The federal government is refusing to disclose a confidential list of 20 suspected Nazi fugitives who arrived in Canada after World War II. In 1985, a federal war crimes commission led by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jules Deschenes compiled the list. The public report identified about 200 unnamed suspects, but there was also a secret report that listed 20 accused Nazis and provided recommendations for prosecution. The Access to Information Act has kept this list secret.
During a scrum on September 27, a reporter asked Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani if he supported reopening the Deschenes report. Mr. Virani responded by saying that he supports bringing war criminals or individuals who have committed crimes against humanity or genocide to justice. When asked about reopening the report, he emphasized that there is an existing process in Canada and room to learn about gross human rights violations worldwide, including investments in Holocaust awareness.
B’nai Brith, in a submission to the Commons ethics committee on February 14, insisted that the secret list should be published. On September 29, B’nai Brith and 18 other human rights groups, including Friends of Simon Wiesenthal, called for the release of the historical records. Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated that he is unaware of the contents of the second report and supports the demands for its release.
Canada has never successfully prosecuted any individuals for Nazi-era war crimes. In 2017, the Department of Justice had a single case involving Helmut Oberlander, a Kitchener contractor who had been an interpreter with an Eastern European death squad. Oberlander resisted deportation for over two decades before passing away in 2021 at the age of 97. Other defendants have included Michael Pawlowski, a carpenter from Renfrew, Ontario, accused of killing 410 Jews in Belarus in 1942, and Stephen Reistetter, an autoworker from St. Catharines, charged with participating in Holocaust transports in Slovakia in 1942. Imre Finta, a restaurateur from Toronto, was acquitted on charges of participating in Holocaust transports of 8,617 Jews as a Hungarian police captain in 1944. The Supreme Court upheld Finta’s acquittal in 1994, stating that defenses of obedience to superior orders and the peace officer’s defense are available to members of the military or police forces in prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Finta passed away in 2003 at the age of 91.