Ukrainian Canadians protest cartoon published in The Globe and Mail

TORONTO - Members of the Ukrainian Canadian community reacted with dismay to a cartoon published on July 23 on page A7 of the national edition of The Globe and Mail. The cartoon, depicting a hand decorated with a swastika and raised in a Nazi salute is captioned: "All those opposed to increased funding for war-criminal deportation, please raise their hand ..."

Speaking on behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a non-profit, educational group, its chairman, John B. Gregorovich, said: "This cartoon defames the many hundreds of thousands of Canadians, of many ethnic, religious and racial origins, who have raised legitimate and serious concerns about the government's use of denaturalization and deportation as a means for removing alleged war criminals from Canada."

"For over a decade we have maintained that any alleged war criminal found in Canada should be brought to justice here, in a Canadian criminal court, where the rules of evidence are strict. Being quite unable to prove that there are indeed any Nazi war criminals in Canada, the government has instead opted for the expedient and less rigorous procedures involved in an immigration hearing," he added.

"To characterize those who object to these kinds of proceedings, as the national newspaper's cartoonist has done, is outrageous, indefensible and, in our view, a species of hate-mongering and group defamation that should be dealt with very sternly," concluded Mr. Gregorovich.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 16, 1998, No. 33, Vol. LXVI

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