Canada may revoke the citizenship of anyone who lied about commiting war crimes when applying for immigrant status in Canada, Solicitor General Robert Kaplan told the Justice Committee in Parliament yesterday.
He said, “This is a totally domestic method of dealing with bringing war criminals to justice in Canada.” The option could be used in cases where the Canadian government has not received an extradition request from another country or where the country making such a request does not have a democratic system providing for fair trial, Kaplan explained. He was referring to repeated extradition requests by the Soviet Union for alleged Nazi war criminals living in Canada.
Robert Simmonds, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), told the committee that he and other members of the national police force have visited foreign countries to collect information to support extradition requests or moves to revoke Canadian citizenship. He said the RCMP has found enough evidence in “a couple of cases” to recommend that citizenship be revoked. Neither Simmonds nor Kaplan would disclose the identities of the Canadian citizens under investigation as alleged war criminals.
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