A brief update from the Canadian Human Rights Commission front, for newcomers to the ZGram list here very briefly summarized:
A virtual news blackout keeps one of Canada's longest-running human rights tribunals out of the public eye. Now in its second year, the tribunal is focusing on Ernst Zundel, the perennial target of minority censors, and his alleged involvement with a website in California.
That the site is not illegal under American law is of minor importance. The tribunal's purpose is to convince the Chosen-driven, taxpayer financed anti-Zundel vendetta, while also searching for a way to extend Canadian censorship to the Internet.
The Human Rights Comission's most salient decision has been to refuse Zundel permission to enter evidence contrary to the Big H. Echoing previous courtroom and human rights decisions, the commission ruled that "truth is no defense" against charges of "hate."
In order to publicize the obstreperous ruling, Zundel scheduled a news conference in the House of Commons press theater. An unusual motion in Parliament brought a quick, unanimous vote barring Zundel from the building.
Undismayed, he held his meeting outside, garnering nationwide attention.
Rare in Canada's fractuous Parliament, the unanimous vote brought together several warring political parties, including separatists and federalists, socialists and neocons. On reflection, Zundel should get an award for momentarily uniting the political representatives of a disintegrating country. Canadian Jewish Congress lobbying brought the parliamentary motion in the first place and guaranteed its results."
(Quoted from Instauration, September 1998)
I have been in Toronto and watched people react when they suddenly came face to face with Ernst Zundel. The grins of happiness and even awe extend from ear to ear. There is no hostility against him in the streets, in the shops, in the various businesses. There is only virulence and hostility when he mob is activated against him.
I know first-hand what that means. Recently, our local paper here ran a smear job on me because of my proximity to the Zundel controversy. I don't get the paper - so I missed most of it, but I have been told that shrieks of horror at having a "Nazi" in their neighborhood were phenomenal.
When the article first ran, calls in support of me to my office were 80% in my favor. I don't know if those people wrote in and put on paper what they told me in private, but to my knowledge only the Chosenites were allowed to vent their displeasure in Letters to the Editor.
So there you go, as Ernst would say. Just yesterday, I participated in a local ethnic fair, and quite a few people recognized me. NOT ONE of them had anything but compliments for having had the courage to speak out against the Chosenites.
There has been a lull at the CHRC front throughout this summer after it was discovered that Reva Devins, one of the Threesome on the Tribunal, had been a former commissioner for the Ontario Human Rights Commission who had released a vitriolic press release against Ernst Zundel some years ago and, on that basis alone, should have disqualified herself. The hearings are scheduled to resume next month.
Ernst has not yet succeeded in getting the all-important judicial review - it's been one stalling maneuver after another. So that's where we are now - poised for another round.
And may the feathers fly!
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"There's a saying, 'You screw around with Israel and God is going to screw around with you.'"
(A "right wing Jewish leader" who asked not to be identified as quoted in The Jerusalem Report, Feb. 1998)