ZGRAM - 11/3/2004 - "Judge assailed at Zundel hearing"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

November 3, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Here is the latest on the Zundel-Saga - with more to come later in the day!

[START]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041103/ZUNDEL03/TPNational/Canada

Judge assailed at Zundel hearing
Holocaust denier's lawyer criticizes 'Draconian' security certificate 
process 'that has no place in a democracy'

By KIRK MAKIN
GLOBE & MAIL
JUSTICE REPORTER

Wednesday, Nov 3, 2004

Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel's 18-month deportation hearing ended on 
a fiery note yesterday, as his lawyer accused the Federal Court judge 
hearing the case of actively "embracing" the extraordinary secrecy 
provisions that surrounded it.

In what was likely Mr. Zundel's final appearance in a Canadian 
courtroom, defence lawyer Peter Lindsay said he makes no apologies 
for harshly criticizing Mr. Justice Pierre Blais.

"There is a reason for it," he said. "Your lordship has awesome, 
extraordinary powers to hear secret evidence without safeguards."

Mr. Lindsay also condemned the security certificate procedure being 
used to deport Mr. Zundel as a Draconian provision that has no place 
in a democracy.

"I will say that the emperor has no clothes," Mr. Lindsay said, 
leaving it vague as to whether he was referring to the legislation or 
to Judge Blais.

As a former federal solicitor-general, Judge Blais had responsibility 
for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service -- the agency that 
furnished the evidence against Mr. Zundel.

Mr. Lindsay also quoted yesterday from a speech given a couple of 
years ago by Mr. Justice James Hugesson of the Federal Court, who 
explicitly stated that many of his colleagues despise the security 
certificate procedure.

In stark contrast, Mr. Lindsay said, Judge Blais went overboard 
maintaining secrecy.

Mr. Zundel, a landed immigrant since 1958, has no right of appeal if 
Judge Blais concludes there was nothing "unreasonable" about a 
deportation order approved in early 2003 by two federal ministers.

He would be deported immediately to Germany to face prosecution for 
the offence of Holocaust denial.

Mr. Zundel has been in and out of Canadian courtrooms since the early 
1980s over his persistent publication of material depicting the 
Holocaust as a myth propagated to vilify Germans and justify massive 
war reparations.

Almost all previous attempts to imprison or deport Mr. Zundel or 
damage his publishing empire have gone down to defeat.

The security certificate describes Mr. Zundel as a danger to Canadian 
security, alleging that his writing inspires others to violence.

Most of the evidence against him has been given to Judge Blais in 
strict secrecy.

"While I listened to the submissions of the Crown, this started to 
sound less and less like a case involving the security of Canada, and 
more and more about someone who is unpopular and who distributes 
material that is unpopular and reviled," Mr. Lindsay said.

"Mr. Zundel is not a danger to Canada in any way, shape or form."

CSIS alleges that Mr. Zundel has advised and encouraged about 25 
figures on the far right who espouse violence -- including a U.S. 
writer whose book was found among the possessions of Oklahoma bomber 
Timothy McVeigh.

Mr. Lindsay used the case yesterday to illustrate the tortured 
connections he accuses the Crown of using to portray Mr. Zundel as a 
dangerous man.

He drew a parallel with the murderer of former Beatle John Lennon -- 
John Hinckley Jr. -- who drew inspiration from J.D. Salinger's book, 
/The Catcher in the Rye/.

"It is as if the government were saying that somebody who had 
sporadic contact with J.D. Salinger was linked to the murder of John 
Lennon," he said.

Mr. Lindsay went through the CSIS list methodically, stating that 
each of them was either an individual Mr. Zundel didn't know 
personally, knew very casually, or who he had habitually lectured 
against espousing violence.

In an interview after the hearing, Mr. Lindsay said he has high hopes 
for a Federal Court of Appeal motion on Nov. 23.

The hearing is an appeal of Judge Blais's recent decision not to 
recuse himself on the grounds of apparent bias.