The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 2, 1985 editorial comments Amen To That, 'Father There are times when all of us wonder just where this planet is going. - Millions face a cruel and slow death by starvation in Central Africa; several countries are at war, killing soldiers and innocent civilians alike; fundamental human rights are denied all over this planet; pollution is chok- ing the environment; violent crime seems to be ever on the increase; and over all of this hangs the threat of nuclear anihilation. Sometimes it is hard to believe that a God in Heaven would allow mankind to sink to such depths of cruelty and suffering. Addressing this issue at a recent prayer breakfast for parliamentarians in Ottawa was Father Sean O'Sullivan, who gave up a promising political career for the priesthood several years ago. Since then, he has waged a personal battle with cancer. For those who are discouraged by the state of af- fairs in the world, he said this: 'When you are shouting at God, 'How can You let this happen?' stop and listen, for God is asking the same question." You need not say any more, Father. That one sentence speaks louder than a thousand words. Fill 'er Up? The federal government moved last week to de- regulate the oil and gas industry in Canada and at the same time to phase out several taxes now charged on petroleum. : The three western petroleum producing provinces in Canada welcomed the deal, for it is estimated that about $1.3 billion will be injected back into the oil and gas industry, and Energy Minister Pat Carney says 300,000 new jobs could be created. It was no surprise that when the details were an- nounced in Ottawa, oil and gas shares on the stock ex- change went up as investors sniffed bigger profits. We are comforted in the knowledge that the multi- national petroleum companies are going to make more money. They deserve it, of course. But what about the consumer? What's going to hap- pen when the average citizen pulls the family station wagon up to the pumps for a fill-up? ~ Well, Ms. Carney says in fact the prices at the pumps may actualy go down. Does she really believe that the Canadian people are going to swallow the line that the oil companies are going to pass the tax savings on to the consumers? And since the federal coffers will have about $500 million less coming in when the tax is eliminated, who is going to make up this short-fall? There is a distinct possibility that the feds will slap those lost taxes back on the consumer to the tune of some 20 cents per gallon. After all, the federal government is facing a deficit of $35 billion in the coming year. If the consumer doesn't end up paying directly at the pumps through an addi- tional tax, we suggest the feds will find some way to make up those lost dollars through a tax on something. In all seriousness, it is not a bad idea to pump money back into the oil and gas industry by reducing taxes. It is an expensive proposition to find new sources and get the stuff to markets. But if these lost tax revenues are re-couped by the | federal government by piling them on the back of the consumer, it merely puts more of a hardship on those who can afford it least. The only way both the oil companies and the con- sumers can win through all this juggling and manipulating of taxes and revenues, is if the federal government can live without lost revenues. And the on- ly way it can do that is to reduce its expenditures. Don't hold your breath. Finance minister Michaei \Vilson will bring down a new budget in May. Don't bet against a tax increase in one form or another. ~ ISN'T YOUR GIG NEXT WEEK BUNNY ? aa OLaTTEN POAT PERRY STAR \A3C hatterbox by John B. McClelland A TROUBLING CASE Like a lot of other people in Canada over the past couple of months, I have become all too familiar with " the name Ernst Zundel. Last week, he was sentenced to 15 months in jail and three years probation, during which time he is for- bidden to speak publicly, write or publish any material relating directly or indirectly to the Holocaust. His lawyer promptly filed notice of an appeal and Zundel is out on bail, enjoying his freedom. The case of Ernst Zundel is a strange and troubl- ing one. A few years ago, he published a pamphlet claiming that the Nazi Holocaust did not exist, claim- ing that six million people, most of them Jews, did not perish in the concentration camps, claiming that the Holocaust was little more than a trumped up story designed to force post-war Germany to hand over billions of dollars to Israel. All of this garbage was contained between pages of a little booklet entitled "Did Six Million Really Die?" At the urging of a Toronto woman, herself a sur- vivor of the camps and now a member of the Holocaust Remembrance group, Zundel was charged with publishing material knowing it was false and knowing that it was likely to cause social or racial unrest. His eight week trial which began in January had to be one of the strangest in the history of this country. On the one hand, witnesses for the defense tried to prop up Zundel's idiotic theories, while those who took the stand for the prosecution in many cases were survivors of the camps who had witnessed and suffered the atrocities of Nazi Germany. At the end of it all, Zundel was found guilty of the charge, and was sentenced a few weeks later. The on-going trial made the front pages of newspapers all over this country. Zundel, wearing a hard hat and bullet proof vest became a familiar figure on the TV newscasts, and he boasted that no matter how the court ruled, he had received a million dollars worth of publicity. On that, he was dead right. Many people, including prominent members of the Jewish community, feel Zundel should never have been brought to trail. They say it gave him a made-to- measure forum to spout his lies. By forcing the prosecu- tion to prove Zundel wrong, the trial gave his lies a kind of legitimacy. And some argued that in a free country, anyone has the right to publish opinions, no matter how idiotic, scurrilous or wrong they may be. Others said that if Zundel was tried at all, it should have been in the court of public opinion using as evidence the overwhelming weight of historical documentation and fact that indeed the Holocaust did take place under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. What bothers me about Zundel's trial is the implica- tion that the fabric of Canadian society is somehow not strong enough to resist his lies. Surely, the vast majority of Canadians are going to dismiss Zundel outright and express clearly their revulsion at his lunatic ideas. Do the people of this country not have broad enough shoulders to handle the likes of a Zundel? Goodness, I would hope so. : I wonder, as well, if the conviction and terms of pro- bation are in fact going to stop somebody like Zundel. The trial judge himself said Zundel cannot be rehabilitated and shows no remorse. Like all zealots who believe they are right and the rest of the world wrong, prison bars will not change this man. As a news r editor, I used to receive material from Zundel's so-called publishing house, including the pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?' The junk arrived on a regular basis through the mails and quickly went into the garbage. In light of the trial, I wish I had kept a file on the stuff, but it was all so outrageously wrong, I simply didn't give it a second thought before tossing it out. As I recall, the pamphlet in question contained a lot of flattering photos of World War 2 Nazis, and it also tried to make a feeble argument that photos of Holocaust victims were faked somehow. . I'just can't believe that this crack-pot could be con- sidered a danger to society. There can be no question that the garbage he published is a terrible affront to those who survived the Holocaust and to those who lost family members, not to mention the memory of those who died in that barbaric time in history. Even though Zundel has been tried and convicted, I suspect that Canadians have not heard the last of him. He is already seeking an appeal, and since he is a land- ed immigrant, there is an investigation underway into having him deported back to his native Germany. All of this will be reported in the press and will assure that Ernst Zundel continues to be a household name in this country. While I question whether dealing with the likes of Zundel in a court of laws is right or proper in a free coun- try, I can't quite agree that it would have been better to simply ignore him. He is a fraud and a liar, yet if society takes it upon . itself to expose him as such, it implies that society is taking his ideas and theories seriously. There is a ma- jor dilemma at every turn in this unhappy situation. And Zundel is milking this dilemma for all it's worth. We have not heard the last of him.