Canada strips citizenship of Nazi collaborators

Canada has stripped the citizenship of two men who hid their pasts as wartime Nazi collaborators when they came to Canada more than half a century ago. Helmut Oberlander, who was part of a Nazi extermination squad responsible for mass executions of Jews, and Jacob Fast, who collaborated with a Nazi unit that executed Jews in Ukraine, now face deportation hearings. The two are about 83 and 96 years of age respectively. Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, called the development “”very welcome news” that would send “a strong message to modern-day war criminals who might have sought Canada as a safe haven.” David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, urged the government to deport the pair quickly and to make progress on a backlog of other suspected war criminals, from the Nazi era to the present, who are hiding in Canada. “This is an important and decisive step in what must be an ongoing, consistent process of bringing war criminals to justice in this country,” Matas said. “We hope that the government will demonstrate its continued resolve and turn its attention to the 246 estimated World War II cases, and 100 cases of modern-day war criminals, currently under investigation.”