Canadian Prime Minister Urged to Approve Six-month Extension of the Deschenes Commission

More than 1,000 people gathered at the Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Synagogue in Cote St. Luc yesterday urging Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to approve a six-month extension for the Deschenes Commission to gather information abroad on suspected war criminals living in Canada.

Irwin Cotler, McGill University law professor and counsel to the Canadian Jewish Congress, told the gathering that the commission, headed by Justice Jules Deschenes, through its activities, has put an end to 40 years of government inaction. The commission was set up last February and ended its hearings last week. Deschenes has already asked for a six-month extension of his mandate to allow lawyers Michael Meighen and Yves Fortier to gather information abroad.

To obtain the best information, Cotler said, the commission has to go wherever the evidence may be found. So far, the commission’s findings have revealed that the government in Ottawa has attempted to obstruct justice over the last 40 years by not going after war criminals in Canada, Cotler said.

“Nazi war criminals in this country haven’t been brought to justice, not because of an absence of legal remedy but because of an absence of political will,” Cotler asserted. “None of us here is saying the law should be bent to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, but the law should equally not be bent to prevent Nazi war criminals from being brought to justice in this country. That is an obstruction of Justice.”

Cotler added that secret government documents recently uncovered show that high officials had advised the former government of John Diefenbaker, which ruled from 1957 to 1963, against hunting for Nazi war criminals because this would be seen “as pandering to Jewish revenge.” This, Cotler charged, is a classic example of blaming the victim. “Our position then and now is that it is not a Jewish revenge issue, but a human rights issue,” he said.