The names of over 900 suspected Nazi war criminals who immigrated to Canada after World War II will not be made public, the Trudeau administration declared.
The names on the list were gathered from RCMP records and other private documents as part of the war crimes commission headed by retired Superior Court of Quebec Justice Jules Deshcenes in 1986.
Earlier this year, a "discrete group of individuals or organizations" and anonymous members of Canada's Ukrainian community were consulted by Ottawa-based Library and Archives Canada regarding whether the names should be made public The conflict was over. The documents were eventually withheld "in their entirety" by the LAC.Screenshot_20241111-092121.png
Given that many Ukrainian Waffen SS veterans emigrated to Canada after those meetings, some administrators believed that making the list public would be too embarrassing for the nation.
Concerns that such data might be used for Russian propaganda were also raised by individuals surveyed.
The Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada report included members of the Nazi-led Ukrainian SS Galicia division.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre and B'nai Brith, two Jewish advocacy groups, strongly objected to the news that the names would be kept anonymous.
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The chief legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada, David Matas, has been fighting for full access for decades, but they have encountered constant delays and obstruction. Canada is preventing the public from accessing hundreds of Nazi war criminal files. Justice is denied and survivors are dishonoured by this shameful secret," the group stated.
In a post to X, Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of activism and policy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, wrote, "I am absolutely disgusted by the government's decision to continue to conceal the truth about the Nazi war criminals who moved to Canada and enjoyed total impunity."
"What a terrible insult to those who were harmed by their savage actions. What a belittling to our wonderful veterans.
When Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the House of Commons last September, Waffen-SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka was given a standing ovation, bringing this tragic chapter of history back to the forefront and garnering international attention.
Later, House Speaker Anthony Rota resigned over the event, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chastised him for his invitation.
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