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

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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.

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“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.

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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.

Some of the individuals and organizations consulted by LAC argued against releasing any of the information, warning it could be embarrassing or lead to prosecutions of the alleged war criminals. Other stakeholders who advised LAC worried the list would embarrass Canada’s Ukrainian community or be used by Russians for propaganda purposes, the records show.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Vladimir Putin tried to justify the incursion as a “denazification” of the Ukrainian government.

Jewish groups have been pushing for the list to be made public as well as for the federal government to release RCMP files on the alleged Nazi war criminals.

The Deschenes Commission determined that claims that large numbers of war criminals snuck into Canada were exaggerated. But inquiry researchers also determined that because of inadequate government screening after the war “it would be rash to assume that significant numbers of war criminals and Nazi collaborators did not enter Canada.”

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The commission did not conduct separate detailed investigations into the hundreds of individuals alleged to be war criminals.

At the time, Deschenes stated part of his report would be remain confidential.

In his fundraising plea, Michalchyshyn noted the UCC has to act fast since a federal government decision on whether to release the names is expected shortly. “When the announcement is made, we will have to be ready to go to the Federal Court challenging the Government’s authority to ignore Justice Deschenes ruling on confidentiality,” he stated. “To do so, we need to prepare now.”

Michalchyshyn stated in an email to the Ottawa Citizen that the UCC position has always been that no war criminal should ever find safe haven in Canada. “All alleged war criminals, regardless of their ethnic, religious, racial or cultural origin, or where or when they committed their crimes should be brought to trial in Canada under Canadian criminal law,” he added. “If evidence of wartime criminality by any person found in Canada exists, that information must be communicated to the proper authorities for investigation.”

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Professor Jared McBride, a U.S.-based specialist on Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, said researchers using now declassified American government records and other material have already compiled a list of 275 war criminals likely contained in the Canadian records. More names are expected to be added through additional research in the fall.

“Whether LAC likes it or not, these names are going to be released to the public,” said McBride, who was a fellow with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

McBride also questioned the Canadian government’s continued secrecy surrounding the issue of suspected Nazi war criminals. “Instead of moving toward a path of openness and transparency about its record on allowing war criminals into the country and its failure to prosecute them, the Canadian government held a secret meeting to discuss the secret names from the secret report from 40 years ago that still has not seen the light of day,” he pointed out. “Moreover, they invited to this meeting the same people who helped to keep the report under wraps four decades ago.”

Much of the renewed debate around Nazi collaborators in Canada was prompted by a September 2023 event in which MPs of all parties gave two standing ovations to Yaroslav Hunka, a resident of North Bay, Ont. Hunka was described by then House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota as a hero and he was thanked for his military service.

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But news quickly emerged that Hunka had served in a Ukrainian Waffen SS unit which fought for the Nazis. Large numbers of soldiers from a Ukrainian Waffen SS division came to Canada after the war.

The incident became an international embarrassment for Canada as Holocaust historians, Jewish groups and the Polish government pointed out that Hunka’s unit had been involved in war crimes, including massacres of women and children. The division was also used by the Nazis to crush a national uprising in Slovakia, again prompting allegations of war crimes.

There is no evidence Hunka, now 99, was directly involved in those incidents.

But the sight of MPs cheering on a Waffen SS veteran caused intense anger among Canadians, according to documents obtained in June by the Ottawa Citizen using Canada’s access to information law.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, subscribe: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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