(Ottawa) Canada could look into the request of certain groups who want the government to declassify documents containing information on the presence of Nazi war criminals in Canada, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday.
“Canada has a very dark history with the Nazis in Canada,” said Mr. Miller, before the weekly meeting of the Liberal caucus.
“There was a time in our history when it was easier to enter Canada as a Nazi than as a Jew. I think it’s a story that we need to reconcile,” he added.
Many Jewish organizations in Canada say that doing this requires making information public, meaning that all records Canada has on the presence of war criminals must be made public.
“I think part of the problem is that the files are closed,” David Matas, B’nai Brith’s lead attorney, said in an interview.
“You can’t remember the past without knowing the past, and you can’t know the past without getting the records. »
The Deschênes Commission
B’nai Brith Canada and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center both reiterated their long-standing calls this week for the government to make public all documents relating to the admission of former Nazi soldiers.
This includes the entirety of a 1986 report from a public commission on war criminals, often called the Deschênes Commission after the judge who headed it.
The report was never released in its entirety, including an appendix containing the names of 240 suspected Nazi war criminals who may be living in Canada and whom the report recommended Canada investigate.
“Now is the time for Ottawa to not only release the unredacted files relating to the Deschênes Commission, but also address the harsh reality that former Nazis with blood on their hands still live in Canada,” said the president of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Michael Levitt.
Mr. Matas recalled that in June, a House of Commons commission charged with studying Canada’s access to information system recommended that all historical documents be made public in their entirety after 25 years.
He said implementing this recommendation would respond to the desire to see the files of Canadian war criminals.
Currently, records can be released 20 years after a person’s death. But Mr. Matas argues that this rule did not apply in this case, because information about dead people is only accessible if their names are available.
According to him, it is not that all the people cited in the files are guilty, but the judicial system is based on openness, and there is no justice without transparency, whether one is guilty or innocent.
Furthermore, the public has very little information, if any, on the follow-up of the investigations carried out into the alleged war criminals cited in the Deschênes report, or on the bringing to justice of one of them. between them.
A controversy that revives the debate
All this comes after what some have called the most embarrassing international debacle in Canadian history.
During an official visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, the House speaker greeted a guest in the gallery whom he identified as a war hero.
Parliamentarians and dignitaries in attendance gave a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian veteran a standing ovation twice, without knowing or understanding that the unit he fought with had been formed by Nazi Germany to fight against the Soviet Union.
President Anthony Rota, who said he did not know Yaroslav Hunka’s background, apologized for having made a serious mistake in inviting him to Parliament. He announced Tuesday that he was resigning from his position.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of Canada and all parliamentarians for this debacle.
According to Mr. Matas, this outcry has rekindled the debate on the relevance of making public documents concerning the presence of war criminals in Canada.
“I think this issue is now in the crosshairs of the authorities,” he said. They pay attention to it. »
Mr. Miller mentioned reading the Deschênes report twice since all this happened, and he encouraged all Canadians to do so.
He also said he knew many people were calling for the records to be released, and that the government “may possibly revisit the issue.”
However, because he does not know exactly what the documents contain, he would not say whether he is in favor of their full disclosure.
“But again, in a country like Canada that not only has a difficult history with the Nazis in Canada, but also one of the largest diasporas of Jews, including some of the largest proportions of Holocaust survivors , impunity is absolutely not an option,” he said.
Mental Health Minister Ya’ara Saks, whose Toronto riding of York Center has about a fifth of its population Jewish, said Canada needs to look at what it can do to help Jewish Canadians get answers and turn the page.
She said that opening the files was a solution to consider.