Agence France Presse — English
January 30, 2007 Tuesday 6:36 PM GMT

Canada must not become a safe haven for war criminals: genocide
survivors

OTTAWA, Jan 30 2007

Canada must crack down on "enablers" of war crimes, strip them of
their citizenship and deport them immediately, groups touched by
genocides said Tuesday, pointing to six suspected Nazis living here.

The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa
joined by representatives of local Armenian, Roma and Rwandan
communities, representing victims of genocide, called on Ottawa to
kick out six seniors who lied about their Nazi past to immigrate to
Canada.

Their aim, the group said at a news conference, is to prevent Canada
from becoming a haven for perpetrators or enablers of war crimes.

"In Canada, too little has been done to bring to justice those who
enabled the Nazi machinery of death," said Ian Sadinsky of the Jewish
Federation of Ottawa.

"Canada should offer no haven for the enablers of genocide. Killing
machines depend not only on the hands that guide them, but also on
the cogs that move and mesh and yield death as their product."

The six men, all over 80 years old, have never been accused of war
crimes. But, Canadian tribunals found that each had misrepresented
their wartime activities in order to gain entry to Canada.

They include a translator for a Nazi mobile killing unit
Einsatzkommando 10a, alleged Nazi collaborators and former guards at
SS forced labor camps.

Their cases are mired in legal proceedings, awaiting a final decision
by the immigration minister, or were seemingly abandoned.

"As the decades have passed, time and natural death have been far
more effective than government in dealing with such individuals,"
explained Bernie Farber, chief executive of the Canadian Jewish
Congress.

"The legal system of Canada has been engaged in these matters. The
courts have determined that these men gained citizenship through
fraudulent means. Yet they remain. It’s shameful," he said.

"What is required now is an act of political will on the part of the
federal government."