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Title: Canadian Jewish groups happy about Zundel charges, waiting for conviction
Source:
The Canadian Press
URL Source: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050719/w071988.html
Published: Jul 19, 2005
Author: n/a
Post Date: 2005-07-19 23:56:55 by 1776
Keywords: conviction, Canadian, charges,
Views: 399
Comments: 28
BERLIN (CP) - German prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged white supremacist Ernst Zundel with inciting racial hatred, four months after he was deported from Canada. German authorities accuse Zundel of decades of anti-Semitic activities, including repeated denials of the Holocaust - a crime in Germany - in documents and on the Internet. Zundel is "known internationally as a leader of the right-wing scene," prosecutors in the southwestern city of Mannheim said Tuesday in a statement listing 14 examples of alleged incitement. It was unclear when he might face a trial, which Jewish leaders hope will spread awareness of the Holocaust. Zundel was arrested in March on his arrival in Germany after a long legal battle, and remains in jail. He had been detained in Toronto since 2003 under anti-terrorism laws and deported after a Canadian judge ruled his activities a threat to national and international security. The Canadian Jewish Congress said it was glad to hear Zundel had been charged, but said justice will not be served fully until he is convicted. "Certainly we're very pleased that German prosecutors have charged Mr. Zundel," spokesman Len Rudner said from Toronto. "But it's a successful prosecution that will go a long way to completely discrediting Ernst Zundel." Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel emigrated to Canada in 1958 and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001. Canadian officials rejected his attempts to obtain citizenship in 1966 and 1994. He moved to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., until he was deported to Canada in 2003 for alleged immigration violations. While Jewish groups in Canada hailed Zundel's deportation, some civil libertarians argued it was a crime against freedom of speech. "Banning ideas - even foolish ones - is just never healthy," Paul Fromm, the president of the Canadian Association for Freedom of Expression, said Tuesday from Toronto after hearing of Zundel's charges. "It's very disappointing and it's sad to see the German government has learned nothing about democracy." German prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for Zundel in 2003. Because his Holocaust-denying website was available in Germany, he is considered to have been spreading his message to Germans.
Poster Comment: Nothing to see here, remember what is important is policy chat.
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#8. To: All, *Israeli Espionage* (#0)
Visualize Zundel Free CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
#11. To: 1776 (#8)
A hate crime bill backed by the ADL and every other Jewish group is making it's way through Congress. The way I see it, 'incitement to hatred' will be a crime in the US in 10 years at the rate we are going. That is certainly the goal of the Jewish lobby.
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Opinion; Posted on: 2005-07-20 12:41:41
While real terrorists walk the streets and shake the hands of the powerful, a pacifist and freethinker named Ernst Zundel is imprisoned for his ideas.
by Paul Fromm
Director, Canadian Association for Free Expression
YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, I received a call from a Canadian Press reporter seeking my reaction as one of German publisher Ernst Zundel's Canadian supporters to news that the German government had charged him with inciting "hate" for questioning the Hollywood version of World War II.
I told the reporter that I thought the charges marked a sad day in German history. One of the results of the Allied victory in WW II was to install a government dedicated to democracy in Germany. Ernst Zundel has often spoken contemptuously of the German government that he calls "the vassal state" -- as it was installed by the Allies at the end of a war where there was never a peace treaty signed with the defeated German state. "Sixty years later, what sort of democracy do you have where people are jailed for speaking out for their political views?"
I suggested that Germany, a proud and cultured nation, was acting like some mediaeval backwater where thinkers, like Galileo who questioned the accepted wisdom (superstition) of the day, were tortured or jailed. "It's demeaning," I said.
The unseemly delay -- in charging Mr. Zundel and either releasing him or bringing his case to a speedy conclusion -- seems part and parcel of the judicial abuse to which he's been subjected in Canada and the U.S. as well. Germany wanted the Revisionist publisher extradited on an outstanding warrant. That meant they had charges prepared. Yet, he was held in "investigative detention" and incarceration for over four months -- March 2 to July 19, while the system toyed with him.
The reporter, somewhat oddly, asked me what I thought the Canadian government should do in Mr. Zundel's case. "Frankly, they'll do nothing," I replied. "He's a German citizen. They'll see his case as a German matter," I added.
"Besides, they've already done their worst. By deporting him as a 'terrorist' and 'threat to national security,' the Canadian government has demeaned the term and shown how confused and lost it is. At a time when human flesh and bones are splattered over the walls of London subway stations by real terrorists, the Canadian government labels a lifelong pacifist with controversial ideas a 'terrorist.' But perhaps that is not so surprising, when this is the same government about to change the definition of marriage from a man and a woman, which has served our civilization for nearly 3,000 years, to now include Bruce buggering Barry on a permanent basis."
Paul Fromm
Director
Replies to Comment # 8. the German government had charged him with inciting "hate" for questioning the Hollywood version of World War II.
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