May 31, 1997

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Actually, this ZGram about Doug Collins, the crusty and rambunctious B.C. columnist, was written before I had accumulated any literary ammunition pertaining to our own Toronto dates with the Canadian Human Rights Kommissars.

There is a lot of overlap, however. The complainants are the same who have targeted Doug Collins and Ernst Zundel whose sins overlap in that both have misspoken themselves in such utterances as "Swindler's List" etc. Moreover, both question the Six Million Hoax. And there are other similarities, but there are also differences that I have pointed out before.

For one, Doug Collins fought the "Nazis" and to this day is not that fond of them. He is a lover of the truth, however, which is the Zundel brand, and that's where he and Ernst see eye to eye and always have-which is the reason why both face the same cold stare of the Inquisitors.

I have a thick file on Doug Collins I cannot wait to pick apart. Real gems are buried there. For now, here is an overview, as sent in by a reader:

"Doug Collins is a man who, if pushed, will shove right back.

That's what happened last Monday when he went before a B.C. "human rights" tribunal in Vancouver. He showed up with 100 backers and within days, if not hours, was putting "on trial" the bureaucrats who had help to craft Bill 33, the vague and sweeping legislation that virtually criminalizes political incorrectness in the province of British Columbia.

Collins' lawyers suggested that the new "tolerance" law may very likely have been conceived as a make-work project to keep the human rights bureaucrats busy; to justify their jobs in the B.C. bureaucracy.

Across Canada meanwhile, other journalists and editorial writers weighed in with views of their own. Because the law Collins was up against was such a bad law, few had any choice but to acknowledge that Collins' prosecution was a bad thing.

Perhaps what was most telltale was a recurring motif in the utterances of many in the anti-Collins crowd. It went something like this:

· Doug Collins is an ass. But the law under which he has been charged is an even bigger ass. Because, for one thing, it turns him into a free speech martyr, a libertarian hero, a front page story.

· As for Collins' venal sin - Holocaust revisionism - it was largely described in somewhat muted terms: as bad taste, insensitivity, as "dumb" and "nasty," and other like adjectives. Theology was kept out of their discourse.

The Western Division of the Canadian Jewish Congress must be feeling rather like the Light Brigade charging into a boxed canyon surrounded by Russian cannon; it has got to be feeling that charging Collins was a big fat mistake.

The affair will generate tons of publicity for the revisionist cause, and, in the end, Collins will walk away victorious, protected by the guarantees in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.

It was all about intellectual terrorism, of course. The Canadian Jewish Congress has implicitly, if not explicitly, admitted as much.

Stupidly, it picked on someone who would not be cowed.

One week from today Ernst Zundel will go before a panel of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Toronto. Soon the battle will be joined. What is certain is that Holocaust revisionism is going to continue being a major story in Canada for weeks to come. (Ingrid's note: Please remember that this was written a few weeks ago...!)

Already one notes that the usual journalistic references to the Holocaust are tired and formulaic; looks like a kind of compassion fatigue has set in."

Nice little summary, huh? These things bring glorious moments to those of us who, now and then, feel something brush against our spines.

Here one such glorious moment-a handy limerick:

You may try to protect me from pollens
The same goes for volcanoes and fall-ins

But my mind is my own
I will pick up a stone

If you try to protect me from Collins.

Ingrid

Thought for the Day:

"These people could not recognize a genuine human rights abuse case if it bit them in the ass!"

(Ernst Zündel, referring to the lawyers of the Canadian Human Right Commission, in his May 1997 Power Letter)

Comments? E-Mail: irimland@cts.com

Back to Table of Contents of the May 1997 ZGrams