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Will Zuzak; CRTC.003 = 1992-12-04 letter to Romanica/CBC; 1993-10-15
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Dear Subscribers:
This is my first response to Rachel Romanica:
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December 4, 1992
Rachel Romanica
Corporate Communications
CBC Head Office
P.O. Box 8478
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 3J5
Dear Ms. Romanica:
I find your reply of Nov. 13, 1992 to my letter of Aug. 20,
1992 to the CRTC completely unacceptable.
A. John Demjanjuk case
First of all, you refer to four examples of items "that
appeared on the National and other CBC news programs", but you do
not state the dates, the duration of the items, the people
involved, nor the producer. Could you please send me the complete
details of these four items.
Secondly, the extent of this coverage must be compared
against your coverage of all the false allegations during the
Jerusalem trial of Mr. Demjanjuk from 1986 to 1988. You covered
this staged media event, reminiscent of the Stalinist show trials
of the 1930s, far more zealously than you are covering the
revelations of "prosecutorial misconduct" and "obstruction of
justice" perpetrated by the Office of Special Investigations
(OSI) of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Thirdly, it is not clear to what "recent evidence" and "new
evidence" you refer to. To my knowledge, all this evidence (the
Danilchenko protocol, statements re Marchenko, etc.) was
available to the OSI prosecutors and Israeli investigators as far
back as 1978. Rather than exposing the criminality of the OSI,
you are covering up their culpability by airing disinformation as
to the "recentness" of this evidence.
Fourthly, it is highly ironic that your letter to me is
dated Nov. 13, 1992, the exact date when Judge Wiseman, Special
Master of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal, was deposing two
former OSI employees, George Parker and Martin Mendelsohn, as to
their conduct during the John Demjanjuk case. Why was this issue
not covered and/or reported by the CBC? In my letter of Aug. 20,
1992, I specifically complained that the news media failed to
inform the Canadian public of the criminal activities of the OSI.
I can only attribute this failure to a deliberate policy of
censorship on this issue at the CBC.
B. War crimes issues in Canada
You claim that having Kim Campbell respond to the
allegations of Sol Littman on Aug. 12, 1992 ensured balance.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Your coverage created a
false impression that the Canadian government is somehow
responsible for the courts finding it impossible to legally
convict people accused of war crimes. It is to be hoped that
Canadian politicians will never agree to coerce an independent
Canadian judiciary to subvert justice to satisfy the agenda of
people like Mr. Littman. By not interviewing people concerned
about the civil liberties of Canadians (such as the lawyers of
people falsely accused of war crimes), the CBC failed to present
the other side of the issue. Namely, that it is virtually
impossible to dispense justice 50 years after the fact.
Two other related events occurred Nov. 27, 1992, which are
also of relevance.
The news media reported that Jacob Luitjens was deported to
the Netherlands, but failed to examine why he was not tried here
in Canada under our war crimes legislation. Shortly after the
Deschenes Commission debacle and prior to passing the war crimes
legislation, Bill C-71 in August 1987, the then Justice Minister
Ramon Hnatyshyn stated that the government had opted for a
made-in- Canada solution such that there would be no
denaturalizations, deportations or extraditions. I am not
familiar with the Luitjens case and I do not know if Mr. Luitjens
would have preferred to have his case examined here in Canada,
rather than being deported to the Netherlands. The CBC failed to
interview Mr. Luitjens or his lawyer on this matter.
David Matas, representing Bnai Brith Canada, was interviewed
extensively on a report he had prepared on the war crimes issue,
once again, criticizing the Canadian government, judges and
immigration officials for not being willing to subvert the
Canadian justice system to pursue his political agenda. In my
opinion, the CBC failed, once again, to provide balanced coverage
on the issue.
Please respond more fully to my concerns. I am also
forwarding copies of this letter to the CBC Ombudsman and the
CRTC.
Respectfully submitted
William Zuzak
cc: CBC Ombudsman
CRTC
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Will Zuzak; CRTC.003 = 1992-12-04 letter to Romanica/CBC; 1993-10-15
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