ZGram - 12/19/2004 - "National Post: "Playing into Zundel's hands"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

December 19, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Below is yet another scurrilous anti-Zundel article so typical of 
Canada's boot-licking Zionist press.  As I have counseled before, 
ignore the insults - after all, journalists must make a living, too, 
in a repressive state - and ponder what it really says. 

This is, so far, the most outspoken article affirming that a horrible 
injustice has taken place in branding Ernst as a "threat to the 
security of Canada", and that it's time to come forward with the 
"evidence" against him - or, if such evidence does not exist, to set 
him free. 

Of course, not even a shred of evidence exists!  The sparrows chirp 
that from the roof in Canada!  Ernst Zundel is in prison because the 
Jewish Lobby wants him there!  For that, they even stooped to kidnap 
him, as we will prove in court!

Incidentally, a similar article appeared in the Washington Post, 
which shall be your Zgram tomorrow. 

[START]

The National Post:  Playing into Zundel's hands
By Andy Lamey
December 17, 2004

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

December 19, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Ernst Zundel is Canada's most notorious Holocaust denier.  Over the 
past 20 years, he has been in and out of courtrooms many times.  Last 
month, a Toronto judge heard closing arguments in what may well be 
Zundel's last Canadian trial.  At issue in the hearing is whether 
Zundel, age 65, is a security threat.  If the judge rules he is, 
Zundel will be deported to Germany, where he grew up, and charged 
with violating that country's law against Holocaust denial.

Zundel is a repellent figure, one who represents a horrifying 
combination of racism and historical blindness.  But the way the 
government has conducted its case against him is flawed.  Civil 
liberties have been compromised and procedural justice ignored. 
Never hearing from Zundel again may be an appealing prospect, but 
achieving that goal through the use of draconian legal measures is 
too high a price to pay.

The most disturbing aspect of the government's case is its use of a 
national security certificate.  Security certificates, which can be 
used against any non-citizen in Canada, even permanent residents, 
allow the state to proclaim someone a security threat - and so 
deportable - after a trial that is extraordinary in two ways:  Not 
only is secret evidence allowed, but that evidence can never be 
challenged.

Perhaps there are rare instances where the government needs to invoke 
evidence it can't reveal for reasons of national security.  But the 
very idea of unchallenged evidence is frightening.  The foundation of 
Canada's legal system is its adversarial nature, according to which 
the defense has a fundamental right to critically examine and rebut 
the government's case.  Take away that right, and the result is not a 
legal trial, but an Orwellian exercise in which a judge must decide 
whether or not to accept the Crown's case on faith.

There are five other people besides Zundel being held on security 
certificates in Canada, all Arab or Muslim men accused of terrorist 
connections.  (Mohamed Harkat, of Ottawa, may be the most 
well-known).  Any anti-racists who delight in seeing Zundel subjected 
to a star chamber proceeding have to ask themselves how they would 
feel if the same tool were employed against an innocent immigrant. 
Even if some of the other suspects held on security certificates turn 
out to be connected to terrorism - a far from foregone conclusion - 
they deserve to have a lawyer with a security clearance challenge the 
evidence against them during the secret portion of their trial, as 
the Canadian Civil Liberties Association advocates.

With Zundel, there is an added concern.  It involves his status as a 
long-term resident of Canada.  Zundel is not a Canadian citizen, but 
with the exception of two years spent in the United States, he has 
lived here since 1958.

Deporting people who have spent the majority of their lives in Canada 
is an unjust practice.  It most frequently arises in cases involving 
Jamaican and other immigrant families who arrive in Canada with 
infant children, after which the children grow up in Canada without 
the parents ever having taken out citizenship on their behalf.  When 
the child gets in trouble with the law as a teen or young adult, the 
state then attempts to deport him to his "native Jamaica."  As 
University of Toronto immigration expert Joseph Carens has written, 
this practice is "a scandal, a blatant and severe injustice against 
non-citizens."  Deporting Zundel after 40 years of residency would 
add legitimacy to this indefensible practice. 

The final question Zundel's case raises involves not procedure, but 
substance:  Is he actually a security threat?  Secret evidence is 
impossible to rebut, but the public portion of the government's case, 
it must be said, is weak.  It consists of a long list of racists and 
neo-Nazis with whom Zundel has had contact over the years.  The 
insinuation seems to be that they could be inspired by Zundel to 
commit some undefined act of violence, against some unidentified 
target, at some unknown point in the future. 

But when it comes to Zundel himself, the Crown concedes that he "has 
virtually no history of direct personal engagement in acts of serious 
violence."  This is a significant admission, given that the 
government classified Zundel as a security threat once before - in 
1995, to stop him from obtaining citizenship.  In effect, the 
government is admitting that it was then wrong and that its previous 
prediction of violence never materialized - which only suggests how 
arbitrary and unchecked its definition of a security threat has 
become.

A better approach would be for the government to do one of two 
things:  If it has evidence that Zundel is linked to genuine acts of 
violence, it should bring that evidence forward in a proper criminal 
prosecution, and if Zundel is convicted, send him to a Canadian 
prison.  If the government cannot produce such evidence, Zundel 
should be set free to live out his remaining years in Canada, during 
which time he should be allowed to fester in obscurity rather than 
continue to be transformed into a figure of global fame, a process 
which Canada set in motion when it first brought Zundel to trial in 
1985. 

Either of these paths would be better than the one we are now on: 
fighting an authoritarian racist with measures that are themselves 
authoritarian, and can only result in serious injustice against 
non-citizens who will most likely be minorities.

Long-term Zundel watchers have suggested that in his many legal 
battles, Zundel's goal is usually not to win his case.  It is to 
score a propaganda victory by bringing our legal system into 
disrepute.  "The Canadian government," Zundel crowed at his 
deportation hearing, "short-circuited their much-vaunted due 
process."  To our great sorrow and shame, we have proven the old 
fascist right.

[END]