Ottawa wants to shed light on its past. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that his administration was considering declassifying a list of alleged former collaborators of the Nazi regime who immigrated to Canada after the Second World War.
This reflection comes following a scandal which erupted last week after a tribute to a former Nazi soldier was paid to the Canadian Parliament in the presence of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting Canada.
A 1986 report still partly classified
“We ensured that senior officials examined this issue very carefully, in particular by delving into the archives” and made “recommendations to the responsible ministers,” declared Justin Trudeau.
In 1986, a public commission, known as the Deschênes Commission, issued an independent report on the alleged presence of more than 800 Nazi war criminals in Canada, but did not release any names. Jewish organizations such as B’nai Brith and Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) have been pushing for the classified portion of the report to now be made public by the government.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), a political group with which Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberals have an agreement to govern until 2025, said he was in favor of such a declassification. But other officials have raised possible difficulties linked to particularly strict Canadian laws on the protection of privacy.
Applause that doesn’t pass
The idea of disclosing the names of former Nazi soldiers follows the scandal caused by the former Speaker of the House of Commons, who applauded Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian veteran accused of having fought in the SS, by presenting him as a “Ukrainian hero”. MPs from all parties, Justin Trudeau, his government and Volodymyr Zelensky, of Jewish faith, stood up to applaud the man, ignoring the details of his past. Under pressure from the opposition and the leaders of his clan, President Anthony Rota resigned and Justin Trudeau presented his “most sincere apologies”.