ZGram - 9/13/2004 - "ARA thugs trying to provoke violence at Zundel rallies"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

September 13, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

After approximately 7-10 absolutely peaceful Zundel protest rallies 
in various places in Canada, two before Canadian ConsulateS in the US 
and, I have been told, one each in Japan, Sweden and Norway, without 
any incident of violence, I was informed this morning that there had 
been a serious clash between attacking ARA (Anti Racist Action) 
members and Zundel supporters. 

Last night around 7 P.M., Ernst called and asked if I had heard that 
there had been "arrests of some of our people."  I said I had not.  I 
told him that I did not even know there would be another protest 
rally in front of his prison until about 2 hours before the rally was 
to take place. 

I assumed that Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association for 
Free Expression, who was leading these rallies, had not sent out the 
notice to the general public to prevent the ARA from being there, 
since they had tried a confrontation at the last rally already but 
had not succeeded.

I was busy doing my September newsletter all day and had not checked 
my email.  After Ernst's call, I did - but there was nothing there 
that would have shed a light on what had happened.

This morning, I found the following, which I am sending you in one 
post in the sequence in which I received it, preceded by the press 
release announcing the rally:

=====

[START]

Saturday, September 11, 2004

For Immediate Release

Free Ernst Zundel Protests Planned for Toronto and Montreal, Sunday, 
September 12

     Sunday, September 12 is "Free Ernst Zundel Day."  Supporters of 
free speech and due process in the U.S. and across Europe are 
contacting Canadian diplomatic missions to protest the treatment of 
Canada's most famous political prisoner.

     "Here in Canada, there will be protests in Toronto calling on the 
government to free this lifelong pacifist, who is now in his 19th 
month of solitary confinement at the Metro West Detention Centre is 
Rexdale, Ontario," says Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian 
Association for Free Expression which is sponsoring the protests.

     In Toronto, the protest will be held at 1:00 p.m. outside the 
prison, where for five months the 65 year old Zundel was denied such 
basic necessities as a pillow. The Metro West Detention Centre is at 
111 Disco Road.

     In Montreal, free speech supporters will be gathering at 2:00 
p.m. outside the office of Justice Minister Irwin Cotler at 4770 
avenue Kent, Mount Royal, (near Plamondon Metro Station).  "Cotler 
has a shameful conflict of interest in this matter," says Mr. Fromm. 
"He was the former leader of the Canadian Jewish Congress which has 
lobbied for Mr. Zundel's deportation and which has a longstanding 
hostility toward the German publisher."

     Ernst Zundel has been labelled "a terrorist" and risk to Canada's 
national security. "The government's position is absurd," says Mr. 
Fromm. "Zundel lived peacefully and openly in Canada for 42 years. He 
was a public figure, an open book and we now know that, in 1995 CSIS 
was surreptitiously opening his mail. He was an open book. Yet, not 
once was he every charged with, much less convicted of any act of 
violence," Mr. Fromm recalls.

     "The government is disgracing the term 'national security,'" Mr. 
Fromm charges. "Mr. Zundel is a pacifist. He is a dissident whose 
rejection of the Hollywood version of World War II and German-bashing 
have offended certain powerful groups. It's a weak country that 
throws dissidents in prison."

     "We oppose the secret hearings and unlimited detention permitted 
under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)," Fromm adds.

     "Mr. Zundel has been kept in solitary confinement, denied basic 
humane treatment that the Nazis accorded our POWs in World War II. 
Our soldiers could receive Red Cross parcels of tea, chocolate and 
cigarettes. Ernst Zundel isn't even permitted to receive the 
alternative health herbs he has used to treat several medical 
conditions for 30 years. That's why our posters call the Metro West 
Detention Centre 'Abu Ghraib North'," Fromm adds.

         "Political prisoners are treated far worse than convicted 
criminals," Mr. Fromm charges. "Marcia Dooley, the woman convicted of 
the murder of little Randall Dooley, and Mary Taylor, the woman 
convicted of the murder of a Toronto policeman, were both permitted 
to attend a luxury spa recently.  Yet, dissident Ernst Zundel sits in 
solitary confinement and he's never been tried or convicted of 
anything."

     "There will be fireworks on Tuesday when Mr. Zundel's national 
security certificate hearing resumes before former CSIS boss Mr. 
Justice Pierre Blais. We will be arguing a motion that Judge Blais 
should recuse himself as he was the former boss of the spy 
organization whose evidence he is being called on to assess," says 
Fromm. "Also, John Farrell, a CSIS operative who co-ordinated the 
mail snooping and opening [of letters] targetting Ernst Zundel and 
others in 1995 will be answering a defence subpoena to testify as to 
the animosity between Canada's spooks and the German-born publisher."

     The Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE), [Box 332, 
Rexdale, ON,. M9W 5L3.] CAFE was founded in 1981 and is Canada's 
leading advocate for free speech. It has intervened in a number of 
court cases and human rights tribunals and is especially concerned 
about government censorship of the Internet. CAFE publishes the 
monthly Free Speech Monitor.  ($15).

--30--

For more information: Contact Paul Fromm, Director, Canadian 
Association for Free Expression: 905-897-7221; cell: 416-523-6075.

[END]

=====

NEXT, I received the following, reported by Paul Fromm and sent 
today, September 13, 2004:

[START]

Free Speech Supporters Prevail Despite ARA Thuggery in Toronto and Montreal

The forces of violent anarchism did their best to stop supporters of 
Canada's most famous political prisoner, Ernst Zundel, from 
protesting his continued detention in solitary confinement. Protests 
in both Toronto and Montreal were attacked by ARA thugs with masked 
faces and weapons.

The Montreal protest outside Justice Minister Irwin Cotler's office 
attracted about 10 free speech supporters. Others were unable to get 
through a raucous crowd of masked ARA thugs. One observer reported 
that about 75 ARA thugs " were armed with golf clubs and face masks."

About 20 carloads of police kept the menacing ARA separated from the 
free speech supporters. One ARA goon was arrested for smashing at the 
windshield of the free speech protest.   A more complete report from 
the organizer follows my report.

Meanwhile in Toronto, supporters of the Canadian Association for Free 
Expression rallied outside of the Metro West Detention where 
political prisoner Ernst Zundel is now in his 19th month of solitary 
confinement.  We knew that the ARA were coming and, so, we changed 
the time of the protest.

On Friday, I stopped by 23 Division in Rexdale and had a chat with 
Staff Sgt. May who would be the officer in charge of the Division 
today. He appreciated our co-operation and I made it clear that we 
would be law-abiding and were there simply to make a political 
statement of support for free speech and in opposition to secret 
trials and unlimited detention of political dissidents like Ernst 
Zundel.

When I arrived at about 12:30, I quickly re-learned the lesson that 
you take almost everything [that] cops, who are increasingly a 
political and politicized police force, say. They're simply not to be 
believed or trusted.  We learned that a carload of supporters from 
London had been arrested. The four lads were sitting on the grass 
handcuffed. Their crime? Apparently, there had been a bow and arrow 
and a bulletproof vest in the trunk of the car. The police search was 
almost certainly illegal. All four have been charged with possession 
of weapons dangerous and weapons at a public meeting.  Note, the 
weapons were not taken out at a meeting and were not brandished or 
carried by the four. People with a sense of logic may wonder how four 
men can possess one weapon. Much later tonight, we greeted three of 
the four as they were released for 23 Division.

Many of the police were belligerent. We were not allowed to park in 
the lots of Metro West Detention Centre. This had been allowed 
before. Of course, we had only their word -- not the provincial 
authorities who run the prison -- for this new rule. Some of us tried 
to park in the spacious area around an adjacent factory. Not allowed, 
a pushy cop insisted, all the while threatening to have us towed. He 
claimed the factory had sent a notice under the Trespass to Property 
Act. 

How could they? I asked. Nothing has happened yet.

Nonetheless, the cop insisted they had. I countered that we'd have to 
be given a notice from the owners first -- highly unlikely, as we'd 
be taking up a few spaces for about an hour in their deserted parking 
lot.

The police were obviously seeking to be complete p**** about it. 
Then, John, an ally who's been in politics with me since the late 
1960s in the Edmund Burke Society came running up, saying the cops 
had threatened to arrest us all if we wished to parade on the public 
sidewalk. Several others confirmed that that's what they'd been told 
too. Such orders were clearly crap.

One of the London Four later told me that the cops who had ransacked 
their car had said: "This time, we're not taking any crap. There's 
zero tolerance."  He was apparently referring to the July 25 where 
there'd been quite a confrontation between the ARA and free speech 
supporters.

However, that came about because of dreadful policing. The police 
knew the anarchists were coming. Instead of letting them confront and 
attack us, they should have kept them across the street.  We were 
hardly to blame for the poor policing or the ARA violence.

I walked over to try to talk to the officer in charge. It turned out 
to be an Inspector Pinfold. A greying man, he seemed reasonable. Now, 
there were new rules. We could park our cars on the Disco Road, 
opposite the prison, even though it's a no parking zone. We could 
parade on the public sidewalk, but not go on the prison grass. We 
were to go no further than a certain light standard. Already the 
mounted squad has arrived.  The ARA would be kept beyond the light 
standard. Even this meeting was not without its unpleasantness. I'd 
asked who was in charge and had Inspector Pinfold pointed out to me. 
As I proceeded across a few feet of the prison lawn, I was confronted 
by a cop I'll call Wooden Hulk.

"You're trespassing," he said.

"But it's public property. We pay for it," said I, "I wish to talk to 
the officer in charge."

I was directed back to the sidewalk. Pinfold would see me in a 
minute. Meanwhile, Wooden Hulk wanted my ID. I handed him my CAFE 
business card.

"Don't you have a licence," he demanded.

"Not on me," I responded.

"What's your birthdate?" he demanded.

You wish to send me a present. Ah, shucks, I thought to myself. 

I refused to give him this information.  He was quite angry and 
sniffed," And you said you wanted to co-operate."

At about 1:30, the ARA showed up in their tatty yellow school bus. 
Real patriots, they flew the old hammer and sickle flag of communist 
Russia, the flag of communist East Germany and a native Indian flag 
that features a brave's head, complete with feather, on a red 
background. A few Indians carried signs seeking justice for Dudley 
George.

[He's been dead almost a decade. Could their addled brains have 
brought them to the wrong protest?]

Now, Inspector Pinfold invoked a new rule. "You can't have those 
flagpoles or sticks for your signs. My officers are at risk."

This was more bullshit and he knew it. Both on July 25 and today, his 
officers faced the ARA and repeatedly turned their backs on us. They 
knew perfectly well we were peaceful and law-abiding and not about to 
attack the police. Nevertheless, we took our flags -- the Red Ensign, 
the Stars and Bars, and the Flag of Michigan, carried by our U.S. 
supporters -- off their poles. We carefully removed the sticks from 
our placards.

The police kept the ARA down the street and across the road from us. 
A number of officers and the mounted unit hemmed them in. We could 
hear their obscenities and shouts faintly in he distance. However, we 
noted that they were allowed to keep their flagpoles and the sticks 
on their placards. We'd been effectively disarmed, but they had their 
flagpoles and sticks, which could have been used as weapons.

Several of us asked the police about this glaring discrepancy. After 
all, the ARA has a long history of violence and battling the police. 
We noted that the horses had plastic visors over their eyes.  In 
numerous confrontations, the ARA have used poles to try to blind the 
horses.

I pointed out the unfairness and the inequality of the situation to 
Inspector Pinfold.

"That's my business," he snapped. Cops hate accountability to the 
wage serfs who pay their salaries.

We chanted, "Free Ernst Zundel" and "No Secret Trials." I gave a 
short talk, stressing the cruelty of 19 months in solitary 
confinement for a man who is a lifelong pacifist. I thanked the free 
speech supporters from 16 to 76 who had hung in there with us and 
behaved as decent men and women. We then dispersed and headed to Jack 
Astor's a popular restaurant about six miles away. Several reporters, 
one who said she was with the CBC but who travelled with the ARA, 
were in our protest ranks.

At any rate, the ARA found out. Their bus pulled up into the 
restaurant parking lot. About 20 masked thugs piled out and burst 
into the bar screaming at Marc Lemire. One threatened the restaurant 
security: "These are Nazis. We'll tell B'nai Brith and the Canadian 
Jewish Congress and they'll put you out of business." After much 
shouting and jabbing, the ARA were driven out, but not before a few 
had been seriously beaten for their lunacy. One disabled member of 
our group was knocked to the floor. As he sought to get up with his 
cane, he was arrested by the police. As of this evening, he was still 
in 22 Division charged, incredibly, with possession of weapons 
dangerous -- his own cane!  [(2) Marc Lemire's report is attached 
below]

By now at least a dozen cruisers had zoomed to Jack Astor's. I was 
told that I must leave the property and get out of the parking lot or 
I'd be arrested under the Trespass to Property Act.

"The management says you're not welcome," a snotty Officer 4701 barked at me.

"I doubt that," I answered. "They don't even know me. I haven't even 
had a chance to order a drink."

Many of our people were also summarily ordered off the property. 
Again, it's hard to know whether Jack Astor's was really trying to 
get rid of paying customers -- we'd eaten there at least six times 
before -- of whether this was another police lie.

This is typical ARA and, we might add, Jewish lobby tactics. They 
attack and create violence and, then, the threat of such violence 
induces the business establishment to cancel our meeting or, in this 
case, our dinner.

The reaction of the patrons of Jack Astor's was interesting. "Who are 
those freaks?" one football viewer asked, looking at the ARA.  When 
the masked crazies started assaulting our people, one Chinese fellow 
got into the act and threw a few punches at the crazies himself.

Clearly, the ARA and their shadowy Establishment puppetmasters and 
financiers are getting worried by the growing support for Ernst 
Zundel and our persistent marches of support for this wrongly 
imprisoned man. -- Paul Fromm, Director

[END]

Third, here are two accounts from other people witnessing this incident:

[START]

1. ACCOUNT BY MONTREAL PROTEST LEADER

There seemed to be a leak into the whereabouts of our protest, so 
about 40-60 reds, Jews, and other anti-free speach scum were around 
the area, with their balaclavas, cameras (they've taken so many 
pictures of me, I have no idea why they need any more), and various 
weapons. I had my car attacked while trying to meet up with another 
WN [?] at the subway. Luckily, I was not hurt, and the damage is only 
to the windshield. They ran down the street after my car, ignoring 
Police presence, and smashing it with various metal objects. One of 
the dirty dreadlocked [slur deleted] protesters was charged with 
aggravated assault for the damage to my car, as he smashed it in 
front of Police, and was caught.

The other free speach supporters either saw the scum, and didn't stop 
in the area, or got away. I'm sure they will consider this a great 
victory, as our protest was not able to happen, but I think 
differently. Nobody will shut us up, and we will make sure next time, 
we don't make the same mistakes. This is only the beginning, and we 
are sure to win against these scum. Nobody was hurt or arrested, so 
that's a bonus as well, considering that each party of free-speach 
supporters were morbidly outnumbered.

[END]

2. ACCOUNT BY MARC LEMIRE OF TORONTO PROTEST

Today's Zundel rally was really something.

There was probably about 30 police already there when we showed up. 
They were not allowing anyone to park anywhere near the Metro West. 
Very hostile to us. After meeting with the man in charge, they 
allowed us to park on the street. They blocked the entire street off. 
On one end was our protest, at the other the ARA was there. In the 
middle police cars and a paddy wagon. The police kept both sides far 
away from each other (50-100+ feet)

We had the rally and did our speeches.

After the rally, we left and went to a local restaurant. This is 
where things got crazy.  About 20 or so ARA people showed up at the 
restaurant, and ran into the bar area, where I was sitting with about 
8 people talking, enjoying a beer and watching the NFL football.

Three or four of them tried to circle me while screaming "Marc Lemire 
is a nazi" and "fascists out" The leader of the ARA kept poking me 
and pushing me trying to get me to react (it is clear [their] pay 
masters wanted a violent confrontation). ARA weirdo Marcell Rodden 
was beside me in the bar, wearing plastic gloves (like those used by 
housewives to clean the toilet) a bandana over his face and a pair of 
painters glasses.

Marcell Rodden is the guy taking a picture, wearing a hat that says "Commie"

The other ARA types in the bar were yelling at the top of their lungs 
that "Jack Asters serves Nazis".  Also interesting to note, the 
leader of the ARA (fat shady character) threatened the restaurant 
owners that the "B'nai Brith will shut this place down for serving 
Nazis" -- Guess we know who their money men are.

Bar security tossed them out after a tense 4 or 5 minutes.

I then moved to the patio area behind a glass partician where the ARA 
was milling about at the front door to Jack Astor's. (Front door and 
the patio are beside each other) I did not see what initially 
happened, but one of the ARA leaders was getting arrested by police. 
He was resisting arrest and the cops had him on the ground. (There 
were only about 2 or 3 cops there at the time)  The one in the 
background with the bandana over his face was the one being arrested. 
The chubby one in the foreground got arrested after trying to assault 
me.

Then, all hell broke loose. The leader of the ARA (fat shady looking 
fellow, shown in above picture) and a few of his followers ran 
(approx 5) into the patio area to attack me. He lunged at me - 
screaming we are all cowards. 

He was pushed to the ground by someone, not sure what happened - but 
his nose and eye was bleeding. The 2 police officers on scene radioed 
for backup, and within about 3 minutes, there were close to 40 cops 
there.  The entire parking lot was closed off by them. Jack Asters 
security grabbed the leader of the ARA who tried to assault me, and 
held him until the police arrived, where he was arrested.

About 2 or 3 tables were overturned and plenty of broken glass around.

At the end of the day:

Seems two of our people were arrested. One of them was an older man 
who needed a cane to walk. (- and was the target of these ARA tough 
guys)

 From what we heard - 4 or more of the ARA terrorists who attacked us 
were also arrested.

Then we were all escorted out of the bar by police and forcefully 
told to leave - on the threat of arrest if we didn't move fast enough.

[END]