The identification and prosecution of war criminals in Canada, including those from World War II, is the responsibility of the War Crimes Program. This is a federal program resulting from a partnership between four federal agencies: the RCMPthe Department of Justice, Immigration and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency.

“As it becomes increasingly unlikely that prosecutions of crimes committed during World War II will be successful, the program has recently placed an emphasis on citizenship revocation.”points to the war crimes program in a report published in 2008.

Beginning in 1994, the Canadian government began favoring citizenship revocation over criminal prosecution after several former Nazi fighters, including Imre Finta and Stephen Reistetter, were acquitted in absentia “sufficient evidence”.

One of the most famous cases of Nazi war criminals extradited from Canada is that of Ukrainian-born former SS sergeant Michael Seifert. Nickname: “Executioner of Bolzano”Michael Seifert commanded the Bozen prisoner transit camp in northern Italy from June 1944 to April 1945.

Unlike European countries, Canada “Required the highest level of evidence to prove that these individuals had actually collaborated with the Nazis, which made a verdict very difficult.”says Efraim Zuroff.

The case ofHelmut Oberlander clearly illustrates the slowness of the process. As a former member of a Nazi commando, his Canadian citizenship was revoked in 2012, but he had challenged his extradition in court several times. This former Waterloo, Ontario resident ultimately died in September 2021, while the legal story never led to his extradition to Germany.

Arriving in Canada in 1954, Oberlander became a Canadian citizen six years later without ever revealing his military past to Canadian authorities.

Canada is a hopeless case, it’s shameful. [Les autorités] They must recognize that their efforts are deplorable and they must learn the necessary lessons to never make the same mistakes again.

Efraïm Zuroff, Director of the Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs, Simon Wiesenthal Center

According to Pierre Anctil, a specialist in Jewish culture and history professor at the University of Ottawa, a new investigation into World War II war criminals would lead to a new direction “very few results” today, especially due to the deaths of several contemporary witnesses.

“We achieved absolutely nothing with the Deschênes Commission in the 1980s, so it would be surprising if we did better today.”he told Radio-Canada, claiming that former Nazi fighters in Canada came to the country in the 1950s “under false pretenses.”.

“It is therefore not so easy to prove, several decades later, that this or that person was in such and such a regiment at such and such a time and that he or she is therefore a person who committed war crimes.”, adds Mr. Anctil.

According to him, “Each case should have been assessed individually, and the Canadian government was unable to do that at the time.”.

After the war, many immigrants appeared at the country’s gates, many of them anti-communists, and the Canadian government was relatively lenient towards people fighting against the Soviet Union.

Pierre Anctil, professor of history at the University of Ottawa

Now Canada is called upon to do so “ensure clear conditions” It commemorates the severity of the abuses committed by the Nazis during World War II.

An appeal supported by the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA) confirming Friday’s controversy once again underlines the importance of communicating the history of the Second World War.

Canada has never fully come to terms with the fact that Nazi fighters immigrated and live quiet lives in our communities, despite the atrocities with which they may have been associated.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations

The organization is also calling on the Canadian government to do the same “Direct the Canadian War Crimes Program to review and consider any new evidence uncovered through the release of new documents.” to convict suspected war criminals currently living in Canada.

The Justice Department responds

“All allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes are taken seriously and it is the responsibility of the program.” [sur les crimes de guerre] “to clarify all allegations of this kind.”the Federal Ministry of Justice announced by email.

“Since the early 1980s, the Canadian government has become active in cases of Nazi war crimes committed during World War II. In total, the government acted in 27 cases.”a spokesman for the ministry continued.

The ministry specifies this“These included prosecutions, extraditions, revocation actions in the Federal Court of Canada and deportation proceedings. The government has succeeded in obtaining judicial determinations of fraudulent acquisition of Canadian citizenship in most cases.”.