ZGram - 5/9/2004 - "Globe and Mail: 'Writer fights Zundel Subpoena'"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

May 9, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Almost ten years after it happened, the controversy around the parcel 
bomb that was sent to the Zundel-Haus in 1995, apparently with the 
knowledge and approval of CSIS, is squarely on the table and will be 
aired in future Zundel hearings.  For those new to the ZGram list, 
here is a snapshot of what happened:

On the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Germany, a Toronto punk was 
paid $200 by "unknown" elements to set fire to the Zundel-Haus.  His 
act was caught with a surveillance camera as he poured flammable 
liquid around the base of the structure and put a match to it. 
Flames immediately shot up between the walls to the fourth floor and 
destroyed a priceless library first, causing extensive damage to the 
rest of the building.  Ernst Zundel was away on a lecture trip; 
otherwise he would have been killed, since his bedroom was also on 
the fourth floor. 

Toronto Jews danced the hora on the sidewalk.  A few days later, 
Jewish Defense League hoodlums, among them the notorious Irv Rubin, 
showed up to photograph the arsoned building.  Zundel bodyguards as 
well as police cruisers chased them and even caught them, but after a 
brief phone call by Irwin, the JDL members were quickly let go.  

The damage to the Zundel-Haus was estimated at more than $400,000 
dollars.  Street gossip soon located the arsonist's name and 
whereabouts, which were turned over to the police.  Police chose not 
to follow up. 

A few days later, there was some terror mail sent to the Zundel-Haus 
- a mouse trap with a razor blade, allegedly laced with AIDS, along 
with a crudely misspelled letter warning, "Next time it will be 
BOOM!" 

These items were turned over to Toronto police who, again, chose not 
to follow up. 

As I remember it, a Jewish activist group took credit for this act by 
sending a letter to media. 

Then a parcel arrived in the mail.  Ernst received it and noticed 
immediately that it was suspiciously heavy.  His crew and volunteers 
from all over the world were swarming about the gutted building, 
trying to rescue what could still be rescued, and starting to repair 
and rebuild.  Some inner voice told Ernst not to open the parcel.  He 
put it to the side and warned his people not to touch it, resolved he 
would check it out on the weekend when the house was quiet. 

There it sat for several days, on his desk!  In the havoc of the 
post-arson days, Ernst told me once he almost forgot about it!

The weekend came.  Ernst started inspecting the parcel which had the 
return address, a P.O. box,  of someone he had briefly talked to in 
British Columbia on his lecture tour.  He shook the parcel, and it 
rattled.  Just as he was about to open it, the phone rang, and this 
very acquaintance was on the phone. 

Talk about being watched over by heaven! 

Ernst asked this man if he had sent a parcel, citing the address. 
The man said, no - it was a P.O. box he had not used in more than two 
years.  That's when Ernst knew that the parcel contained a bomb.

This parcel bomb was exploded that night by a police robot.  It was 
so deadly that it would have killed anybody in a radius of 300 feet. 

One police officer insisted with a smirk that Ernst had sent it to 
himself, to make himself more interesting and get himself back in the 
news as a victim! 

In the book "Covert Entry" that was published a few years ago, Globe 
and Mail investigative reporter, Andrew Mitrovica, makes the claim 
that CSIS, Canada's civilian spy agency, had foreknowledge of the 
bomb and warned its undercover agents, one of them a former thief 
named John Farrell, not to touch a parcel coming from the West Coast 
addressed to Ernst Zundel.  Farrell later spilled the beans about 
this matter to Mitrovica.  This bomb traveled on several Canada Air 
passenger planes and could have endangered not only airline staff and 
passengers but also postal workers anywhere along the way. 

Now that CSIS is the very agency that tries to incriminate Ernst 
Zundel as a "national security risk", both John Farrell and Andrew 
Mitrovica are slated to testify via subpoena.  You can imagine that 
neither is eager to do so.  It does not take an Einstein to know that 
CSIS would be breathing down their necks if they elaborate under oath 
what has been claimed in Covert Entry. 

So far, Farrell has bolted the subpoena.  Mitrovica is fighting it. 
The Globe and Mail write-up below is about Mitrovica's attempt to get 
out from under scrutiny what has been documented in his book.

[START]

Writer fights Zundel subpoena

Author, judge object to taking stand at Holocaust denier's deportation hearing

By KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER

UPDATED AT 6:32 PM EDT	Thursday, May. 6, 2004

A Federal Court of Canada judge showed no sympathy yesterday for an 
author fighting to stay off the witness stand at Holocaust-denier 
Ernst Zundel's deportation hearing.

Mr. Justice Pierre Blais said that author Andrew Mitrovica should be 
prepared to account for splashy allegations of wrongdoing in his 
recent book, Covert Entry, on the Canadian Security Intelligence 
Services.

"He seems to not care about national security," Judge Blais observed 
sternly, waving a copy of the book. "He seems to care more about 
selling books."

Lawyers for Mr. Zundel are hoping to use Mr. Mitrovica's testimony to 
shake the general credibility of CSIS. They are particularly eager to 
question him about a 1995 incident in which CSIS allegedly knew a 
pipe bomb was being sent to Mr. Zundel through the mail, yet failed 
to warn him.

"It is appropriate that I should be able to challenge the most 
important witness against Mr. Zundel -- and the most important 
witness is CSIS," lawyer Peter Lindsay said yesterday. "If we don't 
hear from Mr. Mitrovica, we simply are not going to get to the bottom 
of these matters."

CSIS provided information which Judge Blais has heard in secret 
sessions, and which purportedly shows Mr. Zundel to be a national 
security risk. The Zundel defence team is not privy to the 
information, yet it must still convince Judge Blais that it is 
unreliable. Should it fail, Mr. Zundel will be deported to Germany to 
face a five-year prison term for the crime of denying the Holocaust.

Mr. Mitrovica's lawyer, Brian Rogers, argued yesterday that writers 
are mere conduits for information whose work ought to stand for 
itself. He said Mr. Mitrovica's plight goes to the heart of press 
freedom and represents the latest in a chain of cases that have 
chilled writers and journalists.

"This is an issue that is very important, very broad, and will no 
doubt go to the Supreme Court of Canada in due course," Mr. Rogers 
said. He said that Mr. Mitrovica's sweeping subpoena demands 
virtually every piece of paper in his possession pertaining to CSIS.

"If they get their way and he is called [to testify] . . . this will 
be a one-person commission of inquiry into CSIS," Mr. Rogers said. He 
argued that Mr. Lindsay ought to have subpoenaed the CSIS agents 
quoted in Mr. Mitrovica's book, rather than pursuing someone who 
merely published their "hearsay" accounts.

"Mr. Lindsay should be going after the horses, not Mr. Mitrovica; the 
farmer who is guarding the barn door," Mr. Rogers said. "He is the 
wrong guy."

Judge Blais, a former federal solicitor-general, said he found it 
surprising that Mr. Mitrovica would try to shield himself in a cloak 
of journalistic immunity instead of wanting to help ensure that 
potentially illegal acts are dealt with properly.

The judge reserved his ruling on four separate attempts to quash 
defence subpoenas. Besides Mr. Mitrovica, others hoping to avoid 
testifying are Ontario Court Judge Lauren Marshall, a former lawyer 
of Mr. Zundel's; Canadian Jewish Congress President Keith Landy, and 
Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada.

After initially agreeing to respond to her subpoena, Judge Marshall 
sent a lawyer on Tuesday to fight it. Her lawyer, Paul Stern, told 
Judge Blais yesterday that anything his client could say is either 
irrelevant or improper.

[END]