War criminals in Canada

Last updated

The proper handling of war criminals in Canada with regard to criminal prosecution or extradition has been the subject of ongoing debate. [1]

Contents

History

Following World War II, Canada held investigations and proceedings against war criminals that lasted until 1948.

During the 1950s, an anti-communist political climate turned public opinion away from the atrocities of the World War II and allegedly resulted in an immigration policy which was more permissive to former Nazis. [2] [3] During this period, approximately 40,000 such individuals could more easily demonstrate a non-communist affiliation and therefore emigrated to Canada from Germany. Among the influx of Nazis were an unknown number of suspected war criminals. Ramon Hnatyshyn stated "Canada would not be a haven for those who would commit or who have committed crimes against humanity". [4] [5] Despite growing awareness and some legislative changes it soon became clear that despite having the required legislation, Canada still lacked the political will to prosecute its most senior war criminals.[ citation needed ]

During the 1990s, suspected war criminals from more recent conflicts came to Canada. These included individuals wanted in connection with war crimes in Bosnia, some of the perpetrators of genocide in Rwanda, members of the Colombian secret police and from Sri Lanka. The treatment of these suspected individuals was seen to shed light on the prevalent attitudes towards suspected World War II war criminals.[ citation needed ] Trying such individuals who lacked a support network within Canada, whose atrocities were still fresh in the public's memory and - perhaps most importantly - were unlikely to die soon of old age, became a priority: those who were located were either tried in a court of law or deported[ citation needed ]. Information on suspected World War II criminals was suppressed by Canada and the United States.[ citation needed ] Some convicted war criminals were allowed to remain within Canada while some others escaped due process. [6] [7]

Deschênes Commission

In 1985, the Deschênes Commission was created as a Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada. [1] The Deschênes Commission found that allegations about alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada had been "grossly exaggerated" by a factor of "over 400%." It recommended a "made in Canada" solution to bringing all war criminals found in this country to justice. Later changes were made to the law of Canada to allow for the prosecution or deportation of suspected war criminals. [1] However, only a small number of cases were pursued. [1]

In 1994 Canada said it would no longer prosecute Nazi war criminals. [8] In 1995, Australian Konrad Kalejs was allowed to leave Canada. Bernie Farber commented on the rescheduling of Kalejs' deportation hearing: "Granting him this delay without incarcerating him is tantamount to letting him escape." [6] [7]

Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act

In 2000, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act [9] passed as a statute of the Parliament of Canada, which implements Canada's obligations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. [10]

In the years following the 2000 legislation, the lack of any compelling evidence about Nazi war criminals in Canada may have signalled to other potential war criminals from more recent arenas of conflict that Canada was a safe haven.[ citation needed ] However, in select cases where a suspected war criminal lacked a supporting community, the likelihood of prosecution under the 2000 statute increased.[ citation needed ] In 2009, Désiré Munyaneza was found living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was the first man to be arrested and convicted in Canada on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In 2011, Illandaridevage Kulatunga who was wanted for suspected war crimes in Sri Lanka was able to leave Canada.[ citation needed ] Manuel De La Torre Herrera, a former Peruvian police officer who stayed in Canada for two years, was apprehended and deported. [11]

Simon Wiesenthal Centre

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, an independent organization which has frequently brought suspected Nazi war criminals to trial, has faulted the Government of Canada's efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi war criminals. [1] A recent center publication claims that approximately 2,000 Nazi war criminals obtained Canadian citizenship by providing false information. [1] However, other sources have published different estimates. The actual number of surviving war criminals is difficult to determine.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuremberg trials</span> Series of military trials at the end of World War II

The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries and atrocities against their citizens in World War II.

Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person regardless of where the alleged crime was committed, and regardless of the accused's nationality, country of residence, or any other relation to the prosecuting entity. Crimes prosecuted under universal jurisdiction are considered crimes against all, too serious to tolerate jurisdictional arbitrage. The concept of universal jurisdiction is therefore closely linked to the idea that some international norms are erga omnes, or owed to the entire world community, as well as to the concept of jus cogens – that certain international law obligations are binding on all states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimes against humanity</span> Serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians

Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals. Together with war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity are one of the core crimes of international criminal law, and like other crimes against international law have no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The pursuit of Nazi collaborators refers to the post-World War II pursuit and apprehension of individuals who were not citizens of the Third Reich at the outbreak of World War II but collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war. Hence, this article does not cover former members of the NSDAP and their fates after the war.

The Deschênes Commission, officially known as the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, was established by the government of Canada in February 1985 to investigate claims that Canada had become a haven for Nazi war criminals. Headed by retired Quebec Superior Court judge Jules Deschênes, the commission delivered its report in December 1986, after almost two years of hearings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International criminal law</span> Public international law

International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Command responsibility</span> Doctrine of hierarchical accountability

In the practice of international law, command responsibility is the legal doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes, whereby a commanding officer (military) and a superior officer (civil) is legally responsible for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by his subordinates; thus, a commanding officer always is accountable for the acts of commission and the acts of omission of his soldiers.

Imre Finta was the first person prosecuted under Canada's war crimes legislation. He was charged in 1987 and acquitted in 1990.

The Völkerstrafgesetzbuch, abbreviated VStGB, is a German law that regulates crimes against (public) international law. It allows cases to be brought against suspects under international criminal law provisions, meaning that suspects can be prosecuted even though both they and their victims are foreigners and the crime itself took place abroad.

Helmut Oberlander was a naturalized Canadian citizen who was a member of the Einsatzgruppen death squads of Nazi Germany in the occupied Soviet Union during World War II. Oberlander was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals. Beginning in 1994, the Government of Canada made several attempts to revoke Oberlander's citizenship on the basis of his misrepresenting his involvement with Nazi war crimes.

A war crimes trial is the trial of persons charged with criminal violation of the laws and customs of war and related principles of international law committed during armed conflict.

Konrāds Kalējs was a Latvian soldier who was a Nazi collaborator and an alleged war criminal during World War II. He gained notoriety for evading calls for his prosecution across four countries, more than once under the threat of deportation.

The International Criminal Court's founding treaty, the Rome Statute, provides that individuals or organizations may submit information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court. These submissions are referred to as "communications to the International Criminal Court".

<i>Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act</i>

The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act is a statute of the Parliament of Canada. The Act implements Canada's obligations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In passing the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act on 24 June 2000 and having royal assent given on 29 June 2000, Canada became the first country in the world to incorporate the obligations of the Rome Statute into its domestic laws. It replaced earlier 1987 legislation targeting Nazi war criminals passed in the immediate wake of the Deschênes Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">László Csatáry</span> Hungarian alleged Nazi criminal

László Csizsik Csatáry was a Hungarian citizen and was convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in 1948 by a Czechoslovak court as a Nazi war criminal. In 2012, his name was added to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals.

Prosecution of gender-targeted crimes is the legal proceedings to prosecute crimes such as rape and domestic violence. The earliest documented prosecution of gender-based/targeted crimes is from 1474 when Sir Peter von Hagenbach was convicted for rapes committed by his troops. However, the trial was only successful in indicting Sir von Hagenbach with the charge of rape because the war in which the rapes occurred was "undeclared" and thus the rapes were considered illegal only because of this. Gender-targeted crimes continued to be prosecuted, but it was not until after World War II when an international criminal tribunal – the International Military Tribunal for the Far East – were officers charged for being responsible of the gender-targeted crimes and other crimes against humanity. Despite the various rape charges, the Charter of the Tokyo Tribunal did not make references to rape, and rape was considered as subordinate to other war crimes. This is also the situation for other tribunals that followed, but with the establishments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), there was more attention to the prosecution of gender-targeted crimes with each of the statutes explicitly referring to rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incitement to genocide</span> Crime under international law

Incitement to genocide is a crime under international law which prohibits inciting (encouraging) the commission of genocide. An extreme form of hate speech, incitement to genocide is an inchoate offense and is theoretically subject to prosecution even if genocide does not occur, although charges have never been brought in an international court without mass violence having occurred. "Direct and public incitement to commit genocide" was forbidden by the Genocide Convention in 1948. Incitement to genocide is often cloaked in metaphor and euphemism and may take many forms beyond direct advocacy, including dehumanization and accusation in a mirror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine</span> Ongoing investigation opened in 2022

The International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine or the Situation in Ukraine is an ongoing investigation by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into "any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person" during the period starting "from 21 November 2013 onwards", on an "open-ended basis", covering the Revolution of Dignity, the Russo-Ukrainian War including the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, the war in Donbas and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ICC prosecutor commenced these investigations on 2 March 2022, after receiving referrals for the situation in Ukraine from 39 ICC State Parties.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ottawa agrees to revisit case of suspected Nazi war criminal Vladimir Katriuk
  2. ↑ Matas, David; Charendoff, Susan (1987). Justice delayed: Nazi war criminals in Canada. Summerhill Press. ISBN   978-0-920197-42-4 . Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  3. ↑ Troper, Harold Martin; Weinfeld, Morton (1988). Old wounds: Jews, Ukrainians, and the hunt for Nazi war criminals in Canada. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN   978-0-8078-1852-7 . Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  4. ↑ The Honorable Mr Ramon Hnatyshyn
  5. ↑ Nuremberg Forty Years Later: The Struggle Against Injustice in Our Time By Irwin Cotler, McGill University. Faculty of Law, InterAmicus (Association) p35-36
  6. 1 2 "War criminal, awaiting deportation, dies in Canada - Jerusalem Post". AP. April 25, 1997. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  7. 1 2 Kezwer, Gil (June 29, 1995). "Suspected war criminal flees Canada just before visa expires - Jewish Telegraphic Agency". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  8. ↑ Edwards, Bob; John Hauber (January 5, 1994). "Canada to Stop Prosecuting Suspected Nazi War Criminals". NPR Morning Edition transcript. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  9. ↑ Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, S.C. 2000, c. 24.
  10. ↑ Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, gc.ca.
  11. ↑ "Alleged SL war criminal not in Canada". The Daily Mirror. Colombo, Sri Lanka. August 1, 2011. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2012.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.