- This report was filed last night by Paul Fromm, Director
of the Canadian Association for Free Expression:
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- "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.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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!"
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- City TV and CTV were present, although the reporters
didn't interview any of the free speech supporters..
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- "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.
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- Pictures should be available shortly.
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