THE reference is to Fred Leuchter, the American consultant on execution technology hired by the defence in the case against Ernst Zündel to assist the court on matters concerning homicidal gas chambers. Leuchter was a professional consultant, employed as such by several US penitentiaries, until the international Jewish community, enraged by the damage his tests on the Auschwitz site had done to their legends, pressured the prison governors never to employ him again. That is the way they work. His expert qualifications were accepted by the Canadian court, provided that he did not expatiate on toxicology, on which field he was not qualified.

Contrast that with the manner in which the British Court accepted Robert Van Pelt as an expert witness on history, architecture (though never qualified as an architect), toxicology, document authentication, crematorium technique, and a host of other matters. Under cross examination by myself as to his lack of proper qualifications on his first day in the stand, Van Pelt admitted that he had no better qualifications as an architect than Leuchter had as an engineer.