Preparations began in federal court here Tuesday for the second trial of Ernst Zundel, a neo-Nazi propagandist whose conviction three years ago under Canada’s anti-hate laws was overturned on a technicality.
The jury has yet to be selected and no date has been announced for the opening of the trial, which may last four months. Judge John Pearson will preside.
The German-born Zundel, 48, has been living in Canada since the mid-1950s. His status is resident alien and he has worked as a commercial artist and photograph retoucher.
But his primary activity apparently has been neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic propaganda.
He is responsible for the publication and distribution in Canada of the booklet “Did Six Million Really Die?” a denial of the Holocaust written by Richard Howard, a member of the British fascist National Front.
In 1985, Zundel was found guilty of “spreading false news” for the purpose of inciting racial and religious hatred.
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison. But an appeals court overturned the conviction of grounds that certain evidence ruled inadmissable by the judge should have been presented.
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