ZGram - 1/23/2004 - "Six more months in prison for Ernst Zundel, not charged with any crime!"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

January 23, 2003

Last night, when Ernst called after the first day of a four-day 
marathon exercise in sadism, otherwise known as a "security 
certificate hearing", I already knew that bail had been denied. 
Ernst said:  "You have to be strong.  You have to understand this is 
an impact prosecution trial.  I will be here for still some time." 
When I asked if he would appeal Judge Blais's ruling, he said that as 
far as he knew, it was "unappealable."  He added that his attorneys 
were still deciding on the next move.

He said he was not allowed to talk to reporters, even though they 
crowded him and tried to get a statement from him.  He was quite 
adamant that I should convey that to them. 

Paul Fromm's write-up first, then two, almost identical write-ups 
from an obligatory press:

[START]

ZUNDEL TO REMAIN IN PRISON 6 MORE MONTHS

Dear Free Speech Supporter:

	After twelve days of hearings stretching from May 9 to 
December 10,  Mr.
Justice Pierre Blais brought down his decision condemning Ernst Zundel to
another six months in prison as a risk to national security. Supporters of
free speech and the gentle pacifist publisher Ernst Zundel who languishes
in solitary confinement in the Metro West Detention Centre will scarcely
recognize the man described in Blais's judgement. The grotesque caricature
of Canada's most famous political prisoner is absurd.

	The judgement  of the federal judge is dated January 21. Peter Lindsay,
Mr. Zundel's lead counsel, told Court today that he received this judgement
by FAX at 3:26 p.m., Wednesday afternoon (January 21, 2004). The timing was
mischievously impeccable. It was too late for Mr. Lindsay to consult or
strategize with his client until he was granted a mere two minutes just
before Court opened this morning.

	The decision confirms the worst fears about Mr. Justice Pierre Blais.
Blais was Solicitor-General in 1989 during the Mulroney Government. In this
role, he had direct oversight and direction of CSIS, at a time when they
were tasked to infiltrate and manage the White rights group the Heritage
Front, and at a time when CSIS began surveillance and, through agent Grant
Bristow, dirty tricks against the fledgling Reform Party and its leader
Preston Manning.

When Mr. Zundel's lawyer at the time, Douglas H. Christie, called on Mr.
Justice Blais to recuse himself, he refused. He said he'd had no dealings
with CSIS for 14 years and was out of touch with their activities and,
therefore, there could be no apprehension of bias on his part. Old
intelligence hands smirked. You never really leave "the old game".  Blais,
who seldom suffers from an economy of words, seemed to blame the defence
for not having performed due diligence and challenging him earlier. Mr.
Christie had pointed out that it was not up to him to know all possible
circumstances where a judge might be in a position constituting a
reasonable apprehension of bias. Blais himself, dealing with such a
volatile case, that turns on CSIS's preposterous and malicious lies that
Mr. Zundel is a "terrorist", must have seen that his former role as CSIS
boss and intimate put him in an intolerable conflict.

	It now appears that the judge who made the assignment knew 
perfectly well
that Blais was a former Solicitor-General and could be counted on to do the
"right" thing to uphold the decisions of Canada's political police, the
Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, the same agency which,
according to Andrew Mitrovica's book COVERT ENTRY (order from C-FAR Books,
Box 332, Rexdale, ON., M9W 5L3 for $43 postpaid), knew a pipebomb was
headed for Ernst Zundel by mail, warned its mail snooping operatives not to
touch Vancouver-based packages in May, 1995, and let the bomb go through to
Mr. Zundel, endangering him, his staff, and numerous postal and airline
workers.

	Mr. Justice Blais makes it clear that his decision is based 
on the secret
evidence which, of course, neither Mr. Zundel nor his counsel have heard.
Mr. Zundel is condemned on the basis of secret evidence and witnesses that
he cannot challenge. We have truly leaped over into a police state. The
judge says: "The constraints of national security have made the Ministers
unable to show public evidence to link Mr. Zundel to any of the violent
acts that have been committed by extremist, racist groups. The information
that has been provided to me, however, has satisfied me that there are
reasonable grounds to believe that such a link exists." (para. 34)

	The judge makes it clear that it's ideas -- political views 
-- that are to
be condemned, not even actions. "One finds in their words and actions
always present a common thread: hatred of Jews, hatred of non-White
minorities, a claim that Whites are threatened by our multicultural
society. Mr. Zundel may deny that he advocates  violence, but he cannot
deny that he espouses the same ideas as extremist violent groups. The
information provided in camera by the Ministers to this Court goes further:
Mr. Zundel in many cases pulls the strings that lead to violent actions."
(para. 30)

	Amazingly, while Zundel has been under some form of police surveillance
since 1960, he's been so clever that not once has he ever been charged,
much less convicted, of advocating, counselling or practising violence in
Canada, Germany or the U.S.!

	For years, Canada has had two federally registered political parties --
the Communist Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada,
Marxist-Leninist. Both groups applauded the violent communist revolutions
that brought their idols to power; the first, in Russia; the latter in Red
China. While in latter years, they may have preached victory through the
electoral process in Canada and, in the case of the former, eschewed overt
violence in Canada, they never abandoned their revolutionary goals. Yet,
they were not only not deemed to be threats to national security, but were
able to reward donors with tax creditable receipts.

	In this decision, despite numerous courtroom remarks, 
fretting aboout Mr.
Zundel's detention and his right to be free, Mr. Justice Pierre Blais
entirely buys CSIS guilt-by-association. A clever judge, he papers the
record with remarks that appear to suggest concern for the rights of the
prisoner. His actions, however, suggest something else.

	The defence fears now seem correct. Mr. Zundel can expect nothing but a
royal "screwing" from the former boss of Canada's political police. The
judge, insisting that we must trust him and the secret evidence form CSIS,
writes: "I have come to the conclusion, based on the information presented
to me in camera, that Mr. Zundel does represent a danger to the security of
Canada, and should remain in detention for the time being. In writing the
present reasons, I am constrained by the reality of national security
reasons which impede giving full expression to the grounds for continuing
the detention." (para. 13)]

	So, the judge sees the German publisher as a threat to 
national security.
Preposterously, he goes on to say: "I wish to state that the issue of the
reasonableness of the certificate has yet to be ruled upon, and that the
instant decision does not decide the matter." (para. 14) Really? How can
the judge conclude that Mr. Zundel is a threat to national security and
must remain in solitary confinement in a Canadian jail, but decide that it
was not reasonable for the Solicitor-General and the Minister of
Immigration to conclude the same thing? Even in the politicized world of
Canada's federal bench, such a conclusion would beggar the imagination.

	The prosecution lawyers were positively beaming and smirking throughout
the Court proceedings today, sensing that they have won. Chief Crown
counsel Donald MacIntosh, usually a wooden figure, twice peformed an odd
flourish with his right hand while addressing the court. The gesture with
an upstretched right arm involved a twist of the hand, almost like a
movement from some dance.

	Not surprisingly, the Canadian Jewish Congress, one of Canada's most
strident pro-censorship groups, applauded the decision: "Bernie Farber,
executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said he was pleased by
the ruling and hopes it will "serve to hasten the process that will see Mr.
Zundel removed from Canada."(NATIONAL POST, January 22, 2004)

						Paul Fromm
						Director
					Canadian Association for Free 
Expression

[END]

ZGram readers might also want to read what the mainstream papers have to say: 

[START]

Zundel denied bail; facing deportation
National security case

Scott Stinson and Adrian Humphreys  
National Post, with files from The Canadian Press 

(NATIONAL POST, Thursday, January 22, 2004)

  TORONTO - A Federal Court of Canada judge will rule today that Ernst
Zundel poses a threat to national security and is to remain in prison while
the court considers the government's deportation case against him.

Lawyers for the Holocaust denier have argued he has never advocated
violence against minorities, but in rejecting the bail application Justice
Pierre Blais wrote: "Mr. Zundel wields much more power within the
right-wing, extremist and violent movement known as the White Supremacist
Movement ... than he lets on."

The 19-page ruling, a copy of which was obtained by the National Post, will
be presented in a Toronto court this morning at a hearing to determine the
validity of the government's deportation order. Mr. Zundel, 64, is being
held on a rarely used national-security certificate, which the government
can issue when it deems a person a threat to Canadian security.

Security-certificate cases are unusual because the government does not have
to publicly disclose all of its evidence, and Judge Blais said this secret
intelligence was a factor in his ruling.

The government "has provided considerable evidence, that cannot be
disclosed for reasons of national security, that Mr. Zundel has extensive
contacts within the violent racist and extremist movements," Judge Blais
wrote.

"Mr. Zundel may deny that he advocates violence, but he cannot deny that he
espouses the same ideas as extremist violent groups," he added, noting the
secret evidence suggests "Mr. Zundel in many cases pulls the strings that
lead to violent actions."

The fact the case against him is a secret is precisely why Mr. Zundel's
detention is a violation of the Charter of Rights, his lawyer said after
the judge's ruling was released yesterday.

"It's a bit like trying to grab smoke," Peter Lindsay said. "I'm in the
dark totally."

Donald McIntosh, the lead Department of Justice lawyer arguing the matter,
said last night he would not comment on the decision.

Bernie Farber, executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said he
was pleased by the ruling and hopes it "will serve to hasten the process
that will see Mr. Zundel removed from Canada."

Mr. Zundel was jailed when he claimed refugee status in February, when he
was deported to Canada from the United States for overstaying his visitor's
visa, and Ottawa declared him a security threat in May.

Mr. Zundel, who had lived in Canada since 1958, had fled to Tennessee to be
with his wife before a 2002 ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Commission
that a Web site he controlled spread anti-Semitic messages.

The Canadian government plans to deport Mr. Zundel to his native Germany,
where he faces a charge of inciting hatred.

In a letter to supporters, Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association
for Free Expression, an organization backing Mr. Zundel, yesterday appealed
for help to cover their legal fees.

"November and December have been very expensive months for the Zundel case.
We have spent just over $50,000.... January promises to be an expensive
month, with four days planned in Federal Court," the e-mail said.

"The Defence Fund is very seriously depleted and we face major outlays in
the New Year."

The hearing on the security certificate is to continue tomorrow. But Mr.
Lindsay said he wants it postponed so he can appeal an earlier Superior
Court ruling that also upheld the constitutionality of Mr. Zundel's
detention as well as the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the law
under which he is being detained.

[END]

And the Toronto Sun in an almost identical write-up:

[START]

Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel must remain behind bars until a judge decides
whether he poses a legitimate threat to national security, a court ruled
yesterday. Zundel was jailed in February after being deported to Canada for
overstaying a visitor's visa in the U.S.

"He'll stay in solitary confinement at the Metro West Detention Centre,
without having a criminal record in Canada, without facing any criminal
charges in Canada, as he has been since Feb. 19, 2003," Zundel's lawyer
Peter Lindsay said.

Zundel is being held on a security certificate while the courts determine
whether it is reasonable to deem the 64-year-old a security risk to Canada
and to deport him to Germany.

"I have come to the conclusion, based on the information presented to me in
camera, that Mr. Zundel does represent a danger to the security of Canada
and should remain in detention for the time being," Federal Court Justice
Pierre Blais said in a written decision.

The hearing to evaluate the validity of the security certificate was to
continue today, but Lindsay said he was planning to ask Blais for an
adjournment.

Lindsay said he'll appeal an earlier Superior Court ruling that upheld the
constitutionality of Zundel's detention as well as the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act, the law under which he's being detained.

It's patently unfair to deny Zundel any information about the "secret
evidence" that Ottawa and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service
are using to justify their efforts to deport him, he said.

Zundel, who has lived in Canada since 1958, fled to Tennessee prior to a
January 2002 ruling by the Human Rights Commission that a Web site he
controlled spread anti-Semitic messages.

	[END]

One final but important item:  Repeatedly and falsely, the Canadian 
media  reported that Ernst "fled" to the United States to avoid the 
final finding of the Human Rights Tribunal - the body that had stated 
that "Truth is not a Defence."  Ernst did not "flee."   That is a 
brazen lie. 

Ernst moved to the United States after our marriage, but for an 
entire year, he kept the Zundel-Haus afloat, replete with several 
staff, and he kept paying several lawyers as well as expert 
witnesses, so nobody would later say he skipped out on an obligation. 

The Canadian taxpayers, of course, paid for the Jewish-led 
prosecution through the nose. 

Ingrid Zundel