Ukrainian group plans court challenge to prevent release of names of alleged Nazi war criminals

Top Nazi leaders faced war crimes trials after the Second World War but many others who took part in the Holocaust went unpunished. The Canadian government is examining whether to release a list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals that was compiled in 1986 by the Deschênes Commission. Photo by US National Archives
by David Pugliese  •  Ottawa Citizen

(September 6) – The Ukrainian Canadian Congress says it plans to go to court to stop the federal government from making public the names of alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to this country.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress or UCC is now circulating a letter asking for donations to finance the proposed legal challenge in federal court.

The organization, which states that it represents the Canadian-Ukrainian community, wants to raise $150,000, according to a copy of the Aug. 28 letter obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

“It is appalling that the Canadian government could attempt for no good reason to subject innocent Canadians, their family members and descendants to public scorn,” wrote Ihor Michalchyshyn, CEO and executive director of the UCC in his fundraising plea.

A number of the alleged war criminals on the federal government list are believed to be originally from Ukraine or other eastern European nations.

At issue are documents created by a 1986 federal government war-crimes commission led by Justice Jules Deschenes. One of the documents is titled “Master List of alleged war criminals resident in Canada with a list of sources.” It contains 774 names. Other records held by the inquiry included additional names of alleged war criminals as well as Nazi scientists and technicians who came to Canada. The total number is around 900.

The records have been requested under Canada’s access to Information law and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in Ottawa still has to decide whether to release the documents.

LAC consulted in June and July with what it called a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” about whether the list should be made public, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

Those consulted included members of Canada’s Ukrainian community. But LAC did not include Holocaust survivors nor Holocaust scholars who had advocated for a full release of the list of alleged Nazi war criminals, Jewish and Holocaust academics say.

Click here to continue reading this article by David Pugliese that was published by Ottawa Citizen on Sept. 6.

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