Canadian Government moves against two Ukrainians (03/02/97)

Canadian Government moves against two Ukrainians

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - On February 25, the Canadian government named Ukrainian Canadian Serhiy Kisluk, 74, of St. Catharines, Ontario, as one of the suspected Nazi collaborators it will attempt to strip of citizenship and deport.

According to a report carried by the Southam News agency, the Justice Department's war crimes unit filed documents in Federal Court, accusing Mr. Kisluk of participating "in the commission of atrocities against members of the civilian population" in Ukraine while a member of the German-organized Ukrainian Auxiliary police, known as Schutzmannschaften, in the Turiysk region (about 100 miles north of Lviv) in 1941-1943; and of failing to divulge his true activities during the war while applying for Canadian citizenship.

Informed of the government's plans to move against him in December, Mr. Kisluk retained Toronto lawyer and community activist Orest Rudzik and has officially given notice he intends to challenge the denaturalization proceedings.

The Southam piece quoted Mr. Rudzik as saying, "I'd like to see what's been issued and what exact allegations they're presenting."

In January 1996, Justice Minister Allan Rock pledged to have 12 war crimes deportation cases before the courts within a year, including the four that had been initiated at the time, and Mr. Kisluk's is the ninth to date.

On November 1, 1996, another Ukrainian Canadian, Volodymyr Katriuk, 75, of Rosemont, Quebec, became the target of government proceedings, the seventh case. Subsequent articles in the Montreal Gazette daily mentioned a 1987 Soviet TASS news agency report condemning Mr. Katriuk for having participated in the killings of over 4,000 people in Belarus.

In a Canadian Press item of November 1, 1996, Mr. Katriuk was quoted as saying, "I'm an innocent man. ... [The government] think they have proof against me ... I doubt it."

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