The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has called on the federal government to keep a secret blacklist of suspected Nazi collaborators confidential, arguing that the descendants of those named deserve privacy. Blacklock's Reporter says the list, compiled in 1985 by the Deschenes Commission, recommended prosecution of individuals accused of Nazi war crimes after the Second World War.“Today we hear repeated calls for the disclosure of the names of these innocent people,” Alexandra Chyczij, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, testified before the Commons public safety committee. She emphasized that many of the individuals named in the blacklist have long passed away, but their descendants should be protected from public scrutiny.The debate over the release of the blacklist has resurfaced following public backlash over the mistaken tribute in Parliament to Yaroslav Hunka, a former member of a Nazi SS division, in September 2023. B’nai Brith Canada and other Jewish groups have been pressing for the declassification of the list, but Chyczij linked these calls to Russian propaganda efforts targeting Ukrainians.“We surveyed our community and found a substantial increase in the number of anti-Ukrainian, hate-motivated incidents,” Chyczij said. She further accused the government of inaction in addressing these concerns: “We have asked two successive Ministers of Public Safety to speak out and condemn this behaviour but they remain silent.”The Deschenes Commission, launched in 1985 under the leadership of Québec Court of Appeal Justice Jules Deschenes, was the only federal inquiry into suspected Nazi collaborators and war criminals who entered Canada after 1945. The commission’s findings have remained largely classified, but pressure has grown to release the names of those implicated, particularly following the controversy surrounding Hunka.“The Liberals sit on a secret report on Nazi war criminals who were welcomed into Canada after World War II,” said NDP MP Matthew Green during an October 2023 Commons debate, urging the government to disclose the list and allow Canadians to learn from the past.In February, the federal cabinet did declassify a portion of the Deschenes Commission's findings, which estimated that “significant numbers” of Nazi collaborators and war criminals had been allowed into Canada. The report revealed that postwar screening was lax, with individuals possessing SS tattoos being permitted to remain in the country and even take up work in Canadian industries.“There can be little doubt that war criminals could have and are likely to have come to Canada in significant numbers in the postwar years,” stated the report, Nazi War Criminals In Canada: The Historical And Policy Setting From The 1940s To The Present.Despite this declassification, Liberal MP Yvan Baker, chair of the Canada-Ukraine Friendship Group, expressed reluctance to discuss the release of individual names. Baker, whose family immigrated from Ukraine after the Second World War, underscored the importance of maintaining focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of using propaganda to sow division.“It is really, really important that we stay united in supporting the people of Ukraine,” said Baker. When asked directly if the names from the Deschenes report should be released, he declined to comment, saying, “I prefer not to speak to that.”
