At the forefront of protecting Canadian civil liberties since 1981

 

Battles for Freedom

FREE ERNST ZUNDEL RALLY!

TORONTO, Sunday, July 25. Free speech supporters converged from London, Niagara, Hamilton, Mississauga, Uxbridge, Oshawa, Whitby, Toronto and Mississauga to stage the sixth in a series of protests outside the Metro West Detention Centre in Toronto for imprisoned German-born publisher Ernst Zundel. The 65-year old political prisoner is now in his 18 month of solitary confinement in a Canadian jail. The free speech supporters were organized by the Canadian Association for Free Expression, the Northern Alliance and the Canadian Heritage Alliance. All three groups have blasted the whole Zundel process. The German revisionist publisher is held under a "national security" certificate. The much compromised Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) contends that Mr. Zundel is a threat to national security because he's a terrorist. "Mr. Zundel is a life-long pacifist," Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression thundered over screams, obscenities and hoots from a motley and masked group of ARA protesters bussed in a tawdry yellow school bus by their shadowy Establishment supporters. "Mr. Zundel was a model immigrant. For 42 years, he paid taxes and created jobs. His crime? He thought for himself and challenged a view of history sacred to powerful interest groups in our society," Fromm explained. "We oppose secret hearings where the defence is not told the evidence, the charges or the witnesses and, therefore, cannot answer them," said Fromm to cheers from the mostly young free speech supporters. The 25 Anti-Racist Action protesters, at least one of whom was armed with illegal mace, arrived on a school bus. "Who paid for the bus?" protest organizer Marc Lemire asked. "Those scumbags don't look as if they have $10 if you turned them upside down ands shook out all their change." In the past, the ARA has been supported by anti- free speech lobby group the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith and by Metro Toronto City Council and the provincial Trillium Foundation. This despite the fact that the ARA sports the symbols of anarchism and claims to oppose governments and authority. When the ARA pulled up in their school bus, they tried to charge out with 2 by 4's with a ARA banner attached. Their rather pudgy leader started screaming on his megaphone to "stop" since most of the ARA types who tried to rush the protest were already on the ground. Until the police arrived, the ARA just screamed on their megaphone and stayed a good distance back. Their shady looking leader was screaming on his megaphone "another cheeseburger". The drugs have scrambled his brains and, perhaps, he thought he was at Burger King. Paul Fromm had alerted 23 Division in Rexdale that the ARA would be trying to disrupt the CAFE Support Ernst Zundel protest. A half dozen police were visible on the edges of the provincial jail property when he ARA arrived. The police did nothing as the confrontation escalated and several ARA slashed at free speech protesters with their wooden sticks. A quick flurry of blows from some sturdy young free speechers sent the masked street people squealing back for safety. When the police arrived, as usual the ARA got louder and more threatening. One loud self-identified Indian, who seemed to smell of Aqua Vela, was screaming from behind his covered face, that he was going to kill the free speech supporters. Then, another ARAer, grabbed the microphone and started a chant that said: "Paul Fromm - liar liar we are going to set your ass on fire". Strangely, the officers on the scene did not considered this a death threat. This curious kid gloves treatment was similar to the police turning a blind eye in 1995 when the ARA was putting out posters on how to firebomb Zundel's house. Months later someone firebombed Zundel's house, and no charges have ever been laid against anyone. Surprise surprise? Among the screeching females in the ARA ranks was one masked woman who sported a hat with a large communist red star. After Paul Fromm took the microphone and gave a great inspiring speech about the situation Ernst Zundel faces, loud chants of "Free Zundel" filled the air. He challenged the screaming anarchists. "You claim to be against the state, but you're here supporting unlimited detention of a man who's not even charged with a crime. You're here supporting secret trials. You're doing that State's work for it and you claim to be anarchists!" City TV and CTV were present, although the reporters didn't interview any of the free speech supporters.. "The policing was disgraceful," Fromm told a dinner gathering after the event. "They failed to separate the two sides. The ARA should have been directed to stand across the street. The police did nothing to stop the physical confrontation." Observers noted that a van with mounted officers was parked nearby but not used.