Ukrainian organization protests Wiesenthal Center's mail solicitations

Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association

CALGARY - Representatives of the Ukrainian Self Reliance League (USRL) of Canada have formally protested to Canada's Minister of National Revenue, Herb Dhaliwal about unsolicited bulk mail solicitation for donations by the Toronto-based Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which lists itself as having Canadian Charitable Registration No. 0567586-21-27.

Recently, members of the USRL and other Ukrainian Canadians have received correspondence from the Wiesenthal Center which claims that thousands of Ukrainians who were members of the Ukrainian Division Galicia during the second world war and who allegedly slaughtered Jews in that period, are now living comfortably in Canada.

The Wiesenthal Center's literature makes no mention of the fact that members of this division were screened by Canadian, British, American and Soviet officials just after the war and that, in 1986, Canada's Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, headed by Justice Jules Deschenes, reviewed their status and again cleared the unit of any complicity in war crimes.

More recently, Canada's Minister of Justice Anne McLellan herself acknowledged in correspondence with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association that there is no evidence that would merit the commencement of court proceedings against any member of the Galicia Division.

The USRL's president, Edmonton lawyer Eugene Harasymiw, has asked that the Minister of National Revenue explain how the distribution of "hate literature" of this type by the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center can be defined as "charitable." The USRL has also called for the revocation of the Friends of the Wiesenthal Center's charitable status in Canada. Mr. Harasymiw likewise recommended that the minister of justice formally investigate the Wiesenthal group's activities to determine if they have indeed been distributing "hate literature" through the Canadian postal system.

Commenting, UCCLA Chairman J. B. Gregorovich, said: "We believe in free speech. If the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wish to continue to mouth nonsense about the Ukrainian Division Galicia there is nothing we can do about that, but we fail to see how that kind of activity can ever be considered charitable. We find the literature being distributed by this group to be mendacious, malicious and, worse: it specifically targets an identifiable group within Canadian society for opprobrium and contempt."

He continued: "It is hard to understand why the minister of justice would not find this material to be a species of hate literature. We certainly expect Mr. Dhaliwal to revoke this group's charitable tax number. There is a well-funded federal War Crimes Unit whose purpose it is to investigate whether there are any war criminals in Canada and to prosecute those against whom there is compelling evidence of wartime complicity in atrocities."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 24, 1999, No. 4, Vol. LXVII

| Home Page |