By Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
A list of Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada after the Second World War is facing increasing pressure to be kept from the public, as some bureaucrats feel it would be embarrassing for the country, despite the list including around 900 names.
Ottawa-based Library and Archives Canada held consultations with unnamed members of Canada’s Ukrainian community and a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” regarding whether the names should be made public, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.
Some of those present in the consultation claimed that releasing the information would be embarrassing and could lead to the alleged war criminals being prosecuted.
“A few stakeholders were concerned that the release of the report would result in new legal action (criminal prosecution, citizen revocation, or otherwise) being brought against the individuals named in the report,” read the documents.
However, among those who weren’t consulted were Holocaust survivors and scholars, the ones who had initially advocated for a full release of the list of alleged Nazi war criminals.
Canada’s oldest Human Rights organization B’nai Brith took issue with LAC’s decision to withhold such information, seeing it as further “sheltering suspected Nazi war criminals from prosecution.”
“B’nai Brith has and will continue to advocate for all the available information related to allegations of Nazi war criminals entering Canada to be released to the public,” Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith told True North.
“Canadian Jewry have a right to know how their own government was complicit in the sheltering of suspected Nazi war criminals from potential prosecution. The concerns raised during the LAC’s consultations do not mitigate the need for a full and expedient disclosure.”
According to the documents obtained, the stakeholders advised LAC not to release the list, fearing it would embarrass Canada’s Ukrainian community as large cohorts of Ukrainian Waffen SS soldiers fled to Canada following the Second World War.
Additionally. stakeholders cited worries that such information could be repurposed for Russian propaganda.