B’nai Brith originally filed a request for an uncensored copy of the Rodal Report, which was refused by Library and Archives Canada.
A Jewish group is taking Library and Archives Canada to court to try to force the federal government to release the names of alleged Nazi war criminals who settled in this country.
B’nai Brith Canada commenced the legal action in Federal Court in response to Library and Archives Canada’s decision in November to continue to keep secret the list of suspected war criminals.
The list is among documents created by a 1986 federal government war crimes commission led by Justice Jules Deschenes. For almost 40 years, the federal government has refused to release the material to the public.
Holocaust survivors and some Jewish groups have called for a full release of the 900 names of alleged Nazi war criminals. The list is believed to contain names of those who allegedly took a direct role in the Holocaust as well as Nazi collaborators from eastern European. The Canadian Polish Congress as well as the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians have also joined calls for the identities of the alleged war criminals to be revealed.
In its submission to the federal court, filed Jan. 21, B’nai Brith argues that Library and Archives Canada “acted unreasonably and unlawfully in withholding the information.”
B’nai Brith originally filed a request for an uncensored copy of the document, known as the Rodal Report, under the Access to Information law. Library and Archives Canada, or LAC, refused to release that, although it had earlier made public a heavily censored copy.
“The Rodal Report provides a key window into the history of the immigration of Nazi war criminals to Canada and Canada’s response,” B’nai Brith noted in its legal challenge. That “history still needs to be fully told,” it added.
LAC spokesman Richard Provencher said in an email that since a judicial review is underway in federal court, the library can’t comment. He did note that a copy of the report, which was censored, was released in February 2024.
Provencher stated that in the summer of 2024, LAC consulted with various stakeholders. “Those consulted at that time were invited to provide more general feedback on the Deschênes Commission and the Part II Report,” he added.
LAC consulted in June and July with what it called a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” about whether the list should be made public, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen. Those consulted included some members of Canada’s Ukrainian community.
But LAC did not include Holocaust survivors nor Holocaust scholars who had advocated for a full release of the list, Jewish groups and Holocaust academics say.
Thirty-nine academics, former government officials and institutions such as the Canadian Historical Association and the Montreal Holocaust Museum signed a Dec. 19 statement calling on the Liberal government to release the records.
In addition, last year more than 70 academics signed a petition from the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism “calling for the release of all documentation on Nazi war criminals in Canada.”
Similar records have been fully released in other countries, such as the U.S.
David Granovsky, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of government relations, has previously argued that fully releasing the Rodal Report is critical. “We must prevent history from repeating itself,” Granovsky said in a statement on Dec. 19. “It is imperative that everyone understands the degree to which this country was complicit in enabling Nazis to escape accountability for their crimes.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which was consulted by LAC about whether to release the records, stated in an Aug. 28, 2024 letter that it would go to court to stop the federal government from making public the names of alleged war criminals.
Much of the renewed debate around Nazi collaborators in Canada was prompted by a September 2023 event in which MPs of all parties gave two standing ovations to Yaroslav Hunka, a resident of North Bay, Ont. Hunka was described by then House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota as a hero and he was thanked for his military service.
But news quickly emerged that Hunka had served in a Ukrainian Waffen SS unit which fought for the Nazis. Large numbers of soldiers from a Ukrainian Waffen SS division came to Canada after the war.
The incident became an international embarrassment for Canada as Holocaust historians, Jewish groups and the Polish government pointed out that Hunka’s unit had been involved in war crimes, including massacres of women and children. The division was also used by the Nazis to crush a national uprising in Slovakia, again prompting allegations of war crimes. There is nothing to suggest Hunka was involved in such incidents.
David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe
