UCC welcomes judge's comments on war crimes issue (11/29/98)

UCC welcomes judge's comments on war crimes issue

WINNIPEG - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, a national umbrella organization that represents more than 1 million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage, has reacted positively to a recent statement by Justice Jules Deschenes, who headed the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals.

When the report of the Deschenes Commission was published in 1986, Justice Deschenes had recommended that Ottawa either adopt a "made in Canada" solution to the problem of dealing with alleged war criminals, bringing them to trial in Canada under Canadian criminal law, or else denaturalize and deport suspected war criminals.

Speaking recently at a B'nai Brith Canada symposium on "Building History: Legal Memory, Contemporary Judgments" in Ottawa, Mr. Deschenes remarked that, with the benefit of hindsight, and after carefully considering how the government has gone about bringing alleged war criminals found in Canada to justice, he would prefer to see criminal court trials of the accused.

Justice Deschenes noted that the government then made a political decision as to what course of action would be followed.

Recently, and over the protests of the UCC, the Ministry of Justice has opted for utilizing civil denaturalization and deportation procedures. For the state the burden of proof is far less rigorous in civil hearings than in criminal court. Opponents to this change in process cite the lesser burden of proof as unfair to the accused, especially given the seriousness of the allegations, and the financial burden imposed on the defendants.

UCC spokespersons also question the apparently selective focus of War Crimes Unit investigations, which concentrate on alleged Nazi war criminals, while failing to thoroughly investigate allegations about Communist war criminals hiding in Canada.

Judge Deschenes' opinion in favor of criminal court trials, thereby ensuring that a just punishment is meted out to anyone found guilty of having committed a war crime or crime against humanity, was welcomed by the UCC national executive.

"It represents an affirmation of what we have been saying should be done all along. We call upon the Minister of Justice, the Honorable Anne McLellan, to heed this learned judge's counsel on an issue that is of deep and abiding concern to our community," said the UCC's national executive director, Lydia Shawarsky.

Also speaking on behalf of the UCC, Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk noted that "Mr. Deschenes has now added his weight to the position that our community has been articulating for over a decade, namely that all war criminals found in Canada, regardless of their ethnic, religious or racial origins, or the period or place where they committed a crime against humanity or war crime, should be brought to trial in Canada under Canadian criminal law. That's the only fair solution to this alleged problem."

The chairman of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, John B. Gregorovich, commented: "We are delighted that Mr. Deschenes has reminded all Canadians of the fairness of this approach, as compared to what may be the more expeditious, but we believe inherently unjust, process of denaturalization and deportation. We call upon the government and our friends in the Jewish Canadian community to take heed of this distinguished expert's counsel and to join us in pressing for criminal trials of all war criminals found in Canada, including those Communists who escaped here after the second world war and after the collapse of the Soviet empire," he added.

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