Imagine you're Ernst Zundel

Peter Lindsay & Chi-Kun Shi,
counsel to Ernst Zundel

Toronto, Canada, Saturday, March 5, 2005

IMAGINE that you're 65 years old and you're in jail.  In solitary confinement.  You are strip-searched whenever you see your lawyer.  Once before.  Once after.  For two years.

Imagine that you're there because two politicians signed a piece of paper ("security certificate") saying that you are a security risk.  You are not charged with a crime.  You don't have a criminal record.  You have lived in Canada for 42 years.

Imagine that those two politicians don't have to be right, so long as a judge thinks that they are "reasonable".  So long as they are "reasonable", they can deport you to a country where you go to jail for saying something that you have the right to say in Canada.  The Supreme Court of Canada had promised you that right.

Imagine that the prosecutor and the judge get to meet secretly without you and your lawyer and you never find out what they did in secret, what they read, who they saw.  Again and again.

Imagine that your lawyer thought he was at a critical point in your trial.  He thought the lunch break was longer then usual.  Turns out the judge and the prosecutor were having a secret session again while you had lunch.  They refuse to tell you or your lawyer what happened.

Imagine that you are accused of causing violence so bad that you are a danger to Canadian national security.  When you ask when and where, they say: can't tell you.  You ask why not, they say: national security.

Imagine that the judge making so many mistakes that it took more than 100 pages of transcripts to show them all.  Imagine the judge making the same mistakes again and again.  And always to your detriment.

Imagine this judge having the power to deport you and you have no right of appeal.

Imagine that a prominent civil libertarian tells you this process is wrong and he will stand with you to say so, only to back out at the last minute.

Imagine that he comes back as soon as you were deported, condemning this process as your plane left Canada.

Imagine that a judge says she thinks this process is unfair to you and will say so in court, only to change her mind at the last minute.

Imagine that a newspaper counts the number of security certificates and yours is never included.  Imagine the moment you have been deported, everyone talks about how awful and illegal security certificates are.

Imagine that the media is suddenly interested in you, as soon as they are sure that you will be deported.  Your deportation and upcoming jail time is reported in meticulous detail.

Imagine that this is Canada in 2005 and you've been named in a security certificate.

Imagine that everyone says that security certificates are a disgrace to Canada but somehow it was fine to use one on you.

Imagine that you may be Ernst Zundel, or you may be someone with an opinion disliked by many.