Strong vibes from a quiet source

 

How Canada earned a worldwide reputation as a major haven for war criminals

To the lawyer-politicians who staffed the Deschênes Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, historian Alti Rodal must have looked like a pushover.

Slight and shy, the chronically overburdened mother of six was expected to serve the commission humbly and self-effacingly as befits a marginal, contract staff member. Certainly, commission counsellors Michael Meighen and Yves Fortier were not shopping for someone who would expose malfeasance in the ranks of the RCMP, ignorance and indifference in the Immigration Department, conspiracy and coverup in the intelligence services, and chicanery in the federal cabinets of McKenzie King and Louis St. Laurent.

Above all, no one expected her to provide data that would challenge the findings of the commission itself and the judgements of its Commissioner, Justice Jules Deschênes of the Québec Supreme Court.

Yet this is precisely what she has done!

By digging deeper than expected, by staying with the job when Fortier and Meighen were urging her to pack it in, she managed to spell out the details of some of Canada’s more shameful post-war episodes, and cast doubt on the conclusions of the commission appointed to investigate them.

The Deschênes Commission was appointed by Order-in-Council on February 7, 1985, because the government could no longer keep up the pretence that there were no war criminals in Canada. Or, as External Affairs and Justice Department officials used to insist, “If there are any, they must be small fry, minor offenders hardly worth bothering with.”

The Rauca case made a mockery of this pretence.  (more...)

Strong vibes from a quiet source