*** Bulletin: Statement from Ernst Zundel's Lawyers ***
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Mon Feb 28 04:52:45 EST 2005
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Zundel Faces Deportation Tuesday:
Statement from Ernst Zundel's Lawyers
Dear Free Speech Supporter:
This has been a terrible week for those who believe in free speech in
Canada. On Thursday, Mr. Justice Pierre Blais brought down his
decision finding it reasonable for the government to believe --
that's not the same thing as finding the case to be true -- that
Ernst Zundel is a threat to Canada's national security because he is
an honoured senior stateman in the "White supremacist movement." It's
clear that it's Ernst Zundel's ideas -- his skepticism about the
6-million claim, etc. -- and his skills as a publisher and
communicator what have so annoyed the Canadian government and the
Jewish supremacists who so relentlessly lobby and back them.
Judge Blais was in blatant conflict of interest judging evidence
provided by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Agency (CSIS),
Canada's spooks, as he was the former boss of CSIS. He three times
refused to recuse himself.
Blais also accused Zundel of "destabilizing" the German government
and, therefore, being a threat to their national security. In the
mind of this bullet-headed state apparatchiik, any opposition to a
government is a threat to national security.
I was talking to Mr. Zundel this afternoon. He called me from prison.
He will be deported to Mannheim, Germany on Tuesday. Normally, the
flight number is revealed to relatives. Not so for Mr. Zundel.
Neither relatives, friends or his own lawyers will be allowed to see
him off. "National security," you know.
Ernst wants me to let all his supporters around the world know that
the fight will go on. He has not given up. There is an arrest warrant
for him in Germany and he faces up to five years in a German jail for
publishing his views. [Didn't someone say we fought WW II to help
bring 'democracy' to Germany?] The Canadian act in this free speech
drama is over. His persecutors are merely changing stages for the
next act in the farce.
He also wants to thank all in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere who
helped with their donations, their letters to the authorities and
their many cards and messages to him.
Paul Fromm
Director
Canadian Association for Free Expression
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Statement from Ernst Zundel's Lawyers
This statement concerns the pending deportation of 65 year old Ernst
Zundel, who lived in Canada from 1958 to 2000, who has no criminal
record in Canada and who faces no criminal charges in Canada.
Mr. Zundel has been in solitary confinement for 2 years and is about
to be deported after a largely secret proceeding against him. The
Crown and the presiding judge met secretly throughout his case, in
the absence of Mr. Zundel and his lawyers. The Crown repeatedly
presented evidence and made arguments to the judge in a Star Chamber
type proceeding.
At the public proceeding, Mr. Zundel was told literally hundreds of
times, when he asked for specific evidence of the case against him,
that there was "nothing in the unclassified materials" . He was
repeatedly blocked from asking questions of witnesses on the basis of
"national security".
The presiding judge made repeated serious errors, forgot submissions
and repeatedly misstated the appropriate legal test about what
evidence should be kept secret. The same judge then evaluated the
secret evidence.
Mr. Zundel complained of reasonable apprehension of bias by that
judge. The same judge rejected Mr. Zundel's argument and later
ordered him deported.
The Federal Court of Appeal rejected his appeal regarding bias. It
appears that the Crown will not wait to see whether the Supreme Court
of Canada will hear the further appeal Mr. Zundel has already filed
on the bias issue. The Crown will deport him NOW.
The Supreme Court of Canada has been asked, in Mr. Adil Charkaoui's
case, to consider the constitutionality of the law which allows
secret evidence by which Mr. Zundel is deported. The Crown will not
wait until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear that appeal. If
the law is ultimately ruled to be unconstitutional, Mr. Zundel will
likely hear about it from a German jail cell.
Probably no one cares because Mr. Ernst Zundel is notorious and
reviled. The powerful and the popular do not need to rely on the
fairness of our legal system. The marginalized and the reviled do.
Our system has failed Mr. Zundel. We should care. But we fear most
of us don't give a damn.
Mr. Zundel will not initiate any further court proceedings in Canada.
His repeated request that Canadian courts recognize his rights to
basic fairness and justice have been unanswered. He will not beg for
those rights.
Mr. Zundel has gone through the entire security certificate process,
unfair though it was, to a conclusion. He has no right to appeal or
to judicial review. He has gone to every available level of court in
Canada.
For 42 years, he has vigorously defended his freedom of expression
within the Canadian justice system. All legal avenues have now been
exhausted, as has his faith in the Canadian justice system and this
security certificate system, which has been characterized by a
Canadian journalist, after witnessing part of Mr. Zundel's
proceeding, as a "frightening charade of justice".
______________________________ ____________________________
Peter Lindsay
Chi-Kun Shi
Counsel for Ernst Zundel
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