Trudeau gov’t won’t disclose names of 900 alleged Nazis allowed into Canada
B’nai B'rith and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal, two Jewish organizations, have asked the Trudeau government to name the 900 alleged Nazis allowed into Canada to no avail.
The Trudeau government rejected calls Monday to identify some 900 alleged war criminals, including members of a Ukrainian SS division. Jewish-Canadian groups are beside themselves over the decision.
The 1986 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, led by retired Superior Court of Quebec judge Jules Deschênes, held back names of Nazi war criminals living in Canada for decades.
Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian SS veteran, received a standing ovation last September during a parliamentary visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
B’nai B'rith and 18 other organizations, including Friends of Simon Wiesenthal, recently asked the federal government for the unredacted historical records, with the former advocating for their disclosure since the 1980s.
The Department of Immigration disclosed Part 1, a summary of confidential records on the arrival of suspected war criminals this February.
The Globe and Mail earlier filed Access to Information requests asking for Part 2 to be released to no avail. It named 98 known Nazi Party members who immigrated to Canada in 1946, as well as 738 German prisoners of war, some of whom were in the SS division.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) consulted several groups and federal departments for months, but opted not to disclose the identities. “…the documents … are withheld in their entirety,” it said.
Jewish groups criticized the decision, saying the consultation was too limited.
“We are disappointed and are angry that once again the government has made the decision to hide from Canadians the facts surrounding the Nazi war criminals,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of advocacy and policy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
“This entire consultation process was stacked … to ensure this shameful outcome,” he added, noting Nazi war criminals should “never have been allowed” into Canada.
“Canadians deserve transparency.”
B’nai Brith also condemned the decision to keep it secret. “This disgraceful secrecy dishonours survivors of the Holocaust and denies justice,” said Marty York, director of communications. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The Trudeau government earlier said its disclosure would aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“This decision was based on concerns regarding risk of potential harm to international relations and Canadian interests,” LAC spokesperson Richard Provencher said in a statement to the Globe.
A reporter asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on February 2 why the federal government took so long to unseal Part 1. “I think people understand that this … has implications around privacy, around community cohesion, around the kind of country we are,” he said.
“These decisions are ones that are taken responsibly and never lightly.”
As of writing, Canada has yet to successfully prosecute Nazis over war crime charges. According to Blacklock’s Reporter, several prosecutions took place, but all ended in acquittals or stays due to insufficient evidence.
They include Michael Pawlowski, a carpenter accused of killing 410 Jews in Belarus in 1942, and Stephen Reistetter, an autoworker charged with participating in Slovakian Holocaust transports that year.
Radislav Grujicic, a Windsor bookseller, allegedly killed Jews as a Belgrade policeman in 1943.
Alti Rodal, researcher of the report, cautioned the individuals named are alleged to have committed war crimes. “They were not well researched let alone proven in a court,” she told the Globe.
Others later died and were considered too old for prosecution.
Imre Finta, a Toronto restaurateur, died in 2003 at 91. Finta, a former Hungarian police captain, received an acquittal on charges that he transported 8,617 Jews to concentration camps in 1944.
In 2017, Justice Canada said it tried for more than two decades to deport Helmut Oberlander, a Kitchener contractor who served in an Eastern European death squad as an interpreter. He died in 2021 at 97.
Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2024-11-06 16:39:56 -0500What hypocrites the Liberals are! They won’t release the 900 names of Nazis or the names of those influenced by China. Then they have the utter nerve to call their opponents Nazis.
