A Holocaust denier has filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Jewish Congress and the prime minister of Canada, charging them and others with conspiring to bar him from Parliament.
The lawsuit charges that CJC President Moshe Ronen, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the heads of three political parties “maliciously conspired” to ban Ernst Zundel from Parliament Hill last June, when the House of Commons voted unanimously to bar Zundel from the Parliament buildings.
Zundel is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars from each of 18 defendants for violating his free speech rights.
Zundel had booked a room on Parliament Hill that is usually available to individuals who want to hold a news conference on subjects related to federal government business. He had intended to denounce a ruling of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which is holding hearings to determine whether he is spreading hate via the Internet.
Banned from his native Germany, Zundel has been known for occasional theatrics in his tireless campaign to prove that the Holocaust is a Jewish hoax. He once dragged a cross through the streets of Toronto to show how he was being pilloried by the establishment. More recently, he wore a yarmulka during his Human Rights Tribunal hearing.
“We have noted a tendency amongst members of the extreme right to attempt to use the courts as a means by which to try to silence any actions against their nefarious activities,” said Ronen. “For the record, such attempts at libel will in no way stop [Canadian Jewish] Congress from confronting people like Ernst Zundel and his ilk.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
