Canada must not be safe haven for war criminals: genocide survivors

CANADA: Canada must crack down on "enablers" of war crimes, strip them of their citizenship and deport them immediately, groups touched by genocides said Tuesday, pointing to six suspected Nazis living here.

The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa joined by representatives of local Armenian, Roma and Rwandan communities, representing victims of genocide, called on Ottawa to kick out six seniors who lied about their Nazi past to immigrate to Canada.

Their aim, the group said at a news conference, is to prevent Canada from becoming a haven for perpetrators or enablers of war crimes.

"In Canada, too little has been done to bring to justice those who enabled the Nazi machinery of death," said Ian Sadinsky of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.

"Canada should offer no haven for the enablers of genocide. Killing machines depend not only on the hands that guide them, but also on the cogs that move and mesh and yield death as their product."

The six men, all over 80 years old, have never been accused of war crimes. But, Canadian tribunals found that each had misrepresented their wartime activities in order to gain entry to Canada.

They include a translator for a Nazi mobile killing unit, alleged Nazi collaborators and former guards at SS forced labour camps.

Their cases are mired in legal proceedings, awaiting a final decision by Canada's immigration minister, or were seemingly abandoned.

"As the decades have passed, time and natural death have been far more effective than the Government in dealing with such individuals," explained Bernie Farber, chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

"The legal system of Canada has been engaged in these matters. The courts have determined that these men gained citizenship through fraudulent means. Yet they remain. It's shameful," he said.

"What is required now is an act of political will on the part of the Federal Government."

Canada Border Services Agency said 42 people were stripped of their Canadian citizenship and deported over war crimes or involvement in crimes against humanity in fiscal 2004-2005, the latest figures.

Another 385 potential war criminals were prevented from reaching Canada and 79 were refused refugee protection that year.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police war crimes unit meanwhile has over two dozen investigations ongoing, officials said.

And in mid-January a Canadian judge travelled to Kigali to hear from witnesses in Canada's first war crimes prosecution under its new War Crimes Act.

AFP