Federal agencies hid names of Nazi collaborators who entered postwar Canada, fearing disclosure "might cause them harm," a B'nai Brith Canada executive stated. The group seeks to overturn secrecy orders on old files, according to Blacklock’s.

“We’re talking about records from the 1940s and ‘50s about individuals who have long since been dead,” said Richard Robertson, director of research for B’nai Brith. “One of the exemptions that is continuously being used against us is [that] it might cause them harm if we release this information.”

Ottawa withheld names of Nazi collaborators despite pleas from Conservatives, New Democrats, and Canada's Jewish diaspora since the 1980s, claiming it would aid Russia's war in Ukraine.

Chrystia Freeland provides a vague answer when asked if the government will reopen a report to establish how many people who fought with the Nazis are currently in Canada. https://t.co/q3IGy1jPSt pic.twitter.com/2BKnpw9vOJ

— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) September 26, 2023

B'nai Brith claims archivists illegally withheld Nazi blacklists under the Access To Information Act, seeking sealed documents from a 1986 war crimes inquiry. “We’ve been fighting this battle for quite some time.” 

The Jewish group accuses Library and Archives Canada of unlawfully withholding information for decades. They seek full disclosure of communications with foreign states concerning a blacklist of 98 known Nazi Party members and 738 German POW laborers who immigrated to Canada in 1946.

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To date, disclosures only include a February 1, 2024 summary of confidential records about the arrival of suspected war criminals, according to Nazi War Criminals. It found that Nazi collaborators entered Canada with inadequate background checks. 

Director Robertson questioned the ongoing concern for potentially offending a deceased former Nazi, asking, “At what point do we stop caring about the impact this might have on a person who’s been deceased for several decades?”

Liberals and their enablers vote to hide Chrystia Freeland's grandad's name from being revealed as on the list of 900 suspected Nazis that came to Canada after WW2.

One of the most virulent anti-Israel NDP MPs, Niki Ashton, unironically brought this motion forward. She… pic.twitter.com/txnslAWW3s

— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) November 15, 2024

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau justified the secrecy in February 2024, citing privacy laws and concerns “around community cohesion,” with fear it would legitimize Russian claims that invading Ukraine amounts to a purge of Nazis. 

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress testified October 1 that naming collaborators would upset the community. “Today we hear repeated calls for the disclosure of the names of these innocent people,” said Alexandra Chyczij, then-president. 

Despite ongoing attempts to obtain an uncensored Rodal Report, a 613-page document crucial to understanding Canada's handling of Nazi war criminals, Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs blocked its release November 23.

Report researcher Alti Rodal cautioned that the named individuals were only alleged war criminals, not proven in court.

.@LibraryArchives hides files on Nazi collaborators let into postwar Canada for fear it "might cause them harm," researcher tells @BnaiBrithCanada videoconference: 'Can you harm a former Nazi?'  https://t.co/1dFjFEUst3 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/tZ8sVijRUU

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) August 15, 2025

Robertson, in a B'nai Brith videoconference, stated that the government has withheld reports, possibly impacting a foreign ally, due to concerns about the Ukrainian community in Canada.

“Because they haven’t released that information, probably in the reverse effect of what the government was intending, the Russians have come out and said Canada is harbouring these Nazi secrets and it has to do with the Ukrainian community,” he said.

Access To Information records reveal the Ukrainian Canadian Congress urged federal agencies not to disclose names of wartime collaborators. Calls for disclosure intensified after the 2023 Commons tribute to a Ukrainian-Canadian volunteer in the 14 Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, declared a criminal organization at the 1946 Nuremberg Tribunal.

Matt Malone of the Investigative Journalism Foundation criticized the continued concealment of Nazi files, stating, “Once classified, always classified.”

He criticized the Justice Department's "astounding" use of resources to block B'nai Brith's access to WWII war criminal records, calling it “an issue of extreme public interest.”