Last week, CTV reported that Citizenship and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe plans to apply for Cabinet approval to strip 5 elderly WW II veterans of their citizenship and have them deported for alleged war crimes. This would be in opposition to the stand of the Citizenship and Immigration Standing Committee headed by M.P. Andrew Telegdi (Liberal). This move was started by former Minister, Judy Sgro who had to resign her position because of two scandals.
"I have spoken to Minister Volpe a few times since the CTV item came out and he has no intention to deal with this until the fall, when all the facts are in," said Borys Wrzesnewskyj M.P. (Liberal, Etobicoke Centre) who has been following this closely on the Standing Committee and for the Ukrainian community. He adds, "All who were heard by the Standing Committee, and others, were unanimous in their opposition to the deportations. That will affect the result."
The big issue for the Jewish community has been that only one person, Jacob Luitens from the Netherlands, has been deported for war crimes. “The specific role the men played in the German war effort is not so important as the system their work made possible," said Bernie Farber, President of the Canadian Jewish Congress. The same argument, however, can be made regarding the Jewish helpers in the concentration camps, who were forgiven because they were forced under duress to perform their duties.
Telegdi, the former Parliamentary Assisstant to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration who resigned his post in protest earlier has vigorously opposed the stripping of citizenship and deportation through political means, not courts, as unconstitutional.
Helmut Oberlander, now in his late seventies, was a 17 year old German living in Ukraine when he was recruited as a translator for the Einsatskommando, a German unit responsible for the deaths of about 60,000 persons. He was accused of lying about his war record when he entered Canada. Oberlander maintained he was never asked about his war service when he entered Canada in 1954. His citizenship was revoked in 2001, because "he was probably asked.” His citizenship was reinstated later because of the flimsiness of his accusation.
CTV sources report that the ministry will try to remove the citizenship of alleged Nazi collaborators Jacob Fast and Vladimir Katriuk as well as alleged SS member Michael Baumgartner and alleged labour camp guard Wasyl Odynsky.
In a Toronto Sun article Peter Worthington quoted Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal: " All existing war criminals (Nazis) that affected the policies of wartime Germany have either been brought to justice or have died. " The big question has always been why the Jewish community hasn't brought these alleged people to justice sooner, when witnesses (from both prosecution and defense) were still alive.
A retired CBC producer, director points out that Pope Benedict XVI might be deported, with citizenship revoked, had he lived in Canada, thanks to his conscripted teenage service in the German air force...