A few days before Remembrance Day, November 11, 2024, the Government of Canada announced that it will not release the portion of a report produced by the Commission of Inquiry into War Criminals in Canada (Deschênes Commission) that names 900 Canadians accused of war crimes committed on behalf of the Nazis. Canada admitted these people and others after the Second World War, including many former members of the Waffen SS Galizien (Ukrainian).
We then learned that it was Global Affairs Canada who prevented Library and Archives Canada (LAC) from granting an access to information request to make these names public. According to the LAC spokesperson, the decision to keep the list sealed “was based on concerns regarding risk of harm to international relations.” The Globe and Mail, which along with others filed the access to information request, explained the decision this way: “Global Affairs has repeatedly warned about Russian President Vladimir Putin using disinformation to justify his invasion of Ukraine.”
Should we remind Global Affairs Canada that during the Second World War, these 900 people were fighting for the Nazis, and therefore against our parents and grandparents! Do we have to inform them that 1.2 million Canadians fought against the Nazis, 45,000 of whom never returned?
Fortunately, there are authors and journalists who are keeping a close eye on things, one of whom is Peter McFarlane, author of the excellent just published, Family Ties, How a Ukrainian Nazi and a Living Witness Link Canada to Ukraine Today (Lorimer, October 2024). (more...)
Canada and Ukraine: The Careful Suppression of a Shameful History
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