Old crimes not forgotten

>> An American Nazi hunter comes to Montreal to shake up Canada's shabby record

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

It took Canada over 40 years to start thinking about war criminals living in the country. From the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals (the Deschênes Commission) Report was released in 1987, only one suspect, a German, had been arrested for war crimes. While other countries, notably the United States and Germany, were making some headway in prosecuting war criminals, Canada, it was thought, was a safe haven for fugitive Nazis.

An American private investigator, Steven Rambam, estimates there are hundreds, if not thousands, of former Nazis still living in Canada. Rambam has been hunting Nazis for over 10 years, and has little faith in Canadian efforts at exposing, prosecuting and deporting suspected war criminals.

"The Canadian government has dismissed case after case [against suspected war criminals] without even a cursory explanation to the Jewish community," he says from his home in New York. "They don't have the right to do it without an explanation, but they've been doing that for 50 years."

Which is why Rambam has decided to take the matter to the public. On September 12, he will hold a press conference at the Beth Israel Beth Aaron synagogue in Côte-St-Luc regarding a well-documented former member of a Lithuanian killing squad in the German-occupied Soviet Union during World War II. He alleges that Jouzas Kisielaitis, 81, was a volunteer rifleman in the 2nd (later 12th) Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion. In documents Rambam forwarded to the Mirror, he states that during "1941 and 1942, Kisielaitis' battalion assisted in the murder of at least 130,000, primarily Jewish, men, women and children in Lithuania and elsewhere." He says he has overwhelming evidence, including taped confessions, that prove Kisielaitis participated in mass murder during the war. Kisielaitis, wanted on war crimes charges in the U.S., fled to Canada--where he enjoys citizenship--in 1985. An American Department of Justice official at the time confirmed Kisielaitis' flight and added, "...we confirm that (Jouzas Kisielaitis) was a war criminal living in the U.S. He entered the U.S. under false pretences, concealing his services in a Nazi unit..."

Rambam turned over the bulk of his evidence to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre who in turn forwarded it to the RCMP. The Mounties, along with the ministries of Justice and Citizenship and Immigration, are responsible for the investigation and prosecution of suspected war criminals in Canada.

"The RCMP did nothing," Rambam says. "They misrepresented the evidence and said the tape had no prosecutorial value." Fed up with Canada's official sloth, he says he will make available to the public a 120-page report he compiled on Kisielaitis and let people decide for themselves what if anything should be done. He also says he has another 200 pages of evidence he will release at a later date.

The Canadian War Crimes Unit said it could not comment on potential or existing cases until they have been brought to court, and so had nothing to say about Kisielaitis other than that they were aware of his presence in the country.

Birth of a commission

The Deschênes Commission, which launched Canada's war crimes investigation unit, was mandated following West Germany's request for the extradition of a suspected war criminal in 1982. Helmut Rauca was an SS Master Sergeant in Lithuania and held responsible for the one-day massacre of 11,000 Jews. He was extradited and died during legal proceedings.

Today, the Interdepartmental Operations Group investigates cases from around the world and works mainly on blocking entry of suspected war criminals into Canada. Although the bulk of cases involve suspects from Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Lynn Lovett, the deputy director of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, says they investigate people from over 50 countries, including Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Sri Lanka.

Lovett says Canada is becoming a leader in war crimes prosecution but faces a number of difficulties involving cases from WWII.

"We started later than the U.S., we have more complicated legislation and all the immigration records after World War II were destroyed," she says. "Pursuant to normal government records management procedures, with the exception of landing records, all immigration records were destroyed as a matter of course." She says that following the Deschênes Commission, this practice has since ceased.

According to the fourth Annual Report on War Crimes, released in July 2001 and covering activities from April 1, 2000 to March 31, 2001, there are 82 active World War II files. Since 1995, 17 revocation of citizenship and deportation proceedings have been initiated, resulting in eight expulsions. There were three successful defences, and the remaining six died during proceedings.

This may seem like a step in the right direction, but the same report also states that the Deschênes Commission identified 883 suspected war criminals living in Canada. Between 1987 and 1992, four people were charged under the Criminal Code. None were convicted.

Record better but not great

Nevertheless, Jack Silverstone, the executive vice-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress in Ottawa, says that while the situation in Canada is better than it was 15 or 20 years ago, "the delays in dealing with known cases is very frustrating. It calls into question the efficacy of the whole war crimes program." He identifies three specific cases for which he feels the government has failed to live up to its obligations: Michael Seifert, of Vancouver, British Columbia, who was convicted last December by an Italian court for killing 11 people; Helmut Oberlander, living in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, who lied about his involvement with an SS killing unit during the war and has been informed that his citizenship will be revoked; and Montreal's Jouzas Kisielaitis.

Still, says Silverstone, Canada's efforts have been "better than some, worse than others. I'm satisfied to the extent that before 1987, there was no likelihood that anything would be done. But some cases could be dealt with a lot more aggressively."

As for Rambam, who is convinced that Kisielaitis will escape justice unless there is popular outrage forcing the government's hand, he feels the delays and lethargy he has seen in Canada's war crimes prosecutions are inexcusable. "They're not proceeding against people with equal or better evidence against them [than Kisielaitis]. I don't have much hope that the war crimes unit will do the right thing."