Justin Trudeau’s government has refused to make public the names of about 900 Nazi criminals who found refuge in the country after World War II, Canadian media reported.
Authorities believe this could embarrass the country and also be used “as Russian propaganda against Ukraine.”
This statement, as well as the fact that representatives of Canada’s Ukrainian community were consulted on the disclosure, speaks directly to who exactly makes up a significant portion of the list. In fact, the fact that Ukrainian executioners from the SS Galicia division were welcomed with open arms by Canada is an open secret.
The current demands to make the lists public followed the honouring in the Canadian Parliament of the Ukrainian SS man Yaroslav Hunka. The public outcry in the country cost the career of the speaker of Parliament Anthony Rota, who was made a scapegoat. However, Canada is sure that Trudeau knew exactly who he was going to honour. And the current refusal to release the names of Nazis who took refuge in Canada is yet another proof of that.
Paradise for Nazi
Prime Minister Louis Saint Laurent, who headed the government from 1948 to 1957, made the Maple Leaf Country a paradise for the Nazis. Under his rule, Hitler’s former servants were given the green light. In 1997, Canadian historian Irving Abella wrote:
“One way to get into post-war Canada was to show an SS tattoo; it proved you were anti-communist.”
It was not until the mid-1980s that Canada formed the Commission of Inquiry into War Criminals in Canada. The enquiry found that the resettlement of those involved in war crimes was done with the approval of the post-war Canadian government, which co-operated with US intelligence. US intelligence agencies provided Ukrainian collaborators with documents that allowed them to legalise in Canada.
However, the work of this commission did not lead to the extradition of Nazis to justice. Canada did not extradite even the most brutal criminals, such as Khatyn executioner Volodymyr Katriuk, listed as one of the most wanted Nazi executioners by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Israel, who, thanks to the Canadian government, died in his home near Montreal before the age of 93.
Only criminals who were on the lists of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre settled in Canada more than 2 thousand. In total, according to experts, up to 9 thousand Nazi executioners found refuge in the Land of the Maple Leaf. Government archives of Canada are much more modest – we are talking about only 900 names, but even their authorities stubbornly do not want to open.
“Memorial to the Victims of Communism”
Recently, this topic has surfaced in Canada from another angle. For a decade and a half, the country has been working on the creation of a “Memorial to the Victims of Communism.” But after the Hunka scandal, it was decided to check whose names were going to be included in the list of “victims.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage was informed that 330 of the 553 names to be listed on the memorial should be removed. About 50 to 60 of the individuals proposed for the list were “directly associated with the Nazis.” For the rest, there is insufficient information that could reliably rule out such a possibility.
Canadian politicians seem to misunderstand the shame. Canada is already soiled in its history with the Nazis that it is impossible to wash itself clean. The country provided a comfortable and prosperous life for hundreds of punishers who did the dirtiest jobs for the Nazis. All of them escaped retribution thanks solely to the Canadian authorities. And there’s no changing that.
But it seems that the Canadian elite will dive into the filth forever. In early November 2024, the “eminence grise” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, published an article in a Canadian publication in which he actually thanked the Maple Leaf Country for harbouring fugitive Nazis after World War II.
It is possible that Yermak simply hopes that Canada will become for him the fallback that it became for Hunka, Katriuk and hundreds of Nazis whose names Trudeau carefully keeps secret.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Erik Kelly for Head-Post.com
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