ZGram - 9/22/2204 - "Explosive CSIS testimony at Zundel Hearing"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

  September 22, 2004

  Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

  Paul Fromm, our de facto reporter at the Zundel trials, was 
traveling - which is the reason this report is late, and is a summary 
of three days' worth of hearings.  I am putting it on-line and send 
it to my list, for the record:

  [START]

  EXPLOSIVE CSIS TESTIMONY AT ZUNDEL HEARING

  TORONTO. September 17, 2003. 

  "I told you: Some day we're going to get a live witness from CSIS," 
lead defence lawyer Peter Lindsay told me triumphantly as we broke 
for lunch on Thursday. Mr. Justice Pierre Blais had just ruled that 
former CSIS operative Peter John Farrell, now a teacher with the 
Toronto Catholic School Board, would have to testify.

      Two and a half days of explosive revelations about the spying 
activities of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) 
on non-violent dissidents like Ernst Zundel, concluded today. The 
hearings were marked by dozens of objections by CSIS lawyer Murray 
Rodych and Crown Attorney Donald MacIntosh.  Former CSIS boss Mr. 
Justice Pierre Blais, now the judge conducting the CSIS certificate 
review of Mr. Zundel, blatantly ran interference for Canada's spy 
agency and its oversight body the Security and Intelligence Review 
Committee, dubbed by the witness as a "paper tiger."

      The judge repeatedly restricted questioning of former CSIS 
operative and now whistleblower John Farrell. At times, the 
restrictions, always made in the name of "national security", 
reached the level of the ridiculous. Mr. Lindsay was restricted to 
material in Andrew Mitrovica's book Covert Entry: Spied, Lies and 
Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service. Then, he was restricted to 
questions on words quoted from Mr. Farrell, Mr. Mitrovica's main 
source.

          At one point, he asked to confirm that a meeting had taken 
place between Don Lunau, Mr. Mitrovica's CSIS control, face to face 
in the underground parking lot of CSIS's Toronto headquarters, and 
that he had been instructed to intercept Max French's mail, French 
being a friend of then Heritage Front leader Wolfgang Droege, without 
a warrant.

  "National security," Mr. Rodych intoned. "It would reveal CSIS's 
methodology." 

  One wondered whether Mossad or Red Chinese Intelligence would be 
greatly surprised to learn that, on serious occasions, a control 
would meet an operative face to face? Nonetheless, the former CSIS 
boss agreed that Canada's national security was on the line and 
disallowed Mr. Lindsay's question. A few minutes later, Mr. Lindsay 
read the passage attributed to Mr. Farrell confirming just that.

      For a whistleblower, Farrell was a strangely reluctant witness. 
Yeomen's efforts to quash his subpoena made strange bedfellows of 
usual opponents. On September 14, John Norris of the leftist law firm 
Ruby & Edwardh made extensive submissions to quash the subpoena of 
the formerly mouthy whistleblower, who, it turned out, was miffed at 
CSIS over back pay that he felt was owed him after a nine year career 
swiping people's mail for the snoops and doing other dirty tricks. 
Now, as co-counsel Chi-Kun-Shi pointed out to me, Ruby & Edwardh have 
had a running battle with CSIS. Firm founder Clayton Ruby went all 
the way to the Supreme Court in his effort to get his files from 
CSIS. The firm has represented Jaballah one of the Arab security 
certificate cases in several go-rounds with CSIS.

          Yes, there they were,  Norris from the supposedly anti-CSIS 
firm, in friendly consultation with CSIS lawyer Murray Rodych and, at 
one point, even making objections suggested to him by Mr. Rodych.

          Interestingly, on September 16, after Mr. Justice Blais has 
given his decision to compel the reluctant Mr. Farrell to testify, 
there was another secret hearing during the extended lunch hour. We 
can only imagine what was conveyed by the Crown and CSIS. However, 
when Peter Lindsay asked; "Did it concern Mr.Farrell?" former CSIS 
boss Judge Blais responded: "I will never answer about these secret 
proceedings." So, there!

      Mr. Farrell, 36, a tall, sturdy, handsome man with gray jacket 
and black trousers, was accompanied each day to court by author 
Andrew Monrovia. The lanky journalist sported a short sleeved black 
muscle tee-shirt and had the disconcerting habit of appearing to be 
constantly leering or grinning. His presence was unusual as he, too, 
had ferociously fought a subpoena to testify and comment on his 
biting accusations against CSIS. At one point, his facial gestures 
outraged Judge Blais who demanded: "Do you have any concern with your 
body language? You made efforts not to testify."

      "I was exercizing my right to free speech," Mitrovica answered.

      Furious, Judge Blais exploded: "I am not asking for your 
comment. I will not tolerate this. It is not a show."

      Among the important revelations extracted from the former CSIS 
operative, who frequently had memory lapses, are the following:

  *  He was involved "for years, on and off," intercepting Ernst 
Zundel's mail for CSIS.

  *   In 1999, shortly after going public with his revelations about 
corruption and dirty tricks in CSIS, his laptop computer with 
detailed notes of his CSIS contacts and activities, as well as 
written notes, "went missing from the apartment of a friend," where 
they'd been left for safekeeping.

  *   His control Don Lunau warned him to avoid opening parcels from a 
Vancouver P.O. Box and warned him about the danger of an incendiary 
device that might be sent to  Mr. Zundel. In May, 1995, a lethal 
pipebomb was delivered from that Vancouver address to Ernst Zundel, 
thus strongly suggesting that CSIS knew the bomb was coming.

  *  Mr. Zundel was the only person, whose mail Mr. Farrell 
intercepted, who was the subject of a danger warning from Mr. Lunau.

      As the examination went on, Mr. Lindsay was harassed by 
continuous objections, as MacIntosh and Rodych popped up and down 
with their "objection, national security" refrain. Judge Blais 
restricted him to narrow questions about CSIS and SIRC as they 
related to Mr. Zundel. Wider observations from this 9-year veteran 
about CSIS lawlessness were ruthlessly stifled. 

  Accusing Mr. Lindsay of wasting time, Judge Blains announced: "The 
questions are unacceptable. I am not here to make a case against 
CSIS. I'm here to see whether the certificate is reasonable. I will 
not let you make a case against CSIS [and SIRC, alleged government 
watchdog agency with oversight duties of CSIS]."

      The long-suffering Peter Lindsay pointed out:  "Other witnesses 
have been allowed to express opinions on SIRC when they're positive. 
On April 29, when Mr. Rodych was questioning Mr. Stewart, he asked, 
'Do you know SIRC to be an independent body?' 'Yes,' he was told and 
he called SIRC's The Heritage Front Affair Report 'a balanced 
assessment of CSIS investigation of the rightwing.'"

      "'I'm not going to re-comment," Judge Blains snapped, "Stop 
making that type of comment when I'm making a ruling. If you do it 
again, it will be all over," he threatened. "This is waste of time." 

  - Paul Fromm

  [END]