tribunal about breech of the order?" Mr. Christie queried.

  	"No," Ernst Zundel responded.

  	Using the language of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, Mr. 
Christie asked: "When you were in the U.S., did you communicate 
telephonically by means of a facility within the jurisdiction of  the 
Parliament of Canada, material likely to expose Jews to hatred or 
contempt."

  	"No," Mr. Zundel responded emphatically.

  	"Did you put anything on the Zundelsite?" Mr. Christie asked.

  	"No, I did not," the defendant replied.

  	Mr. Zundel indicated that he had approached several law firms 
to pursue a delayed appeal against the 2002 decision and order by the 
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

  	In a question that seemed to go directly to the heart of Mr. 
Justice Blais's concerns, Mr. Christie asked: "What are your 
intentions in regards to the Human Rights Tribunal decision prior to 
any judicial review?"

  	"I am a website hostage," Mr. Zundel replied. "I'm between a 
rock and a hard place. I'm in no position to dictate to my wife. I 
heard you say as a bail condition," Mr. Zundel said addressing the 
judge, "that a formula has to be found to persuade my wife to give up 
her rights as an American citizen so that her husband will not rot in 
a Canadian jail in solitary confinement. If I am ordered not to 
communicate with her, it would be the end of our marriage."

  	Then, Mr. Chrisite concluded: "If you could comply by not 
communicating with your wife about your website, would you?"

  	"Yes, I would comply," Mr. Zundel answered.

  	The day concluded with Doug Christie's stirring summation 
arguing for the granting of bail to Mr. Zundel.  "Mr. MacIntosh said 
yesterday that one of the reasons of keep Mr. Zundel in jail is that 
if he's out he'd be raising money for his defence. In 33 years of 
legal practice and over 3,000 bail hearings, I've never heard one 
like this. I'm amazed my learned friend should be so candid as to say 
Mr. Zundel should be jailed to keep him from raising money."

  	Referring to Crown Attorney Donald MacIntosh, Mr. Christie 
said: "My friend says Mr. Zundel is a lightning rod for the far 
right. A lightning rod is a mechanism to channel dangerous 
electricity and render it harmless, to prevent buildings from burning 
down.  There's no evidence he'll not show up for court. He may be a 
nuisance, but he's no threat to national security," Mr. Christie 
argued.

  	"If there was a real evidence of a threat to the security of 
Canada, it would have been made public. Not once has Mr. Zundel been 
accused of being associated with or condoning violence," Mr. Christie 
continued.

  	Then, turning to the bombshell evidence that the Canadian 
Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) knew, in 1995, of a bomb 
being sent to Mr. Zundel and did nothing to apprehend it or warn him, 
Mr. Christie explained: "The evidence before you in the book COVERT 
ENTRY is prima facie evidence of CSIS's hostility to Ernst Zundel, a 
pretty good reason to have Ernst Zundel discredited and kicked out of 
Canada. There should be a public inquiry as to whether CSIS was 
complicit in the delivery of a bomb to Mr. Zundel."

  	Mr. Christie then took aim at the secret hearings in this 
case and the defence's inability to know what was said or to refute 
the evidence. He suggested that much secret evidence against Mr. 
Zundel might be highly unreliable or come from sworn ideological 
enemies."We don't know anything of the secret evidence heard against 
Mr. Zundel. However, when we were before the Security and 
Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), Bernie Farber of the Canadian 
Jewish Congress testified that Ernst Zundel was a threat to national 
security. Then, we played a tape where Farber said Ernst Zundel was a 
joke."

  	Looking directly at he judge, Mr. Christie said: "I rely on 
the independence of the judiciary. I cannot rely on the bureaucracy. 
It has a love of power. It has unlimited money, well paid lawyers, 
and witnesses at secret hearing." Becoming personal, Mr. Christie 
told Mr. Justice Blais: "Your Lordship and I see the world in very 
different ways. Your Lordship sees the government as necessary and 
trustworthy. I see government as a danger to individual liberty. 
However, all human beings value freedom."

  	Mr. Christie dismissed the Crown's case, where no witnesses 
have been called. "Look at all those pages of alleged associations. 
There's not a credible threat there. It's a case of guilt by 
acquaintances. The guilt by association has become so extreme it's 
hysterical.  If this was a real trial, a prosecutor tendering such 
evidence would be considered an outrage.

  	Further on the bail application, Mr. Christie argued: 
"There's every indication he'll obey. He's been under bail orders 
longer than anyone I know. He was never found in breach." Referring 
to the Supreme Court's overturning of the "false news" law, after Mr. 
Zundel's appeal in 1992, Mr. Christie pointed out: "The law was made 
clearer and better because of the activities of this man who has 
always obeyed the law."

  	Addressing the apparent threat that Mr. Zundel must somehow 
shut down or gut the Zundelsite, in return for bail, Mr. Christie 
pointed out:  "His wife firmly and passionately believes in freedom 
of speech. Ernst Zundel hasn't breached the order. Until and unless 
he is charged and found guilty, we have the presumption of innocence. 
This poor man should not be held responsible for a breach that has 
not occurred. What would any citizen say of a tribunal composed of 
removable political appointees. It was typical of an Albanian court 
in the darkest days of Stalinist repression and this body sought to 
order changes in a U.S. website."

  	Informed of the apparent blackmail intended by the Canadian 
Court, Ingrid Rimland, Ernst Zundel's wife, wrote from her home in 
Tennessee: "Think about it - if I want my husband back, it looks like 
I'll have to trade them my website! It's just as Ernst told the 
judge: 'I am  the world's first website hostage.' I am now brooding 
on a poll where I could put it to the American people: 'Are you 
willing to let me trade your precious First Amendment to the Kanadian 
Kommissars so I can get my kidnapped husband back to Tennessee? If 
no, you are going to have to help me. If yes, there goes your freedom 
out the window - you may be sure of  that!'"  

– Paul Fromm