NEWS AND VIEWS: Of citizens and rights in Canada: a tale of two different classes (01/30/05)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Of citizens and rights in Canada: a tale of two different classes

by Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk

There are only two of them. One is alive, the other long dead. Recently both have been in the news.

The living one caught our attention as he was lamenting a death, his son's, lost to the scourge of AIDS. The other was remembered on the day his life began to end, 60 years ago, January 17, 1945.

What ties these men - Nelson Mandela and Raoul Wallenberg - together is that both were distinguished by being made honorary Canadian citizens. Wallenberg posthumously, in 1985, Mandela in person, in 2001.

Now, once upon a time, Mr. Mandela admired Stalin, the very tyrant whose men murdered Wallenberg. But that moot punctilio should perhaps be left behind, for Mandela was also distinguished, in 1999, with Ukraine's highest decoration, the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise. If Ukraine can forgive one of Stalin's apologists, who am I to quibble?

But Canadian citizenship is another matter. It's precious. If you have it by birth, as I do, you enjoy certain inalienable rights. If, on the other hand, you became a Canadian through naturalization I shall now dispel a misconception you likely have. You are not my equal.

This will, of course, be unwelcome news for the millions who came from elsewhere and elected to become Canadians. But it is a fact. If you weren't born here you are a second-class citizen. Sorry.

What do I mean? Well let me tell you what is happening to one of your kind, a Torontonian. His name is Wasyl Odynsky. During the war he was press-ganged into serving the Nazi occupation in Ukraine. He never hurt anyone, was, in fact, revolted by what he saw. Ukraine lost more of its population than any other country in Nazi-occupied Europe - a fact still not widely understood.

Like many others, Mr. Odynsky sought a better life. No one asked what he did in the war when he immigrated in 1949. He has been a Canadian for over half a century and, all accounts agree, an exemplary citizen for all that time.

Then, a few years ago, they made him a target. Supposedly all post-war immigrants were screened, perfectly, and any who served the Nazis, even if under duress, were kept out. Because the relevant files were destroyed however, decades ago, no one can prove whether or not Mr. Odynsky lied. Nevertheless, based on a "balance of probabilities" argument, this senior citizen has been slated for denaturalization and deportation. And that despite the fact that a federal court judge, Andrew MacKay, found Mr. Odynsky had never been a Nazi, harmed no one in the war and has been a good Canadian.

If the worst thing Mr. Odynsky did was lie at our gates, is casting him out a fitting punishment? Assuming you think it is, shouldn't the same penalty be applied to others who committed the very same offense?

Government officials have confirmed that Canada screened out not only alleged Nazis but Communist collaborators, too. Yet, over the past several years, veterans of the NKVD, SMERSH and KGB - Soviet secret police organs responsible for mass murder, even genocide - have been found in Canada, largely because some of them, obligingly arrogant, wrote books and even gave interviews boasting of the services they rendered Stalin, before, during and just after the war. How many of them are here? We don't know. But even one is too many.

Last week Canadians were asked to remember Mr. Wallenberg's good deeds. Yet we are forgetting that it was SMERSH agents who kidnapped him 60 years ago in Budapest. They later liquidated him, either in the NKVD's infamous Lubianka prison in Moscow or in the gulag. Among those who wanted this righteous man honored with Canadian citizenship was our current minister of justice, Irwin Cotler.

Once upon a time, as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Mr. Cotler swore there were thousands of Nazi war criminals in Canada. The claims of that chorus were subsequently dismissed by Justice Jules Deschenes, who cast aside their cacophony of charges, describing it as "grossly exaggerated." Nevertheless, Mr. Cotler insists that hunting for Nazis remains a top priority for his Department of Justice. He wants you to believe that many are still hiding in our midst and that they should, even now, be expelled. I agree, assuming Mr. Cotler can produce hard evidence of an alleged villain's wartime criminality. He hasn't.

Meanwhile what about Stalin's minions? How did they get into Canada? Why aren't they facing denaturalization and deportation hearings? Mum's the word from the Minister. Now why is that?

Having been born in Kingston, Ontario, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk cannot be denaturalized or deported. He serves as director of research for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

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