Before the Zundel Team went into these three-day, history making hearings on Freedom of Speech on the Net, Ernst Zundel commented on the sublime irony that what 27 million Canadians will be allowed to access and read on the Internet for years, perhaps decades to come, depends on two immigrants - one who has been refused citizenship in Canada for more than 30 years, and the other a German-born American who runs the Zundelsite. If that isn't irony writ large, what is?
Well, history will record that Monday, April 27, 1998 saw the Zundel-Team in Federal Court in Toronto. The now Associate Chief Justice in Ottawa last week had prophesied on 23 April 1998 that "an efficient Judge" would handle the all-important legal and constitutional questions raised by the Zundel case in Toronto - and that is exactly what happened.
Judge Richard was the judge chosen to preside over what had an air of unreality about it from the word go. The first part of the hearing dealt with the question of how many, if any, intervenors were going to be allowed to add weight to the Holocaust Promotion Lobby's case against us. We had been given to understand: maybe two. Fat chance, that one!
After the request for intervenor status had been made by our opposition and forcefully opposed by Doug Christie, the judge announced a short break, after which he came back to announce in a gruff voice - and to the obvious relief on the Jewish side, I might add - that ALL JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS WHICH HAD ASKED FOR INTERVENOR STATUS WOULD BE GRANTED SUCH STATUS.
Furthermore, Sabina Citron and the Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations were allowed in as "Respondents" with the full rights of a party such as filing affidavits and cross-examining our witnesses.
Next, Judge Richard dictated a time table so as to bring order out of a welter of conflicting motions, submissions etc. Before the day was over, a tight and firm schedule - some might call it a straitjacket for everybody - was in place, supposedly binding on all. Written submissions, no longer than 15 pages, were to be allowed to the intervenors, and they had 14 days to do them. They were not to be repetitious and duplicating of each other so as not to waste everybody's time.
So far so good - if not exactly promising.
Next, the Judge moved swiftly to hear Doug Christie on one of his motions asking for a stay of Tribunal proceedings based on the Donna McGillis decision in the Bell Canada case.
The Battling Barrister stood once again alone, apparently the Lone Gentile, since most other lawyers present seemed to be Jewish - or Joooish, as Jamie McCarthy would say. He made his case for a stay eloquently, reading with machine gun rapidity from his Motion Book and quoting precedent-setting cases from his Book of Authorities, which he and Barbara Kulaszka had prepared in weeks of painstaking legal research by trolling case after case in the Law Libraries of Canada.
His performance was impressive, detailed, exhaustive - and, to the laymen, exhausting. Judge Richard sat there and listened - motionless and pokerfaced. It was hard to tell what he thought.
Then it was time for the Senior Counsel of the CHRC, Rene Duval, to rebut Mr. Christie, and from that moment on the court room scene became theatrical and frequently hilarious - as a 6 foot tall Mr. Duval swiveled on his heels as if God gave him a few extra vertebrae, gesticulated and twisted his arms and hands, waved them in all directions as if he were flailing at windmills, tugged at his bow tie while wringing his hands and simultaneously trying to rein in his movements. He had a high pitched, nasal voice and delivered his arguments in heavily, sometimes hard-to-understand English.
The high moment came when he accused Doug Christie of "surfing" on the McGillis decision, delivered with such flair we all thought he would fly away on his own oratorical surfboard. A rather bored-looking Judge Richard came alive eventually and in a salvo of rather heated words admonished the fierce Mr. Duval for misstating, if not misrepresenting, an important Supreme Court decision in the what is known as the Taylor Case.
Judge Richard started asking probing questions. What did Mr. Duval, for instance, think of the McGillis case, and how might it affect the proceedings before him today - and in other cases?
Waffling was the word.
"What's going on out there?" the good judge asked next.
More waffling, the response.
The Judge did not give up. Just what WAS happening in the surreal world of the Human Rights industry in the wake of the precedent-setting McGillis decision?
At which time the waffling was replaced by the classical response that is herewith recorded for posterity: "BUSINESS AS USUAL!"
At that, an astonished Judge Richard sat up straight as a rod and listened with rapt attention to an utterly oblivious Senior Counsel of the zealous CHRC telling him that, why, Your Lordship, the McGillis decision was not important at all, in fact of very limited impact, didn't even question the constitutionality of the Human Rights Legislation, did not involve the Bill of Rights, meant practically next to nothing.
In other words, foot in the mouth up to the hip!
It was a nice ending to an otherwise very ambivalent day. The Soap Opera Court saga of the Zundelsite Case continues!
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!"
(Ernst Zundel in the court room)