The Privacy Rights of Mass Murderers

"The report provides insight into Canada's shameful history of admitting many former Nazis and their collaborators to the country, almost all of whom lived out their lives in Canada undisturbed, without ever having to face justice."

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"The applicant's obligation is to satisfy the court that he is of good character. He is not required to satisfy the court that he, at no time in his past, committed an opprobrious act."

"[While I can appreciate the concern of Jewish Canadians relating to inaction on the presence of war criminals in Canada] it appears to me, on the other hand that it would be most ill-advised for the government to undertake this venture [removal of citizenship from war criminals]."

(Former) Justice Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1967)

The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Canada distinguished itself for posterity during the years of the Second World War when it, along with the United States and most other Western nations declined an opportunity to save European Jews from extermination. It became well known that the Third Reich had established a priority program to rid the world of Jews, and it began the industrialized process of that institutional extermination with the Jews who had lived for centuries in WWII German-occupied Europe. When Germany in its early stages invited Jews to leave, there was no welcome extended to them elsewhere.

“Canada is where the Nazis are. Canada is the unknown haven for Nazis. Everybody knows about Argentina, but nobody knows about Canada.” 

War crimes investigator and private detective Steven Rambam. 1977

Canada's attitude at the time under Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was influenced by his immigration minister, a staunch antisemite, Frederick Blair, who opposed and strictly limited Jewish immigration to Canada was clear. Mackenzie King was pleased to agree. And so was born the legend: 'One is too many'. Post-war, German Nazis fled the record of their past performance under Hitler's rule, hastily leaving for South America in preference to standing trial for their crimes. Canada's quiet motto then might have been 'More would be fine'.

Canada became notorious for its laissez-faire attitude on admitting Nazi war criminals. Recently, a 40-year-old report was newly declassified -- revealing the manner in which Canada handled Nazi war criminals. Canadian bureaucrats, it seemed, understood at the time that politics, not legal positions drove decisions on the harbouring of war criminals. The case of one such criminal stood out as an example, one that former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was engaged with.

A decision was made in 1967 not to extradite a man who had been convicted in the Soviet Union of Nazi war crimes. The revocation of his citizenship and expelling him to the country which found him guilty in absentia failed to materialize, based on advice from Pierre Trudeau, then-minister justice, when the minister of external affairs asked for his advice relating to a man identified only as 'Subject F' in the documents.

The 1985 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada in a version of historian Alti Rodal's report had deleted mention of Mr. Trudeau's involvement in the case until 15 additional pages from the report were released by the present Liberal government, pressed to do so by B'nai Brith Canada and other Jewish groups which had been requesting that be done for decades. B'nai Brith and the Simon Wiesenthal Center renewed the request following an incident in the House of Commons.

On that occasion, when  Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to address Parliament, a Ukrainian war veteran had been invited as a special guest to meet Zelenskyy. Parliamentarians recognized the man's presence with enthusiastic applause. Only later was it discovered to their shame and embarrassment, that the elderly Ukrainian had been one of many volunteers who fought for a Nazi Waffen SS unit in Ukraine. At a time when Ukraine viewed Russia, then an ally of the West, as the enemy and Germany as their saviour.

 

Yaroslav Hunka, a former member of the Waffen-SS, seen sitting in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Photo by The Canadian Press/Patrick Doyle

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated the release of additional documents was made on the decision to balance public interest with privacy. "I think people understand that this is both an important part of the historical record, but also one that has implications around privacy, around community". Unsaid is the reality that within the Canadian-Ukrainian community there are those who venerate the memory of Ukrainians who fought against the Soviets, preferring to cast their lot with Nazi Germany. That is seen in the controversy over the newly-completed, not-yet opened memorial to 'victims of Communism'.

Where names and groups are memorialized, some honoured within the Ukrainian community, but known to be Nazi collaborators; those whose voluntary inclusion in SS units, did not preclude them from murdering Jews and others whom the Third Reich targeted for extermination. The newly-released pages of the report show that the current prime minister's father Pierre Trudeau said Canada should not revoke Subject F's citizenship, when he was asked for his opinion in 1967.

 

This is a cenotaph at Oakville, Ont.’s St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery honouring the Galician Division, which it refers to as the First Ukrainian Division, Ukrainian National Army. It’s one of two monuments in Canada (the other one is in Edmonton) paying homage to a division of the Waffen-SS. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

 

There was no evidence, said Pierre Trudeau, that the citizenship court that handled Subject F's application ever asked about the crimes, nor was there evidence that he knowingly concealed that information. Both can certainly be inferred, however, since to reveal such information would have disqualified the subject's application. Nothing in the Citizenship Act required Subject F  to confess the evil deeds he was involved in, reiterated the elder Trudeau.

There are times when political devices are downright immoral, and this was one of those times. Historian Rodal characterized Trudeau's logic as "highly abstract and contrived", since Subject F had been accused of direct participation in the deaths of thousands of people. A naturalized Canadian, Subject F immigrated from Latvia, convicted in absentia by the Soviet Union in 1965, the case identifying him as the "captain of a firing squad which murdered, 5,128 Jews" in Latvia during the Second World War.

Publicly accusing a Canadian citizen, said Trudeau Sr., convicted in absentia in Russia would strike fear into the heart of any naturalized Canadian, that something they were involved with in their past could become a reason for the government to revoke their citizenship. In actual fact, falsely attesting on a citizenship application or failing to include evidence that can be incriminating is in and of itself grounds for revocation. With Pierre Trudeau's intervention, the government reached the conclusion it could do nothing respecting the allegations against Subject F.

However, soon afterward, lawyers at the Department of External Affairs expressed their displeasure with the decision in a memorandum, wanting to have it reviewed on the basis it was not made for legal reasons, but for political ones. The unredacted pages show that External Affairs believed that requests from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union to extradite four accused or convicted war criminals had been political, designed to embarrass Canada. Even so, they believed the four named were very likely "guilty of having committed atrocities".

Volunteers of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS are sworn in, 1943. As many as 2,000 members of the unit arrived in Canada in the 1950s. Photo courtesy the National Digital Archives of Poland

"In purely legal terms, it is arguable that the government is free to commence revocation proceedings under the Citizenship Act, notwithstanding the Attorney General's opinion."

"It appears to us that the government's decision not to do so is a matter of policy rather than law."

"[Subject F stood out for having been] an ardent Nazi lackey, not only co-operating actively with the occupying German forces but actually serving their Jewish and Gypsy extermination squads." 

Canada's (then) External Affairs Department