Ethnic Canadian Leaders Frustrated By Continued Presence Of War Criminals In Canada

OTTAWA, January 30/07 – A number of Canadian ethnic communities whose recent histories are marred by the horrors of genocide came together to decry Canada’s continued role as a haven for those who have committed crimes against humanity, drawing particular attention to the cases of six men still living in this country although found to have acted as Nazi enablers by Canadian courts.

“The need for urgency on the part of the government of Canada is nowhere clearer than in the case of Helmut Oberlander,” said Canadian Jewish Congress chief executive officer Bernie M. Farber. “Here you have an individual who was a translator for a mobile killing unit responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews. He has lived in this country for more than 50 years. His continued residency in Canada is shameful.”

“Oberlander is one of six cases that require only political will to be resolved. Labour camp guards like Wasyl Odynsksy, Jura Skomatchuk and Josef Furman were cogs in the machinery of genocide,” said Leo Adler, director of national affairs for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. ”They, along with collaborators like Jacob Fast and Vladimir Katriuk, lied to gain entry to Canada. They dishonour the privilege of Canadian citizenship.”

Joined by representatives of the Armenian, Darfur, Roma and Rwandan communities – representing those who have been the victims of genocide – the group called upon the Federal government to act swiftly while there is still time.

“Justice, seen to be done, remains a critical deterrent. Those who commit or participate in the atrocity of genocide do so because on some level they believe that their actions will bear no consequence,” said Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya, director of media and public relations for PAGE- Rwanda. “If the whole world was to unite and seek justice against all perpetrators of crimes against humanity from the past, we believe the current tyrants would reconsider their plans.”

“It is so sad,” said Bakri Abdalla, executive member of the Darfur Association of Canada. “When humanity first spoke the phrase ‘never again’, there was a hope that the words had meaning. Yet, since the Holocaust, genocide continues to happen – on our watch. How can we protect the future if we have not paid the debt of the past?”

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