Real History and the internment of writer Ernst Zündel

Posted Wednesday, May 12, 2004

[images added by this website]

Faurisson, Zündel, Leuchter

Image added by this website: above, Robert Faurisson, Fred Leuchter at Carlton SAtreet; Zündel seated in background

May 13, 2004 22 Iyar, 5764

Zündel calls Jewish leaders to testify at deportation hearing

By RON CSILLAG Staff Reporter

LEADERS from Canada's two main Jewish organizations could find out this week whether they must testify at the deportation hearing of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel.

Federal Court of Canada Justice Pierre Blais reserved judgment last week on subpoenas served by Zündel's lawyer on Keith Landy, the outgoing president of Canadian Jewish Congress, and Frank Dimant, right, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada.

Zündel's lawyer, Peter Lindsay, told his client's hearing that he wants Landy and Dimant to testify in order to prove that the federal government succumbed to political pressure when it issued a national security certificate against Zündel a year ago.

Lindsay argued that Ottawa, in effect, over-reacted by issuing the certificate, which is used rarely and only against non-citizens who pose a security threat, notably those with ties to terrorist groups.

The matter before the court is the legality of the certificate. If it is upheld, Zündel, 65, could finally be deported to his native Germany after more than 20 years of legal wrangling.

The notorious pro-Nazi publisher, who is a landed immigrant in Canada, has been held in a Toronto jail for more than a year since being deported from the United States last winter for overstaying his visa.

Lindsay argued Canada wants Zündel deported because of his views and not because he poses a legitimate security threat. He implied the security certificate was signed by two cabinet ministers who caved in to interest groups.

The lawyer for the Justice Department told the court there is "not a scintilla" of evidence to support the argument that the government bowed to pressure from Jewish advocacy or other groups.

Judy Chan, who represented CJC at the hearing, told The CJN that Landy's subpoena should be quashed because it seeks evidence that is neither relevant nor necessary.

She said there is "no possible way" for the CJC president to know what evidence led to the issuing of the security certificate against Zündel. That information is secret and was forwarded to cabinet by the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

She called the subpoena aimed at her client "unwarranted," and "an instrument of harassment and inconvenience." For one, it is unrealistically broad in scope, she said, because it asks CJC to produce all documents related to Zündel and CSIS.

Chan also argued that the subpoena was invalid because it was issued without leave from the court. She noted that subpoenas may be issued without leave only in trials or in matters involving a legal reference -- not at hearings of this kind.

Expecting this argument, Lindsay asked the judge in a separate motion to make the subpoenas valid.

Lindsay's manoeuvrings amount to "a fishing expedition …a tactic to delay the final hearing in this matter," Landy told The CJN.

Landy said he shies away from the word "pressure."

Congress "has always urged that Zündel be deported. We believe [he] is a menace and a danger to Canadians generally. It's up to us to as an advocacy group to make representations to the government."

He said CJC was never privy to the information that led to the issuing of the security certificate.

Marvin Kurz, lawyer for B'nai Brith Canada, also sought to have Dimant's subpoena quashed on the grounds it was issued improperly.

He said Lindsay's argument implied that Jewish groups were involved in a "conspiracy" to have Zündel deported. Kurz also warned that Zündel would use Landy's and Dimant's testimonies "as a forum for anti-Semitism."

Blais also reserved judgment on two other subpoenas, one issued against a former lawyer for Zündel who is now a judge, and the other against the author of a book about alleged wrongdoing at CSIS.

Ontario Court judge Lauren Marshall, who was on Zündel's defence team at his 1985 false news trial, retained a lawyer to have the subpoena quashed, saying she had no relevant evidence to offer.

Also trying to stay off the witness stand is Andrew Mitrovica, author of Covert Entry, a book about CSIS. Zündel's lawyers are said to be especially interested in the book's allegation that in 1995, the spy agency failed to warn Zündel about a pipe bomb it knew had been mailed to him.

Zündel's drawn-out deportation case came up in the Senate last week, where Conservative Senator David Tkachuk wondered how much longer it will go on. He also asked whether the Department of Citizenship and Immigration has conducted a review of why Zündel was not turned over to German officials, as they had requested, when U.S. authorities deported him to Canada.

Senator Jack Austin, the government leader in the Senate, responded by saying that Canada's system of laws is "balanced in favour of the presumption of innocence of the person who is the subject of the proceeding. The Crown has the obligation of demonstrating why he should be removed."

Austin said Zündel "has the right to the benefits of Canadian law, and he has the right to use our judicial process, and he is exercising that right."

Zündel was convicted in 1985 of spreading false news, and again in 1988 in a new trial. In 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the conviction and struck down the false news section of the Criminal Code as a violation of free speech.