dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman) (02/05/88)
(Toronto Star, February 4, 1988. By Paul Bilodeau)
The judge in the trial of Ernst Zundel yesterday instructed
the jury that the Nazi extermination of Jews in World War II
is a historical fact that cannot be disputed.
The ruling by District Court Judge Ron Thomas means the crown,
in its prosecution of Zundel, will not be required to prove the
Holocaust happened.
Zundel, 48, of Carlton St. has pleaded not guilty to a
charge of publishing statements he knew to be false in a
40-page pamphlet entitled _Did Six Million Really Die?_
The pamphlet claims the extermination of 6 million Jews is
a "deception" devised to gain political advantage for Israel.
"I direct the jury as a matter of law that the Holocaust, as
defined in essence as the mass murder and extermination of
Jews in Europe by the Nazis during the Second World War,
is so notorious so as not to be the subject of dispute,"
Thomas told the jury.
The crown must now prove that statements in the pamphlet are
false "to the knowledge of the person who publishes it,"
Thomas said....
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[Comment: this is a welcome step. However, since Zundel
still has the right to show he believed what he published,
he may still bring his army of nut-cases to testify that
Auschwitz really had dance halls and swimming pools rather
than gas chambers. Given the judge's decision, however, the
media will likely then give such evidence the scorn it
deserves.
Background, for those who don't know: Zundel was convicted
of this offense in 1985, after a trial which led to media headlines
in Toronto such as "Gas Chambers never existed, expert says"
(accompanied by articles which made it a little more clear that
these "experts" were no experts at all). His conviction was
overturned on legal grounds, primarily that the trial judge
instructed the jury he could be convicted if he "had no honest
belief" in the truth of the publication, while the appeal court
ruled that the judge should have instructed the jury that
Zundel "knew it to be false". So the new jury must now
find, not that the Holocaust happened (that's a given), but
that Zundel knows it happened. Given the wealth of evidence
(which may still have to be brought in for the purpose of
proving Zundel's knowledge), I have confidence they will convict.]
David Sherman
(speaking for myself and not for)
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
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