Christopher J. Moorehead The Toronto Star 29-Oct-1998 Perhaps Littman should return to school

Christopher J. Moorehead The Toronto Star 29-Oct-1998
Perhaps Littman should return to school

"Perhaps, instead of judges and immigration adjudicators, it is Littman himself who should return to school, for a few refresher courses in Canadian law, ethics and responsible journalism." � Christopher J. Moorehead

Additional information on both Sol Littman and Simon Wiesenthal (because Sol Littman is director of the Canadian Simon Wiesenthal Center) is available on the Ukrainian Archive.

In the case of Simon Wiesenthal, the reader will find an introduction to him within The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes � once in that article, click on SIMON WIESENTHAL in the yellow CONTENTS box. For more information beyond that introduction, the reader can consult the Simon Wiesenthal page on the Ukrainian Archive.

In the case of Sol Littman, the reader will find him discussed toward the bottom of the same SIMON WIESENTHAL section within The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes already cited in the preceding paragraph, particularly within a subsection titled "Sol Littman's Mengele Affair." One way to get to that subsection is to click on The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes, and once within that document, to hit CTRL+F on one's keyboard, and then search for "Mengele Affair" (don't type in the quotation marks). Or, NetScape browsers will take the reader directly to Sol Littman's Mengele Affair when the link in the present sentence is clicked, though Microsoft's Internet Explorer will manage only to take the reader to the top of The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes, from whence the reader will have to make his way down to "Sol Littman's Mengele Affair" by other means. Incidentally, starting at the top of The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes and repeatedly employing CTRL+F to search for "Littman" will take the reader to the several locations at which he is mentioned, where is provided some indication both of the frequency and of the quality of Sol Littman's contributions to the debate concerning war criminals.

Another insight into Sol Littman can be found in a letter to him from Neal Sher from which arises the hypothesis that the two live within a subculture in which lies circulate freely, such that if we hear any member of that subculture � for example Sol Littman � say something untrue, we cannot know whether he is lying or whether he has merely been lied to by some other member of that subculture.

Still more insight into Sol Littman can be found in the letters to the editor of The Toronto Star written by Walter Halchuk, Lubomyr Prytulak, Mary Radewych, and Matthias Schlaepfer.

And a veritable deluge concerning Sol Littman has more recently been added to the Ukrainian Archive, and can be accessed from the Sol Littman page.

THE TORONTO STAR Thursday, October 29, 1998 A29

LETTERS

Littman conveniently forgets Demjanjuk

Re Sol Littman's Opinion page article on Canadian war crimes prosecution efforts (Do our jurists need Holocaust classes?, Oct. 20). Littman criticizes the federal War Crimes Unit for its lack of success in securing convictions and/or deportations of suspected Nazi war criminals.

Littman makes reference to the justice department being "pressured into action by a Royal Commission of Inquiry" with respect to war crimes prosecution.

He conveniently seems to have forgotten that this same Royal Commission, in its final report, condemned the large and grossly exaggerated figures submitted by Littman regarding the estimated numbers of war criminals resident in Canada.

Littman also heaps scorn upon members of the Canadian judiciary, claiming that "they seem to know little of the legal precedents set in Germany, Holland, Belgium, and the United States."

On the contrary, our judiciary has learned only too well from the American experience, particularly with respect to the disgraceful conduct of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) during its prosecution of John Demjanjuk.

The actions of the OSI, which included withholding and destroying evidence in order to secure Demjanjuk's deportation, were deemed to have "constituted fraud on the court" in a recent ruling by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court.

Surprisingly, Littman's exhaustive study of foreign legal precedents neglects one particular case � Demjanjuk's acquittal by the Supreme Court of Israel, in part due to the conduct of the OSI.

It would therefore appear that Littman's low opinion of Canadians and prosecutors is based on their unwillingness to bend and twist the law to his liking.

Perhaps, instead of judges and immigration adjudicators, it is Littman himself who should return to school, for a few refresher courses in Canadian law, ethics and responsible journalism.

Christopher J. Moorehead
Toronto

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