* on the other hand «

SO A Canadian jury in a trial that was politically inspired
has found the accused net guilty. And the result is that the
Jewish pressure groups whe agitated for the proceedings are
screaming for blood. Which is to say further trial through

appeal.

I refer to the eight-month court
ordea! of 78-year-old Imra Finta of
Toronto, the former Hungarian
gendarme charged with war
crimes.

According to his accusers, Finta
was guilty of kidnapping, robbery
and manslaughter when he was in

Congress and its allied groups
seem to be able to make Ottawa
stand to attention. It is interesting.
though, that even Pierre Trudeau
refused to countenance such trials.
Canadian politicians and
ministry of justice bureaucrats
claim that the Nazis and their allies

**...it would be a st

ange day indeed if

a former Israeli who had been busy
killing Palestinians in the Middle East

had to stand trial here.’’
a ne ee

control of a place in Hungary from
which Jews were shipped to
Poland and Austria nearly 50 years
ago.

Whatever happened or did nor
happen, the holding of war crimes
trials in the 1990s is ludicrous.
Especially in this case, for in the
late 1940s Finta had been con-
victed in absentia with ‘‘crimes
against the people’’ and sentenced
in absentia to five years’ jail. Ina
communist Hungary, such a con-
viction could mean nothing. Later,
he was pardoned.

What that means is that al-
though he would have been free in
the country where the alleged of-
fences took place, he -was still
liable to be jailed here. And what
could be more stupid than that?

Normally, no one would be in-
terested in spending large sums of
public money on bringing old men
to trial for crimes that took place
in a foreign country half a century
ago. But the Canadian Jewish
are not the only targets of this

lickspittle legislation.

They say that those suspected of
crimes against humanity commit-
ted anywhere can be tried if the
accused are in Canada. But it
would be a strange day indeed ifa
former Israeli who had been busy
killing Palestinians in the Middle
East had to stand trial here.

Can justice be served at this late
date? I don’t think so. And I have
good company. Lord Shawcross,
who led the prosecution for the
British at the Nuremberg War
Crimes trial, doesn’t think so, ei-
ther.

Quintin Hogg, a distinguished
Q.C. and another member of the
House of Lords, has put it more
strongly. He stated recently that
British Jews who hive pressed for
war crimes trials in the U.K.
“want a lynching varty.’’

There are mary objections to
these trials. There is the matter of
memory. In the L..S., a man called
Frank Walus was put through the
war criminal grinder a few years

ago. A crowd of Jewish witnesses
swore he was the killer in question.
They had seen him at work, they
said.

At the eleventh hour, evidence
was produced that proved he could
not possibly have been the man.
But he had already been ruined fi-
nancially and physically.

Half a century is a long time.
Memory fails. Let me give you a
personal example. In 1943, the
year before Finta was in charge of
the Jews in Szeged, 1 was one of
seven prisoners who escaped from
a castle in Hungary.

It was a dangerous affair that
took months to plan, and at the
time I thought it would be im-
possible to forget who my compa-
nions were. Today, for the life of
me, I can recall only three other
names, and if all seven of us were
in a crowded room | would
recognize only one face for sure.

The cost of these trials is not
small, either. Ouwawa refuses to
give any figures, but Doug
Christie, who so doggedly defend-
ed Finta, believes that the Finta
trial cost us about $5 million.

Certain it is that no expense was
spared. The prosecution brought in
witnesses from as far away as
Australia. RCMP investigators
flew to Vancouver, Washington
«D.C.), Germany, Austria,
Hungary and Israel.

Against such power, the accused
is at a disadvantage. He is depen-
dent on legal aid, which in this
case amounted to a comparatively
small $250,000. in the meantime,
his business is kaputt and he was
lucky to come out of it all sane.

If Attorney General Kim Camp-
bell gives way to the hysterical
demands for an appeal, | will have
even more contempt for our feder-
al politicians than I have now.

You may be able to help by writ-
ing to her.

Loutet Park parking lot plan stopped

A 51-STALL parking lot about to
be built in front of homes near
Loutet Park in North Vancouver
was permanently stalled by North
Vancouver council recently.

The parking lot, which was to be
constructed on Rufus Avenue be-
tween 15th and 16th streets, was
part cf a three-year-old request for
additional parking suggested by
some residents.

But North Vancouver City
Council decided to cancel the pro-
ject after 35 residents currently liv-
ing in the area leasned about the
planned construction and signed a
petition against it.

Resident spokesman Wendy So
told council there were generally
enough parking spaces at the park
and the new parking lot would ad-
dress the concerns of soccer
players and not the concerns of
people living in the area.

And she inoted that soccer
players use the park during only a
few months each year.

“Instead of a parking lot, why

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City council had authorized a
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lot. The company, which is con-

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9 - Wednesday, June 6, 1990 - North Shore News

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