Deschenes Commission comes under fire by "Fifth Estate" (04/07/96)

Deschenes Commission comes under fire by "Fifth Estate"

by Andrij Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - The findings and methods of Canada's Royal Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in the country headed by Justice Jules Deschenes came under fire in a report titled "Ratline to Canada," a segment of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s weekly newsmagazine "The Fifth Estate."

Aired on March 12 and 17 in the program's Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening timeslots, the segment focused on the presence in Canada of the now-deceased Radislav Grujicic, accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity while heading a special police unit in Nazi-occupied Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia.

In his introduction, "Fifth Estate" reporter Linden MacIntyre charged that Canada's security officials conspired to slip the man into the country after World War II and protected him from prosecution since.

Later in the program, Mr. MacIntyre alleged that "in the end, the Deschenes Commission may have concealed more than it exposed." The CBC reporter referred to the work of commission historical researcher Alti Rodal, who studied allegations that Canada's "political and bureaucratic machinery" aided the entry of war criminals into Canada.

Mr. MacIntyre said, "Alti Rodal has confirmed to 'The Fifth Estate' that she was explicitly discouraged from investigating the role of intelligence agencies in the movement of Nazis after the war. What she did learn was heavily censored."

The CBC reporter related that Ms. Rodal had gone to John Loftus for assistance. Mr. Loftus, a former attorney with the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations of the presence of alleged war criminals in his country, makes the "Ratline" program's strongest allegation on camera.

Prompted by Mr. MacIntyre, who said, "To take that at face value, the Deschenes Commission was a waste of time," Mr. Loftus replies, "No it was worse than a waste of time. It was a fraud. It stopped legitimate investigations into Nazis in Canada."

John Gregorovich, chairman of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, reached by the The Weekly for a comment on the accusation, responded. "I think it's disgraceful that the CBC and 'The Fifth Estate' would allow someone to say that a Royal Commission in this country is corrupt," he said. "They're spreading disinformaton."

Mr. Gregorovich turned the table on Mr. Loftus's accusations, referring to the judicial censure the OSI's investigators incurred. He added that such statements are part of Mr. Loftus's habit of "scaremongering" in order to "raise money from a gullible public."

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