Like Father, Like Son

Canada morphed into Nazi Germany so quickly, we didn't care to notice:

Canada likely permitted “significant numbers” of Nazi collaborators and war criminals to enter the country after 1945, says a newly-declassified report. Cabinet still refuses to release a secret blacklist of named fugitives: “There can be little doubt that war criminals could have and are likely to have come to Canada in significant numbers.”

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The federal government has released previously classified details from a report that outlines the extent to which Canada provided a safe haven to former Nazis during the Cold War. ...

The report by researcher Alti Rodal, known as the Rodal report, was prepared as part of a Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada in 1985 and was intended to provide the commission with information on the historical policies and circumstances that led to the presence of Nazi war criminals in Canada. ...

Though it has been 79 years since the Second World War and 37 years since Rodal’s work was completed, Matas said ongoing mass atrocities and efforts by perpetrators to seek haven in Canada lend contemporary relevance to the report.

“We cannot learn from the past unless we know the past. The almost complete disclosure of the Rodal Report is an important step in coming to grips with our past and applying its lessons for the present,” he said.

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As justice minister in 1967, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau argued against revoking the citizenship of a Canadian citizen the Soviet Union had convicted of heading a firing squad responsible for the deaths of 5,128 Jews during the Second World War, says a 617-page report prepared for the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals decades ago.

The document, now largely unredacted, was released by Library and Archives on Thursday. It was originally prepared for the Deschênes Commission, which in the mid-1980s investigated Nazi immigration into Canada.

The document says a Soviet court tried the Canadian in question, identified only as Subject F, in absentia in Riga, Latvia in 1965 and found him guilty.

It was written by historian Alti Rodal. A heavily redacted version under Canada's Access to Information Act was initially released to the public in 1987. Jewish human rights organization B'nai Brith obtained a less censored copy in June 2023 but Trudeau's position on the case was blacked out in that version.

In 1967, when Trudeau was justice minister in the government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson, the Department of External Affairs sought his legal opinion on whether there was a solid case for deporting Subject F, based on the USSR's request.

In July of that year, Trudeau wrote to the department that, "it could not be established that Subject F knowingly concealed material circumstances relating to his good character even if it be assumed that he was, in fact, guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted in absentia."

In November 1967, Trudeau expanded on his thoughts in a letter to Paul Martin Sr., who was then secretary of state for External Affairs. In it, Trudeau said he was worried about setting a precedent that would see others stripped of their citizenship.

"There is nothing in the Act to indicate that an application for Canadian citizenship is in the nature of a confessional requiring the applicant to disclose all prior conduct, whether public or private," he wrote.

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The 1967 decision not to extradite the man or revoke his citizenship was based heavily on advice from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who was justice minister at the time.

The then-minister of external affairs asked Trudeau for advice on whether he should attempt to revoke the citizenship of a man known in the documents only as "Subject F."

Until this week, that advice had been deleted from publicly available versions of historian Alti Rodal's report, written to help inform the work of the 1985 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited Yaroslav Hunka, the Ukrainian Waffen-SS veteran who received ovations in the House of Commons during a visit by Volodymyr Zelensky, to a reception he hosted in the Ukrainian President’s honour the same day.

Mr. Hunka, who was 98 at the time, did not attend the Toronto reception, but the invitation by the Prime Minister to the exclusive event with the Ukrainian President will raise fresh questions about who approved the Waffen-SS veteran’s attendance, and if his background had been checked.

The SS veteran’s two ovations in the House of Commons that day sparked an outcry and led to the resignation of speaker Anthony Rota after he pointed him out in the gallery, paid tribute to him and said he was a Canadian and Ukrainian hero.

The invitation from the Prime Minister to “a special event” at Fort York Armoury in Toronto later that evening was sent to Mr. Hunka four days before the reception from the Office of Protocol of Canada.

The Toronto reception was attended by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and President Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska, as well as other dignitaries and members of Canada’s Ukrainian community.

The invitation, seen by The Globe and Mail, was sent to Mr. Hunka in an e-mail under the subject line “Invitation from the Prime Minister of Canada – September 22, 2023.”

“Dear Yaroslav Hunka, The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, is pleased to invite you to a special event. The event will take place on Friday, September 22, 2023, at 8.30pm in Toronto, Ontario.”

It asks for a reply by the next day, and says: “Once we receive confirmation of your attendance, the formal invitation will be issued, including detailed information regarding registration and access.”

The invitation, sent by e-mail, asks if he has any mobility restrictions and says the invitation is “for the invitee only, does not include a guest and is non-transferable.”

The reception was attended by about 1,000 people, including many members of Canada’s Ukrainian-Canadian community.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Mr. Hunka’s name had been proposed by the Canadian Ukrainian Congress, along with other members of Canada’s Ukrainian community, and Mr. Trudeau had not been aware his name had been on the invitation list.

Bull. Sh--.

Now, why would both father and son tolerate these war criminals, even keep them in the country?

Hhhmmm ... ?