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Path: utzoo!utcsri!utcs!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Zundel
Message-ID: <578@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Apr-85 12:15:47 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.578
Posted: Wed Apr  3 12:15:47 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Apr-85 13:05:02 EST
References: <890@ubc-vision.CDN> <6@aquila.UUCP> <997@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 58
Summary: the issue isn't freedom of speech

In article <997@ubc-cs.UUCP> acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton) writes:
||Have you checked your above opinions with the Canadian government before 
||publishing them on the net? These might not coincide with the ones held by 
||the government this week. To an ignorant western Canadian heathen this 
||sounds like it could "cause or is likely to cause injury or mischief to
||a public interest". A public interest could be citizens of any one of the 
||above mentioned countries or special interest groups who feel your remarks 
||have slighted them. After all at least one person has already taken you
||to task for including Israel in your list. What if that same person 
||and his friends (hypothetically of course) were convinced that by calling 
||Israel belligerent you were encouraging the fringe elements of our 
||society to physically attack Israeli citizens in Canada and hence should
||be hauled into court? Would you like to have to prove that your statement
||was true or that if it wasn't true you were ignorant of the current
||"official" government sanctioned version of truth. 
||
||Freedom of speech is being undermined in Canada by a government and
||its mandarins who think that the average Canadian citizen is too 
||stupid to think for themselves. If this insidious erosion of freedom of speech 
||and the press isn't stopped now, we may soon find ourselves in a country
||where we won't be able to talk about anything controversial unless we
||spout the official government line.

Unless I'm mistaken, this is a thinly-veiled reference to the Zundel
trial. Let's have it out in the open then. I take it, Mr. Acton, you
consider the prosecution of Ernst Zundel to have been improper because
it limits his freedom of speech?

I disagree. The issue here is not freedom of speech. The issue is
twofold: incitement of racial unrest, and group libel. Zundel's
malicious attempt to "legitimize" the ridiculous claim that the
Holocaust never happened is solely for the purposes of fomenting
hatred against Jews. Look - a jury of his peers was convined BEYOND
A REASONABLE DOUBT that Zundel knew that what he was publishing
was lies. It's impossible not to agree with them.

The issue is not one of freedom of speech, or of different opinions.
Zundel's publications are outright untruths dealing with unquestionable
historical facts. His purpose in publishing is not to discuss history,
or to present opinions. It is to put into people's minds the false
idea that "maybe" the Holocaust didn't happen, and therefore that
(essentially) all Jews are thieving liars.

Or do you too question the Holocaust? I would like to hear from
anyone on the net who honestly believes such nonsense. Because if
you do, you should be pointed at literature, films and witnesses who
can tell you their own stories.

Yes, the Jewish community is very sensitive about this issue. And
it's not surprising, if you think about it. Did you know that Jews
of my generation, if their parents came from continental Europe,
simply don't have grandparents? (The exceptions are, unfortunately, few.)

Dave Sherman
Toronto
-- 
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