April/May 1995, Pages 57, 94

Canada Calling

By Faisal Kutty

Ostrovsky Files Lawsuit Against CTV Network and Others

Victor Ostrovsky, a former Israeli intelligence officer and author of two books exposing Mossad secret operations (see review of his The Other Side of Deception on p. 58 of this issue) filed a lawsuit against the CTV Television Network, its popular morning show "Canada AM" hostess Valerie Pringle, and producer Ron Fine, for airing a solicitation for his murder.

Edward Corrigan, a lawyer with Loebach, Corrigan & Al-Sewaidi in London, Ontario, the law firm representing Ostrovsky, told the Washington Report that CTV has retained a high-profile Toronto law firm for its defense. Scott Gibson of the CTV Legal Department responded that the CTV had "no comment."

Ostrovsky's Statement of Claim, filed with the Ontario Court (General Division) in Ottawa on Feb. 7, 1995, also names as defendants Ma'ariv Productions Ltd., the New York-based North American publisher and distributor of the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv; Mary Winfield, the representative for Ma'ariv Productions in Canada; and Josef Lapid, an Israeli journalist and commentator who made the calls for Ostrovsky's death.

Ostrovsky's first book, released in 1990, was entitled By Way of Deception: An Insider's Portrait of the Mossad. It caused an uproar, particularly after the Israeli government tried unsuccessfully to prevent its publication in Canada. Ostrovsky's new book, The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad Secret Agenda, published in October 1994, also has created controversy.

The suit alleges that in the wake of Ostrovsky's publication of his second book on Oct. 3, 1994, Josef Lapid, a leading political commentator, went on Israeli television and requested that the Mossad agency kill Ostrovsky. According to Corrigan, on Oct. 7, 1994 Ma'ariv then published an article written by Lapid in which he wrote "Yes, I think Victor Ostrovsky should be eliminated."

The suit further alleges that Lapid, the former general manager of the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, then was invited to appear on "Canada AM" on Oct. 15, 1994 and that this provided him with a forum to call for "a decent Jew in Canada" to assassinate Ostrovsky (see "The Contrasting Media Treatment of Israeli and Islamic Death Threats" by Victor Ostrovsky in the Jan./Feb. 1995 Washington Report). Corrigan told the Washington Report that CTV owed a Duty of Care to Ostrovsky and that "the CTV breached this duty by putting him under the threat of murder and publicizing Lapid's call for his death."

To date, mainstream Canadian media and commentators, who vociferously supported British author Salman Rushdie after the call for his death by Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini, have been conspicuous only by their silence. Aside from a small article in the Law Times, a trade newspaper, reporting the lawsuit in February, there has been virtually no coverage. Ostrovsky credits the fear of being labeled anti-Semitic and of retaliation by Israel's highly emotional friends in Canada for the news blackout.

In fact, a leading lawyer in Ottawa declined to continue after spending more than a month on the case. According to Ostrovsky, the lawyer cited concern for the safety of his mailroom staff as the reason for taking himself off the case. Ostrovsky has filed a complaint against this lawyer with the Law Society of Upper Canada, the governing body of the profession.

Not all Canadians are equally cowed, however. William Deverell, chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, termed Lapid's incitement to murder "undemocratic, immoral and, certainly in Canada, illegal." Deverell has called on Lapid to retract his statement and "publicly announce that Mr. Ostrovsky should not be harmed." The Union also made its objection known to the Honorable Marion Boyd, the attorney general of Ontario.

Ostrovsky and his wife Bella seek damages in excess of $2.5 million from CTV and Valerie Pringle for mental anguish, fear, economic loss and security and protection. They also seek damages in excess of $200,000 from Ma'ariv Productions, Mary Winfield and Josef Lapid.

Professor Bassiouni Addresses Toronto Audience

Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni delivered the keynote address at a fund-raising program for Bosnia and Chechnya on Jan. 28 in Toronto. The dinner, organized by Human Concern International (HCI), raised well over $50,000 to support HCI relief and development work in these two war-torn states.

Bassiouni, the former chairman of the United Nations' Commission of Experts to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia, spoke about the brutality of the war in Bosnia, and the silence of the international community. Bassiouni, who served as an officer in the Egyptian army during the 1956 Israeli-French-British attack on Sinai and the Suez Canal, related that in more than 60 years of Arab-Israeli wars in a region encompassing more than 50 million people, cases of rape were almost unheard of. By contrast, in Bosnia, "in a period of a year and a half, over a population base of about five million," he noted, "we can easily estimate over 20,000 rapes, mostly by the Serbs."

Bassiouni and his Commission of Experts spent more than two years investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia (see "Britain and Its Allies Stall U.N. Probe of Serb Atrocities" in the March 1995 issue of the Washington Report). He said that the wholesale nature of the violations is beyond description.

Professor Bassiouni cited the existence of 800 detention facilities and 150 mass graves that cover the country. "What went on in these facilities," he said, "were the types of things you all see on television 50 years later about the Jewish Holocaust."

The president of DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute told the audience: "The degree of indifference shown by the world is probably one of the most shocking things I can think of." He noted that many of the most vocal defenders of the Bosnian Muslims have been Jewish individuals and organizations.

Bassiouni concluded his address by pointing out that these are difficult, traumatic times for the Bosnians and that the world must reach out to them and "tell them that the world knows, that the world cares, that they are not abandoned."

The description by Imam Muharram, a survivor of a Serbian concentration camp, of the torture he saw and personally underwent had a profound impact on the crowd of more than 600 persons packed into the TARIC Islamic Center. Imam Muharram, a graduate of the Islamic University of Sarajevo, told the crowd; "If you think that the U.N. peacekeepers are helping us [Bosnians], you are fooled. If you think the European Community is helping us, you are fooled."

Two Canadians, Abdurahman Lawendy, 19, and Bilal Ibrahim, 17, presented slides and related their experiences during a month-long relief mission to Bosnia last summer (see their story in the Nov./Dec. 1994 Washington Report).

Other speakers at the function included Abu Nazir, the chairman of HCI, Sheikh Hamid Djabir and Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, who was instrumental in fund-raising.

Human Rights Commission Releases Policy Paper on Hijab

The Quebec Human Rights Commission in early February released its long-awaited policy paper on the wearing of the hijab, the scarf worn by Muslim women to cover their hair. The document, entitled "Religious Pluralism in Quebec: A Social and Ethical Challenge," was prepared in response to controversies surrounding the expulsion from school of 13-year-old Emilie Ouimet, the transfer under pressure of 15-year-old Dania Baali, and the order of a private Montreal Muslim school that its non-Muslim teachers observe hijab as a condition of employment.

The commission presently is investigating complaints filed by Baali's parents as well as a complaint against the Montreal Muslim school. The commission noted that the document should not "be used as a basis for any conclusion as to the eventual outcome of a thorough investigation of the particular facts of each of these cases."

The 51-page report states that prohibition of the Islamic veil as such "would not be compatible with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms." Neither, the report states, can schools prohibit the Islamic veil under a generally applicable dress code. The commission is of the view that schools must strive reasonably to accommodate Muslim students who are discriminated against by the application of such dress codes. The report concludes: "The wearing of the Islamic veil should, in principle, be considered to be licit, except in a context where the students are pressured into wearing it, or where wearing the veil is designed to provoke or incite discrimination on the basis of sex. The veil may also be restricted where necessary for reasons of safety."

Quebec Muslims welcomed the overall conclusions of the report but were uneasy about the suggestion that the hijab might be considered a provocation or an incitement to discrimination.

The commission also made public its position on schools requiring teachers of another religion to wear an item of clothing associated with the institution's religious affiliation. According to the commission's interpretation of Section 20 of the Charter, a private religious school may hire only teachers who adhere to its "official" religion, but this provision cannot be used to compel (as a condition of employment) "teachers of another religion to wear an item of clothing associated with the institution's official religion."

Chechen-Ingush Society Speaks Out

Dr. Mohammad Shashani, president of the New Jersey-based Chechen-Ingush Society of America, says that since Dec. 11, more than 25,000 Chechens have been killed, tens of thousands injured and well over 400,000 of the 1.3 million pre-invasion population uprooted.

The Russian attack, 15 years after the invasion of Afghanistan, in response to President Dzhokar Dudayev's declaration of independence on Sept. 6, 1991 has created widespread human misery. Dr. Shashani told an audience at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto on Feb. 26 that the world community has fallen short of its responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance.

The Clinton administration—along with others, including Canada—declared it an internal problem. Both administrations have accused Moscow of human rights abuses, though they could be a lot more assertive against the growing civilian casualties.

The Council of North Caucasian Associations in American and the Chechen-Ingush Society of America have been lobbying persistently to change this complacent attitude. They are striving to place the plight of Chechens on the political agenda.

Dr. Shashani says the United Nations has also taken a hands-off policy. U.N. Secretary-General Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali declared it an internal dispute, and pledged humanitarian support. Unfortunately, the U.N. has fallen short on its promise.

Dr. Shashani, a Chechen brought up in Jordan and the U.S., also shared the grim findings of a delegation from the Saudi Arabia-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). According to their report, Grozny is a virtual ghost town. There is a severe shortage of food and medicine throughout Chechnya. The understaffed hospitals are bursting at the seams with seriously injured civilians.

Dr. Mohammad Shashani pointed out that the Russian tactic is a simple one. "They [Russians] are bombarding them and ensuring that food and medicine do not reach the civilians."

"They are especially targeting food sources, such as cattle which are the sole source of food—meat and milk," claims Dr. Shashani, a professor of electrical engineering at Pennsylvania State University.

In a press release dated Feb. 22, 1995 the UNHCR identified an acute shortage of food, clothing and medicine. Dr. Shashani pointed out that if such was the case in the refugee camps outside of the battle zone, one cannot begin to grasp the deplorable conditions inside Chechnya. He noted that according to the WAMY delegation, the only signs of assistance inside the country were a few International Committee of the Red Cross jeeps patrolling the streets, and they are seriously restricted. The Russian authorities are not open to foreign humanitarian operations, though officially they have not voiced their objections. According to WAMY, the few relief supplies that have reached the battered civilians were brought in through secret paths in the mountainous terrain with the assistance of sympathizers in neighboring territories.

Dr. Shashani concluded that the billions in economic assistance promised by the West are the most effective weapons to put an end to the misery of the Chechens.

Faisal Kutty is a free-lance writer based in Toronto, Canada.