The Canadian government will amend the Criminal Code to allow suspected Nazi war criminals to be tried in Canada for crimes committed elsewhere, as recommended by the Deschenes Commission. But it rejected another recommendation by the Commission to facilitate the extradition or deportation of war criminals to other countries, mainly West Germany and Israel.
“Rather than dumping war criminals on other countries, we should have the maturity and strength to face the issue in Canada,” Justice Minister Ray Hnatshyn said after the Deschenes Commission’s report was presented to the House of Commons last Thursday.
The report, the result of more than a year’s investigation of Nazi war criminals living in Canada by the one-man Commission of former Quebec Superior Court Justice Jules Deschenes, was submitted to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney last December 31. It was amended twice at the government’s request before being given to Parliament last week. Only selected portions were made public.
SATISFACTION WITH THE REPORT
Leaders of both the Jewish and Ukrainian communities in Canada expressed satisfaction with the report and its proposals. The Jewish community considers the prosecution of war criminals in Canadian courts an important step forward in the advancement of justice.
The 700,000-member Ukrainian community and others of Eastern European and Baltic origin are satisfied and relieved that extradition or deportation have been virtually ruled out.
Jewish reaction was expressed by Irwin Cotler, a McGill University law professor and legal advisor to the Canadian Jewish Congress. He said on radio and television interviews over the weekend that the federal government’s decision to prosecute war criminals was an important accomplishment.
It took 40 years before the government recognized that “there is no room in a democratic society for war criminals and Canada must never become a safe haven for those monstrous crimes,” Cotler said.
Emil Grigoroviech, president of the Canadian Ukrainian Committee, also had kind words for the Commission’s report. The Ukrainians are pleased because Deschenes specifically rejected a charge by the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center that many members of the Galicia SS Division, which included large numbers of Ukrainian nationalists, were guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“We have asked the Wiesenthal Center to submit evidence beyond doubt, but they could not show us such evidence,” Judge Deschenes said in his report.
But despite public statements to the contrary, some Ukrainian leaders are displeased with the report and have expressed their feelings by direct attacks on Jews. Conservative Party MP William Lessick of Edmonton, Alberta, was quoted in a newspaper interview as saying “The Ukrainians suffered more than the Jews and the Jews don’t have a Simon-pure war record.”
He added, “The Ukrainian Holocaust was a greater one, if you want to call it a Holocaust, than the Jewish Holocaust. And who did Stalin put in chap,” Lessick said, referring apparently to Stalin’s Minister of Industry, Lazar Moiseevitch Kaganovitch.
Sol Litmann, Canadian representative of the Wiesenthal Center, called Lessick’s remarks “an essentially anti-Semitic position that pits Ukrainians against Jews.” Cotler expressed the same view. “It is this kind of statement that raises tension between the communities … this is not an ethnic issue and cannot be seen in that perspective,” he said.
There is considerale evidence nonetheless that the government acted under pressure from the Ukrainian and Baltic communities in Canada, which number over a million, when it rejected extradition.
The Deschenes Commission stated that it “found strong evidence against 20 people as Nazi war criminals living in Canada” and further investigation was warranted in the cases of 238 others. None of the suspects was identified by name in the public report.
Official Jewish circles are urging the government to act swiftly to initiate legal action against the suspects. They noted that some 21 suspected war criminals left Canada for unknown destinations since the Deschenes Commission began its work at the end of 1985.
Liberal Party MP Robert Kaplan, a former Solicitor General, warned in the House of the 20 prime suspects to flee the country before prosecution is begun. “It is absolutely essential that we do not let them slip through the fingers of justice in this country because time is slipping by,” Kaplan said.
MP Svend Robinson of the New Democratic Party urged the Justice Minister to get the required legislation through Parliament “within a matter of weeks.” He also called for further study of extradition or deportation as an alternative to domestic prosecution.
Dorothy Reitman, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, commended the Deschenes Commission. “We are gratified by the stated intention of the government to bring war criminals to justice and make them answer for their crimes,” she said.
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