*** Bulletin: Ernst Zundel will be deported in two days ***

zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Sun Feb 27 08:37:05 EST 2005




=====
=====
=====

To all our Zundel friends:

It is true.  Unless a snow storm interferes, Ernst will be deported 
on Tuesday to Germany.  What happens next, no one can even guess.

I did not know this until late yesterday.  I had talked to Ernst on 
Friday at noon, twice, and he told me not to worry, not to let myself 
be spooked - that there were procedures and appeals that could and 
would still be followed, and that his deportation was likely still 
weeks away.  I conveyed that information to media.

Ernst tried to reach me on Friday evening, but I was gone to inspect 
a project with a friend, and it was not until almost 6 p.m. on 
Saturday when I read in the Globe and Mail - article below - that the 
issue was decided, that deportation would be the next step.  Shortly 
afterwards, his son called me and verified this information.  He said 
he had seen his father who looked "remarkably good," calm and 
composed, and that he had agreed to be deported.

An hour later, Ernst called and told me the same.  When I asked him 
to give me a hint why he had changed his mind, why now, and what 
would happen next, he said:  "You wouldn't want me to tell you with 
the censors listening, would you?"

That is really all I can tell you right now.  The news is all over 
Europe - and, naturally, all over the American continent.  I had many 
calls from Germany and other places, and the most common comment is: 
"At least he'll get a chair in Germany!" 

I will keep you informed on what will happen next.  I don't expect 
any other personal news for another week or so.  Below is the 
write-up as the Globe and Mail ran it:

[START]

Friday, February 25, 2005 Updated at 7:12 PM EST

Zundel Gives Up Deportation Fight
Toronto-
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050225.wzund0225_3/BNStory/National/>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050225.wzund0225_3/BNStory/National/

Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel has abandoned his lengthy fight to stay 
in Canada and is slated to be deported to Germany as early as 
Tuesday, his lawyer said Friday.

In a bitter denunciation of the Canadian legal system, lawyer Peter 
Lindsay said there was no point in trying to remedy the "horrible 
unfairness" to which Zundel had been subjected.

"He won't be asking for a stay," Mr. Lindsay told The Canadian Press. 
"This is an unfair process. Everyone has turned their backs on him."

Mr. Lindsay said authorities had told him they were not prepared to 
wait to see if the Supreme Court of Canada would hear his allegation 
of judicial bias or rule on the constitutionality of Canada's 
anti-terrorism laws.

An Immigration spokesman said they planned to deport Zundel as soon 
as possible.

"He's in a position now where we can legally remove him and that's 
our intention," Doug Kellam of the Canadian Border Services Agency 
said Friday

Mr. Lindsay had said earlier that he did not expect the deportation 
to happen for at least another week or two so he would have the 
opportunity to seek a stay of removal pending the high court 
decisions.

But the situation appeared hopeless, especially because no one 
appears interested in protecting the rights of unpopular people, he 
said later.

"Probably no one cares because Mr. Ernst Zundel is notorious and 
reviled," he said. "We should care. But ... most of us don't give a 
damn."

Mr. Zundel, 65, faces immediate prosecution on his return to his 
native Germany, where he is wanted for running afoul of German laws 
against denying the Holocaust.

"He will be picked up immediately and then arrested," a German 
official who requested anonymity said Friday.

"If there is an arrest warrant, then we have to prosecute if he's in 
our jurisdiction."

Of particular importance will be determining whether Mr. Zundel, a 
German national, is responsible for the website that bears his name 
and what exactly it contains, the official said.

On Thursday, Federal Court Justice Pierre Blais smoothed the way to 
expel Mr. Zundel, finding him to be a hatemonger who poses a threat 
to national security because of his close association with white 
supremacist and neo-Nazi groups that have resorted to violence to 
press their political and social causes.

Mr. Zundel has spent more than four decades in Canada, the last two 
years in solitary confinement in a Toronto jail, held under 
anti-terrorism legislation.

In his 63-page decision cheered by Jewish organizations both in 
Canada and the United States, Judge Blais concluded that Mr. Zundel 
was a hypocrite who nurtured extremist neo-Nazi views behind a veil 
of pacifism.

"Zundel's activities are not only a threat to Canada's national 
security but also a threat to the international community of 
nations," Judge Blais wrote.

In light of the ruling, B'nai Brith Canada demanded Ottawa kick him 
out immediately.

"There must be no more excuses or further delays," said Frank Dimant, 
executive vice-president of the Jewish group.

Zundel supporter Paul Fromm of the Canadian Association of Free 
Expression said he was "bitterly disappointed" because there was no 
evidence linking Mr. Zundel to violence.

"We're not dealing with a man who's a terrorist. He has the wrong 
political views," Mr. Fromm said from Winnipeg. "That's a shocking 
departure from what most Canadians think of when they think of a 
terrorist."

Mr. Zundel, a longtime resident of Toronto, moved to the United 
States where he tried to gain citizenship. He was arrested in 
Tennessee for overstaying his visa and deported to Canada in February 
2003.

His incarceration under controversial provisions that allow for 
indefinite detention has prompted several rallies in his support.

Despite his long stay in Canada, during which he has had frequent 
legal battles, Mr. Zundel was never able to convert his landed 
immigrant status into citizenship.

He has long argued the Holocaust never occurred, and that Jews have 
used the "alleged" atrocities as a way to extort money from the 
German government.

Last month, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder expressed shame over 
the horrors of the Nazi era in which six million Jews and as many 
others were murdered in concentration camps.

[END]


More information about the Zgrams mailing list