A rebel founder quits the Rebel rebellion

My friend Brian Lilley, who has been with the Rebel since the start, says he can’t take it anymore – here.

I am told (not by Brian) that the final straw was that lunatic Faith Goldy, in Charlottesville, promoting the words of Richard Spencer – who, you know, is one of the leaders of the American neo-Nazi movement.  Or going on about how the Nazis have “well thought-out ideas” about the “Jewish question,” here.

Brian may be a conservative, but he simply got fed up with the racism and the anti-Semitism that had become a huge part of the Rebel’s offering. 

Kudos to you, Brian. 


About that alt-Right event at U of T, and related events

Here:


U of T insists it isn’t happening. I hope, for U of T’s sake, that is true.  Because not a few of us were going to be on hand to peacefully (but loudly) oppose it.  Worth keeping an eye on.

In the meantime, I’ve been on AM640, 1310 News about the rise of the far Right in Charlottesville and beyond – and I’ll be on CFRA, Sirius XM and CBC TV News later tonight.  (All consider the publication of X: Recipe for Hate to be timely.  I wish that wasn’t so, but I think they’re right.)

The Beast is awake.  We live in dangerous times.


This week’s column: he’d be at Charlottesville, but he’s dead

Hell just got a little more crowded. 

Some might consider that inappropriate – about the dead, nothing but good should be said, per the Yiddish proverb – but, when the deceased in question is Ernst Zundel, a distinction needs to be made. Because, when the list of monsters is drawn up one day, Zundel will have achieved true distinction. In Canada, in this era, his evil and malevolence were almost without equal.

 Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel was born in Germany in April 1939, and died in Germany in August 2017. As far as we are aware, no one demanded photographic proof of his passing, or forensic evidence of the heart attack that killed him. But they would be entitled to do so.

 Zundel, you see, made his name – made a fortune – denying the murders of millions. He achieved worldwide infamy by peddling foul, criminal conspiracy theories about the Holocaust. That was what he sought to do, day after day after interminable day: deny one of the greatest mass-murders in the history of humankind. To whitewash the sins of Hitler, and the other architects of the Holocaust.

 He studied graphic art in Germany, then scurried to Canada when he was 19 – tellingly, to avoid conscription by the German army. In Montreal, he laboured in obscurity, acquiring some skills as a retoucher of photographs. Even then, the porcine little man excelled at erasing reality.

 Early on, his megalomania and self-delusion were manifesting themselves. In 1968, he actually ran for the Liberal Party leadership – the one that was won by the father of our present Prime Minister. He was against “anti-German” attitudes, he told the few reporters who bothered to listen. Zundel then drifted down the highway to Toronto in 1969, where he started up another undersized commercial art studio.

 Like all winged insects, he achieved a taste for the limelight. He got involved with something called Concerned Parents of German Descent, and bleated and brayed about how the media were being mean to Germans. As such, he issued press releases denouncing the acclaimed NBC TV miniseries, Holocaust. He started to get noticed, but for all of the wrong reasons.

 Like all cowards, too, Ernst Zundel was leading a double life. One enterprising journalist, Mark Bonokoski, discovered that Zundel was publishing anti-Semitic screeds under the pseudonym Christoph Friedrich. One his pamphlets was The Hitler We Loved And Why.

 At that point, others might have withdrawn from public view, or expressed regret, or chosen a different path. Not Ernst Christoph Friedrich Zundel. Not him. Zundel commenced his downward descent into the ooze and the muck of organized hatred. Now unmasked, Zundel became Canada’s top purveyor of lies.

 Out of his fortified home at 206 Carlton Street in East end Toronto, Ernst Zundel created Samisdat (meaning, to self-publish). He went on to publish more of his paean to Hitler, as well as Did Six Million Really Die?, and other such filth. In a way, he became “a run-of-the-mill neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier,” Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, told the New York Times.

 But that understates Zundel’s significance. In his prime, Ernst Zundel was the most prodigious publisher of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism on the planet. In his various run-ins with the law, he was permitted – appallingly – to put the Holocaust on trial. And, along the way, too many gullible reporters – and far too many politicians – regarded him as a “free speech” advocate, or a harmless crank. Ignore him, they said, and he’ll go away.

 He wouldn’t. He didn’t.

 For a while, Canada rid itself of the foul stench that was Ernst Zundel. He slunk out of the country, and relocated to Tennessee, where he married Ingrid Rimland – another Holocaust denier. In 2003, Zundel was arrested for overstaying his visa and deported back to Canada. Two long years later, the Liberal government deported him, too – back to Germany, the place he had fled to avoid military service, almost sixty years before.

 His indecent legacy remains. Even now, a group of neo-Nazi Zundel fanatics are publishing a Holocaust-denying leaflet in Toronto’s East end, just like Zundel did. Their publication is called Your Ward News. As with Zundel, gullible reporters – and far too many politicians – are calling the new haters “free speech” advocates, or harmless cranks. Ignore them, they’re saying, and they’ll go away.

 They don’t. They won’t. 

 Their hero may be gone, but their enthusiasm for Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is not. The hatred may subside, some years, but it never fully goes away. 

So: we must never forget. We must never falter. We must never stop fighting the purveyors of hate and lies. 

Because Ernst Zundel, from his distant perch in Hell, fears that, most of all. 
 

 


On that Hamilton cop, er, thing

PCs are angrily telling me there’s no criminal investigation.

Libs are angrily telling me there is. QP Briefing, too.

Here’s the cops’ only statement I’m aware of:


Now, if you can see the words “criminal investigation” anywhere in there, let me know. I don’t see ’em, myself.

And, until someone is prepared to pay my legal bills after I falsely accuse someone of being investigated criminally, I will await a clearer statement from the cops.

Until then, let someone else allege a crime took place!


Right here: live-reporting the Your Ward News-Canada Post hearing

As you know, a panel is reviewing Minister Judy Foote’s (appropriate, proper) decision to order Canada Post to stop delivering the neo-Nazi rag, Your Ward News. 

Yesterday was day two of the review. I didn’t see any reporters there, so I’ve decided to provide some ongoing updates. I’ll be posting them here, linkless and bulleted, for your enlightenment. 

A summary of yesterday:

  •  The lead panellist started by apologizing for – yet again – sharing the private information of various victims with the neo-Nazis. This has happened more than once, and it has given everyone the impression the panel doesn’t know what it’s doing – or is wholly disorganized. 
  • The day was mostly made up with submissions by the racists (Paul Fromm), or the lawyers who are supporting/working for the racists. They include high-priced criminal lawyer Frank Addario’s firm; Professor Cameron from Osgoode Hall Law school; and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. 
  • None were particularly effective. Most of their argument went like this: “The Nazis we support haven’t been charged criminally yet, so what’s the problem?” Inviting someone to charge your client criminally doesn’t seem like a very smart strategy, to me. Someone just might, you know, do it. 
  • The Nazis’ lawyers also argued, simultaneously, that the panel had great adjudicative powers, or none at all. Make sense to you? Me neither. 
  • The AG’s lawyer didn’t have a narrative. He argued piecemeal. He got lost in the weeds. Not helpful. 
  • The panel, meanwhile, was clearly (and understandably) vexed that the AG plans to shortly withdraw, and leave the victims to the tender mercies of Addario s cross-examination. Personally, I think they’re right. The authorities let Zundel put the Holocaust on trial; 30 years later, the authorities are about to let the Hitler freaks and white supremacists who run Your Ward News do likewise.
  • I am naturally biased, but my friends who represent CIJA, B’nai Brith and the Wiesenthal Centre clearly have a better understanding of the law and the issues, here. They will be continuing today. 

Today’s report:

  • No media here. Plenty of far-Right kooks, however. 
  • B’nai Brith lawyer smartly argues that Canada Post had a contract, and the contract permitted them to terminate delivery without notice. They terminated, and were right to do so. And they gave reasons. 
  • Mark Freiman, the legal giant who represents CIJA, is up. In the first 30 seconds, he has already pointed out why it is a mistake to permit the Nazis’ lawyers to rebut and rebut and rebut. Brilliant. 
  • Mark points out that the panel can’t “bootstrap” itself into more powers. It can only investigate, report and recommend. That’s it. They are not a court of superior jurisdiction. The Minister still decides. 
  • Mark reminds everyone there are two sections of the Charter at play – yes, the section 2 rights of even Nazis. Yes. But also the (forgotten) rights of minority communities to be protected from government-facilitated discrimation and hatred under section 15. Brilliantly done. 
  • Mark swiftly slices and dices white supremacist leader Paul Fromm. In 30 seconds. Goes on to say he and his ilk seek to foster fear and discrimination. “What is objectionable is hatred and criminally defaming.”
  • Freiman concludes by saying that the Nazis are arguing against “prior restraint” in their case – but they want to restrain Jews, gays, women and other victims from testifying. Rich, that. 
  • The Nazis’ lawyer is going down in flames as the hearing concludes. She/they desperately want to keep victims of these haters from testifying. And we all know why.