There has been a substantial decline in antisemitism in Canada over the last few years, and few Jews now experience the phenomenon personally. This positive development is a result of changing attitudes in society combined with greater involvement in the fight against antisemitism by law-enforcement authorities. Nevertheless, latent antisemitism and racism remain matters of concern and require vigilance.
Recent events reflect the difficulties associated with combatting antisemitism and racism. The fact that manifestations of racism continue to occur sporadically shows that at least some people adhere to, and openly display, racist views. Moreover, despite the existence of anti-hate legislation, prejudicial ideas are occasionally disseminated through the media. Although there is no evidence that antisemitic attitudes expressed through the media (sometimes by journalists themselves) lead to an increase in public antisemitism, this area requires constant scrutiny. The problem of hate dissemination on the Internet is relatively new, and ways to stop it are being developed; however, it will probably become an increasingly important issue for anti-racist organizations.
The Canadian legal system has taken notable strides in curtailing antisemitism. Legal proceedings, however, are often lengthy and complex. A more expeditious use of Canadian laws would help to deal with professional hate-mongers, antisemites and alleged Nazi war criminals.
Total population: 30.3 million
Jewish population: 356,000 (mainly in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Ottawa)
Other minorities:
Ethnic origin (figures based on 1996 Census and include only the 45 per cent who described themselves as having only one ethnic origin that was not Canadian): French 4.7 million (9 per cent); English 2 million; Italian 729,000; German 726,000; Scottish 640,000; Irish 500,000; Aboriginal 477,600; North American Indian 395,000; Ukrainian 331,500; Dutch 313,800; Polish 265,900; Métis or Inuit (Eskimo) 80,000; Norwegian 47,000; Welsh 28,000
Visible minorities (figures based on 1996 Census in which 11.2 per cent described themselves as members of 'visible minorities'): Chinese 860,000 (3 per cent); South Asian 670,000 (2.4 per cent); Black 574,000 (2 per cent); Arab/West Asian 244,500; Filipino 234,000; Latin American 177,000; South-east Asian 172,00; Japanese 68,000; Korean 65,000
Quebec population : 7.4 million, including a French-speaking majority (81 per cent) and English-speaking minority (13 per cent); Québecois ethnic groups include (figures based on 1996 Census): Italian 165,600; Haitian 67,000; Aboriginal 55,000; Chinese 47,000; Greek 46,700; South Asian 41,500; Lebanese 35,000; German 23,700
Constitutional status: constitutional monarchy with a federal parliamentary form of democracy (at both federal and provincial levels) and independent judiciary
Main political parties: Liberal Party, Reform Party, Bloc Québecois, New Democratic Party (NDP), Progressive Conservative Party (PCP)
Federal government: Liberal Party under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Provincial government: with the exception of Quebec, all nine provinces are led by the Liberal Party, PCP or NDP; the predominantly French-speaking Quebec is governed by the Parti Québecois (PQ) led by Lucien Bouchard (the PQ is a provincial party and does not contest federal elections)
June 1997 general election: in the lowest turnout since 1896, the Liberal Party was returned to power, the Reform Party emerged as the main opposition party, and the separatist Bloc Québecois (38 per cent of the vote in Quebec) received the lowest result for a separatist party in the province for almost twenty years
Date of next general election: 2001 or 2002
Date of next referendum on Quebec independence: The PQ, the ruling party in Quebec, has confirmed its intention of holding another referendum on independence in the year 2000 - the earlier 1995 referendum rejected secession - if it wins the next provincial election in 1998 or 1999. One widely held view is that Quebec has the right to withdraw from the confederation if that proves to be the democratically expressed will of its people, and that only its people have the right to decide. The countervailing view - supported by the federal government - is that the decision of the province to separate, and the conditions under which this may be accomplished, are the shared responsibility of the federal government, all the provincial governments and all the nation's citizens.
GDP: C$855,103 million (US$597,974 million)
Inflation: 7.6 per cent (1997)
Unemployment: 9.2 per cent (1997)
Currency: US$1.00=C$1.43 (end 1997)
While the first Jews came to Canada in the eighteenth century, the bulk of the community is descended from twentieth-century immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia in the first half of the century and, more recently, from North Africa and the Middle East. In the last few years, Jews have settled in Canada from South Africa, Israel and the former Soviet republics.
The government's refusal to admit Jewish refugees from Nazism before and during the Second World War is well documented. Sanctuary Denied, a book published in 1994, examined the war-time refugee policy of Newfoundland, which was then a British colony. Out of more than 5,000 requests from refugees during this period, not one person was admitted.
In the last fifty years, there has been a noticeable improvement in the status of Jews in Canadian society. Jewish community organizations have worked with the government to develop legislation in such fields as combatting hatred against identifiable groups and prosecuting war crimes committed abroad.
Until the 1970s Montreal was the most important Jewish centre in Canada. However, the threat of Quebec separatism that emerged in the mid-1970s motivated tens of thousands of Quebec Jews, who were predominantly Anglophone, to move into other areas, principally Ontario. Today, Toronto has replaced Montreal as the home of the largest Jewish community in Canada.
The government co-operates with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees. In 1997, 22,600 claims for refugee status were granted (1,000 of which were claims from Roma fleeing the Czech Republic). In the wake of this large influx, the government reimposed visa requirements for citizens from that country.
The treatment of Canada's indigenous population continues to be one of the most important human rights issues facing the country. Disputes over land claims, self-determination, treaty rights, taxation, duty-free imports, fishing and hunting rights and alleged harassment by police continued to be sources of tension. Indigenous Canadians are under-represented in the work force, over-represented on welfare rolls and more susceptible to suicide and poverty than other groups.
A government commission investigating racism in the army issued its report in July 1997. It cited examples of soldiers giving Nazi salutes, uttering racist comments and attending far-right skinhead rallies. The commission recommended that the military implement race relations policies, develop guidelines regarding prohibited behaviour and monitor the involvement of soldiers in racist groups.
Canada became involved in the international scandals that erupted in 1997 concerning the whereabouts of gold looted by the Nazis during the Second World War. Following the publication of a US intelligence document suggesting Canadian involvement in laundering gold stolen by the Nazis, the Bank of Canada launched an enquiry to determine whether any 'Nazi gold' had been shipped to Canada. Carleton University historian Duncan McDowell headed a three-month investigation which reported, in November 1997, that none of the gold that came to Canada during the war was stolen from victims of the Nazis, and that Canada was in no way involved in laundering Nazi gold.
In Canada antisemitism is not a significant factor in mainstream politics.
In the run-up to the June 1997 general election, former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau, who resigned in 1996 after his controversial remarks blaming the defeat of the 1995 referendum on 'money and the ethnic vote', revealed that he would have unilaterally declared Quebec independent within ten days had the separatists won the 1995 referendum. Parizeau's comment ensured that the single issue which has haunted Canadian politics for the past two decades - the future of Quebec - dominated the campaign trail in 1997 as well. In a speech in Calgary in September 1997, Parizeau reiterated his 1995 remarks and accused the Jewish community (along with the Italian and Green communities) of being responsible for that earlier defeat.
Although the climate in Quebec has eased slightly for minorities, the political rhetoric remains radicalized and the province continues to be deeply divided by language and ethnic issues. Anxiety and a sense of alienation have driven some members of the Quebec Jewish community to move to other parts of Canada or to the USA. Jews have been characterized in recent years as leaders of the pro-federalist forces and even as spokespersons for English Quebecers as a whole (see Publications and media).
In the 1997 municipal elections in Toronto neo-Nazi sympathizer Don Andrews was a mayoral candidate. Polling close to 2,000 votes, he finished in third place. Andrews, formerly the leader of the now-defunct neo-Nazi Nationalist Party of Canada, was imprisoned in the mid-1970s for plotting to murder Israeli athletes in Toronto.
Far-right movements are keeping a low profile at present, presumably in response to the heavy government pressure of recent years and because many of their leaders are embroiled in legal battles. Organizations such as the Heritage Front and various other neo-Nazi and far-right skinhead groups continue to exist with relatively small memberships and little impact.
Bernie Farber, national director of the Ontario region Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), said in his 1997 report on hatred on the Internet that the 'history of hate groups and their leaders is almost tidal - a regular ebbing and flowing of their fortunes'. Although the movement has suffered in recent years, following revelations of the Heritage Front being infiltrated by a government 'mole', Farber added that 'the real danger as we head into the 21st century is that a significant number of hate group leaders have emerged who are experienced organizers and who understand the importance of "preparing the soil" before the seeds of hate may grow'.
The 1997 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, prepared by B'nai B'rith Canada (BBC), cites examples of continuing far-right and neo-Nazi activity. Incidents include the distribution of Heritage Front leaflets in Vernon, British Columbia, and an upsurge in Heritage Front recruitment at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario.
The Heritage Front, founded in Toronto in 1989, was one of the largest and most active Canadian far-right groups, claiming at its peak 2,000 members. In recent years the Front has experienced financial difficulties and leadership problems, first with the revelation that a Canadian Security Intelligence Service 'mole' had infiltrated its ranks, and then with the imprisonment of the group's leader Wolfgang Droege for assault and possession of firearms. While Droege was released from prison in 1997 it is not clear if he has resumed his position as leader. The group's newsletter, Up Front, which had not appeared since 1995, reappeared in 1997 under the title Heritage Front Report.
George Burdi's Resistance Records, a leading supplier of racist and antisemitic rock music, was closed down by police in September 1997 (see Legal matters). Burdi was formerly the leader of the now defunct violent and virulently racist Canadian Church of the Creator (COTC) and lead singer of the neo-Nazi band RaHoWa (i.e. RAce HOly WAr). He is now serving a prison sentence for racist activity.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK, see United States of America) first came to Canada at the beginning of the century. It has always been small and of marginal influence.
Canadian neo-Nazi skinhead groups tend to be anti-American, anti-Black, anti-homosexual, anti-immigrant and in favour of the death penalty. Branches of the Northern Hammerskins have been established in various parts of the country in recent years. The group was described by Bernie Farber as 'short on philosophy and long on violence'.
A rally in August 1997 outside a Toronto motel housing Roma refugee claimants was organized by white supremacists calling themselves 'Aryan Blitzkrieg' and sporting Nazi and other far-right symbols. Five adults and two young offenders were charged with criminal offences including the wilful promotion of hatred. Anti-racist activists are concerned that this rally marks the resurrection of the previously thwarted organized violent radical right in Toronto.
Douglas Christie, best known as legal counsel to alleged Nazi war criminal Imre Finta and Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel, continues to hold meetings of his Canadian Free Speech League in British Columbia, and to publish and distribute his newsletter. As the meetings take place primarily at public libraries in Victoria and Vancouver, a heated controversy has ensued concerning the use of public facilities for the promotion of hatred. Doug Collins, a now-retired columnist accused by the British Columbia Human Rights Commission of writing racist and antisemitic articles (see Legal matters), appeared as a guest speaker at one of Christie's meetings in 1997.
According to the BBC 1997 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, a total of 212 antisemitic incidents was reported to the League for Human Rights during 1997. This represents a decrease of 13.1 per cent from the 1996 figure (244). It is estimated, however, that only one in ten incidents is reported.
The total number of incidents of antisemitic harassment also declined in 1997 to 154 from 163 in 1996. Although this includes the distribution of hate propaganda, it does not include antisemitism on the Internet.
There were 58 reported incidents of antisemitic vandalism, a significant decrease of 28.4 per cent from the 81 incidents reported in 1996. Beth Emeth Synagogue in North York (Toronto) was desecrated three times in 1997, and York Hill Public School in Thornhill (Ontario) was defaced with racist and antisemitic graffiti.
Of the reported incidents 47 per cent occurred in the Toronto area, at a proportionally 7 per cent higher rate than in 1996. Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa all experienced a decline in the number of incidents, although the number occurring in Winnipeg increased.
The overall decrease in the number of incidents may be attributed to the decline in organized hate-group activity, a crackdown by police hate crimes units and ongoing community vigilance and education.
The dissemination of hate material, however, continues. Incidents in 1997 include the sending of packages containing videos of the Nazi propaganda films The Eternal Jew and Jewish Ritual Slaughter to organizations involved in animal rights issues, including the Animal Alliance of Canada and the Farm Animal Council. University professors across the country also were targetted with a lengthy pamphlet containing a myriad of classical antisemitic themes including Holocaust denial, anti-feminism and anti-Zionism; the authors remain unknown.
In December 1997 some 100 high-profile Jews across the country received by mail an anonymous eight-page antisemitic diatribe. The tract contained Holocaust-denial propaganda and allegations that Jews control the media, the entertainment industry and the banking system, and were attempting to impose their own world order. CJC National Director Bernie Farber described it as 'the most extensive hate mail campaign I've seen'.
Also on the increase in 1997 was the number of cases of covert forms of systemic discrimination and marginalization of Jews in the workplace, in public institutions and in schools. Reported incidents include individuals threatened with termination of employment for requesting leave on Jewish holidays, and the scheduling of school or university examinations on Jewish holidays.
Paul Fromm, a teacher in a Peel board of education school near Toronto, was dismissed in February 1997 when it was discovered he had attended meetings and participated in programmes of white supremacist and antisemitic groups. (Fromm had been officially reprimanded in 1993 for such activity.) He subsequently sent anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant material to all local school libraries claiming his right to free speech. The material circulated included copies of his newsletter Free Speech Monitor which contained references to a supposed world Jewish conspiracy (see also Publications and media). Fromm said he would file a grievance claim in a bid to overturn the board's decision.
Later in the year Fromm ran for the position of school trustee for a Peel public school in Mississauga (wards 1-7). He came in last out of four candidates with 10 per cent of the votes.
Marc Lemire - whose Freedom-Site on the Internet is linked to the web-sites of Canada's most virulent antisemitic organizations (see Publications and media) - was a candidate in 1997 for the position of school trustee in a Toronto public school (ward P17). He received 2,285 votes representing 12 per cent of the total.
The media plays a role both in adding to and countering the climate of ethnic tension in Canada. The benchmark of acceptability of racial stereotyping and other discriminatory language appeared to move backwards during 1997, a mood echoed in the Globe and Mail series 'Impolite company', which was challenged for its anti-ethnic bias in several articles during the year. The negative coverage of Roma refugees reinforced stereotypes and fed into this atmosphere of backlash.
Despite official editorial policies to the contrary, several mainstream newspapers make gratuitous mention of individuals being Jewish, and continue to use ethnic stereotypes.
For example, Montreal's French-language newspaper La Presse carried a story in May 1997 about a 'Jewish criminal organization' that ran a money-laundering operation. The ethnic label was unwarranted: most of the thirty-one people arrested were not Jewish and no connection between the Jewish background of some of the suspects and the criminal activity was demonstrated. No other news media covering the story mentioned the Jewish aspect. The newspaper's motives were also questioned since it ran an adjoining article about Jews who had been involved in criminal activities, citing figures such as Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. It also suggested that Jews feature prominently in the underworld due to their 'financial power and especially their invaluable contacts in almost every country in the world'. The articles were denounced as antisemitic by Jewish and anti-racist organizations but the newspaper maintained 'that it [the Jewish identification] was an important element of information'.
Raymond Villeneuve, a radical advocate of Quebec independence, continues to attack anti-separatist opponents, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, in speeches and articles in La Tempête, the newsletter of his marginal Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec (Quebec National Liberation Movement). He accuses Jews of leading the opposition both to secession and to laws designed to protect the French language. In March 1997 the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected a complaint about a radio interview with Villeneuve in which he appeared to encourage violence against certain individuals opposed to Quebec independence. However, the CRTC warned the radio station concerned that Villeneuve's remarks had reached 'the limit of acceptable comment'.
Michel Vastel, a prominent columnist with Quebec City's newspaper Le Soleil, raised hackles in June 1998 for suggesting that Alliance Quebec (an Anglophone rights group) had too many Jews within its leadership ranks. Although Vastel apologized to the organization in a subsequent column, he remarked that Jews ought not to be represented more than proportionally 'among the dominant figures of that association'. The incoming Alliance president William Johnson denounced Vastel as an antisemite, and recalled an occasion, in a December 1996 radio interview, when Vastel objected to Jewish criticism of Lionel Groulx, the spiritual father of Quebec separatism, because of his antisemitism: 'I don't think it was right what the Jewish people did in crucifying Jesus Christ . . . I will not put the Jewish people on trial for that and they can lay off our Lionel Groulx.'
In March 1997 the Montreal-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Miraat published an article claiming that Jewish organizations were planning a 'holocaust' against North American Arabs. The journalist in question, Farid Habshi, asserted that plans to heighten security in airports in the United States were backed by Jews who were trying to link Arabs with terrorism. He added that Jews controlled the media and politics, and compared them to Nazi leaders. The paper published a further article in June 1997, again raising the spectre of a new 'holocaust' against Arab victims. The CJC made a formal complaint to the Quebec press council which was rejected.
In July 1997 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sports announcer Bob Tallman used the word 'Jewed' to describe a monetary transaction while on air. Subsequently both he and the network apologized, describing the comment as 'offensive and inappropriate'.
Canadian legislators and the judiciary have begun to implement the means to apply to the Internet the laws that regulate the promotion of hatred in Canada (see Legal matters). These moves have provoked strenuous reactions from freedom of speech advocates who echo the US constitutional position of absolute freedom of speech.
Canada's far right frequently appears on the Internet. The Toronto-based Freedom-Site of Marc Lemire is linked to the web-sites of such organizations as the virulently antisemitic Heritage Front and the Canadian Patriots Network, as well as Paul Fromm's Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFÉ) and his Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform (C-FAR) (for Lemire and Fromm, see also Antisemitic incidents: manifestations in education). Lemire, who is allegedly employed by Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel (see Legal matters), operates an e-mail newsletter and a telephone hotline. Most of Canada's far-right ideologues maintain sites on the World Wide Web both to disseminate propaganda and recruit new supporters.
Ernst Zundel continues to publish and disseminate Holocaust-denial material worldwide, both on the Internet and through the exports of his publishing house Samisdat, and he remains a leading world figure of Holocaust denial (see Legal matters).
Bill C-41, which cites hate motivation as an aggravating factor upon sentencing, was enacted into law in September 1996. This amendment to the criminal code recognizes the increased trauma for victims of crimes directed at minority communities and provides for penalties which reflect the hate-motivated nature of these offences. The effect of increased awareness of hate/bias crime by legal and law-enforcement agencies is being felt. Strong measures have recently been taken by several police hate crimes units and crown attorneys in applying the hate laws and adopting training and public awareness campaigns to further the fight against all forms of racism and hate.
Since June 1997 Ernst Zundel has been facing a tribunal inquiry of the Human Rights Commission regarding his Internet web-site. The commission was acting in response to complaints that Zundel was posting material that exposed Jews to hatred or contempt and denied the Holocaust. After losing a jurisdictional challenge on a technical point (that the web-site was located in the United States), Zundel proceeded in the June 1997 hearing to argue that Internet communications were not covered by the law in question and that he did not even operate the web-site. He claimed that it was created and operated by a woman in California. The tribunal rejected these arguments and, when it reached substantive evidence in October 1997, Zundel's estranged wife testified that he actually did control (and write the material for) the California web-site, and that the woman in California was employed to operate the site. Commission lawyer Ian Binnie argued that the tactic of physically locating the so-called 'Zundelsite' in California was a transparent attempt to 'target the Jewish community in Canada and elsewhere . . . Even though the material is purported to constitute part of a "scholarly exchange" it is simply antisemitism and hate propaganda wrapped up in the flag of freedom of speech.' Mrs Zundel revealed in December 1997 that Zundel had hired a Toronto man to post material on the web-site. Despite an attempt to have it thrown out due to an alleged lack of impartiality, the case continues.
Zundel's application for Canadian citizenship, lodged in 1994, thirty-six years after his arrival in Canada as a landed immigrant from Germany, is still unresolved. In May 1998 he lost his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada to quash the findings of the Security Intelligence Service Review Committee (SIRC) as to whether he constitutes a national security risk. The SIRC has not completed its inquiry.
George Burdi, former leader of the Canadian branch of the COTC (see Parties, organizations, movements), has run into a number of problems with the law, and is now in prison. In February 1997 the Ontario appeals court upheld his one-year prison sentence for his 1993 attack on a woman who protested against his racist activities. Furthermore, in order to escape Canada's anti-hate laws, Burdi's Resistance Records, which records skinhead rock music, began distributing its neo-Nazi and racist materials from an office in Detroit, across the border from Burdi's home in Windsor. In September 1997 police in Detroit raided his office and seized some 200,000 CDs, cassettes and subscription lists. Burdi's business records and computers were also seized by police from his Windsor home. Following these raids, Burdi and colleagues Joseph Talic and Jason Snow were charged with wilfully promoting hatred and conspiracy to promote hatred. The trial is set to begin in May 1998.
In May 1997 Christopher Newhook from Toronto, who is linked to the Heritage Front, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in Sarnia (Ontario) on ten charges including acts of violence, assault with a weapon and issuing death threats in disputes with young people.
In July 1997 a former member of the Heritage Front, Ted Beavis, pleaded guilty in Oshawa (Ontario) to spreading racist literature in towns in that area in 1994. He was sentenced to forty-five days' imprisonment. The material focused on interracial couples and promoted hatred of Jews, Blacks and other minorities.
In August 1997 four neo-Nazis were tried for the murder of Gordon Kuhtey in Winnipeg in 1991. Kuhtey, who was beaten, stoned and thrown into a river, was the latest victim in a series of homophobic killings by neo-Nazis. Those charged were Matt McKay, a former member of the air force and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK, see Parties, organizations, movements), James Lisik, a founding member of the Winnipeg chapter of Northern Hammerskins (see Parties, organizations, movements), Robert Welsh and Gary Kuffner. Less than a week into the trial, in a dramatic turn of events, all charges were dropped against the four defendants. The police have opened an investigation into the case.
The long history of litigation involving former New Brunswick schoolteacher and Holocaust denier Malcolm Ross - who was finally removed from the classroom following a Supreme Court decision in April 1996 - continues to grow. In April 1998 Ross won a judgment of C$7,500 (US$5,245) against cartoonist Josh Beutel, who depicted Ross as a Nazi in a cartoon used during a 1993 teachers' workshop. Judge Paul Creaghan, presiding over the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench, ruled that Beutel had libelled Ross as there were meaningful differences between Ross and the Nazis. Victor Goldberg, president of the Atlantic Jewish Council of CJC, attacked the judgement: 'the judge has sent out a message that hatemongering is a legitimate opinion in our society'. Beutel has launched an appeal.
In May 1997 James Jerome (see below), associate chief justice of the federal court, created a furore among Jews and indigenous Canadians. In a complaint filed in July to the judicial council, the Samson Cree Nation, supported by the CJC, accused Jerome of making prejudicial remarks by declaring that he would not appoint a Jewish judge to hear a case involving war crimes or an Aboriginal judge to hear a case involving Aboriginal matters. His comments, which 'displayed an unwarranted bias towards Aboriginal peoples and members of the Jewish community', came amid discussions over his request to remove a judge from an Aboriginal rights case because he was acquainted with three members of the Samson Cree Nation and might feel undue pressure. Following the complaint Jerome clarified his remarks to the satisfaction of the judicial council.
In November 1996 the Montreal newspaper La Presse published a controversial article which led to a complaint by the CJC to the Quebec Human Rights Commission against journalist Pierre Foglia for writing 'pernicious' material concerning the Jewish community. In the article Foglia criticized CJC demands for an apology from Jean Louis Roux, lieutenant-governor of Quebec, for wearing a swastika during a demonstration in 1942. (Roux was forced to resign over the revelations.) In March 1997 Human Rights Commission lawyer Pierre-Olivier Boucher rejected the CJC's complaint, failing to find 'even the shadow' of discrimination in it. He suggested that the article might be considered 'philosemitic'.
Doug Collins, a now-retired columnist for the North Shore News, a local community newspaper in British Columbia, wrote a piece in 1995 which criticized the role of Jews in the entertainment business and included Holocaust-denial notions. As a result he faced a hearing before a human rights tribunal in British Columbia which, in its November 1997 decision, upheld the constitutionality of British Columbia's legislation against hate speech, and concluded that Collins's column, 'Hollywood propaganda', was antisemitic and 'likely to make it more acceptable for others to express hatred or contempt against Jewish people' (see also Parties, organizations, movements). However, the column did not qualify as sufficiently hateful to be considered in breach of the Human Rights Act and to warrant a remedy. At the hearing, Morton Weinfeld, chairman of the ethnic studies department at McGill University, testified that the article reinforced 'several well-known and well-documented antisemitic stereotypes' by accusing Jews 'of being dishonest and untrustworthy . . . of being motivated mainly by greed and money, of controlling the media and Hollywood, and of using the media for deliberate "Jewish" objectives'.
Collins had to defend himself against another complaint before a provincial human rights tribunal in July 1998. Harry Abrams alleged that several of Collins's columns in the North Shore News amounted to Holocaust denial because they disputed the number of Jewish victims of the Nazis. A lawyer representing the British Columbia Human Rights Commission told the hearing that the columns violated the provincial human rights code. 'The clear, implicit tone from the Doug Collins columns is vilification of the Jewish people.' Collins appeared briefly at the hearing, denounced the proceedings and departed.
In March 1997 Toronto judge N. D. McRae denounced Arnold Minors, a former board member of the Toronto police service, for claiming that the Holocaust was not the result of racism, and dismissed Minors's defamation suit against the Toronto Sun. Minors made the remark during anti-racist training programmes for Ontario crown attorneys. He sued the newspaper for carrying articles about his 1994 seminars on racism and his description of Toronto police as an 'occupying army'.
Resolving cases of alleged Nazi war criminals living in Canada remains a top priority for the Jewish community. The government, which has pursued these individuals since 1987, has been strongly criticized for its apparent inability to bring the cases to a conclusion, and for initiating proceedings in only a relatively small number of cases.
In a January 1997 review of a decade of proceedings against alleged war criminals, former deputy director of the war crimes unit of the department of justice, Arnold Fradkin, lamented the lack of results: 'It is not justice for Nazi war criminals and collaborators to find a safe haven in Canada.' He pointed out that, given the advanced age of the accused men, the government could not afford to be dilatory: 'justice delayed will most certainly result in justice denied.' He added that Justice Jules Deschenes, who led a commission of inquiry on war crimes in 1987, had identified 224 men for investigation - twenty on an urgent basis - but, after ten years, proceedings had been initiated against only thirteen men with a successful conclusion in only one case.
Law professor John McCamus completed his investigation into allegations of anti-Jewish bias in the war crimes unit. In his May 1998 report he found no evidence of such bias, thereby refuting contentions that there was a deliberate policy of delay and that Jewish lawyers associated with the unit were forced out or had their views discounted. McCamus stated: 'I have been unable to discover any evidence of antisemitic incidents or attitudes in the work of the war-crime section during [Peter] Kremer's term as director.' Both former unit head William Hobson and Arnold Fradkin expressed criticism of the report. Jack Silverstone, national executive director of CJC, reiterated his view that the unit's record under Kremer involved closing many cases and opening few new ones. 'We still have serious questions about the dedication of the unit from 1990-1995.'
Following the case of Imre Finta, a Hungarian immigrant tried by a criminal court for war crimes and acquitted by a jury in 1991 (a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1994 following an appeal by the government), it was clear that criminal convictions against alleged war criminals would be difficult to obtain. As an alternative the government attempted in 1993 to have alleged war criminals stripped of their citizenship and deported. The grounds for removing citizenship are that these individuals lied when applying for immigration to Canada and for citizenship, specifically concealing aspects of their background such as participation in military, police or Nazi SS units.
This new strategy appeared to be making progress as the pace of initiating court proceedings against alleged war criminals increased. The current head of the war crimes unit, Paul Vickery, speaking at a Montreal synagogue in September 1997, asserted that he was 'pressing forward as quickly as possible'. In a November 1997 briefing, he anticipated 1998 trials of most of the cases still pending.
Further pressure on the government was provided by New York private investigator Steve Rambam who revealed in November 1996 that he had tracked down 157 alleged Nazi war criminals residing in Canada. In April 1997 he announced that he and the CJC would begin publicly identifying alleged war criminals living freely in the country in an attempt to speed up deportation proceedings. Rambam named an Ontario man, Josef Kisielaitis, as a member of a war-time Lithuanian military unit that had murdered thousands of Jews. After living in Canada for many years after the war, Kisielaitis moved to the United States in 1962 but returned in 1985.
In March 1997 Rambam invited suspected Nazi collaborators to assist in prosecuting other alleged war criminals in exchange for helping them to remain in Canada. 'I don't believe that the Canadian government has the slightest interest in pursuing this issue in the systematic, comprehensive way that it needs to be pursued to rid Canada of these people.' Rambam again attacked the government in December 1997, alleging that it only initiated deportation cases that it wanted to lose and was thereby 'scamming the Jewish community'. The CJC rejected this accusation.
In December 1997 Neal Sher, former head of the US Office of Special Investigations (OSI, see United States), was appointed as a consultant to the Canadian war crimes unit. Sher, who had criticized Canada's 'less than aggressive' approach to accused war criminals in the past, said that he was now convinced that there was a 'commitment at the highest levels' to vigorous action.
Sher's appointment was attacked in January 1998 by representative of the Ukrainian community. Eugene Harasymiw, president of the Alberta Ukrainian Self-Reliance League, for example, contended that: 'Mr Sher is not fit to work within the Canadian justice system, period.' The major complaint against Sher is that he headed the OSI when it was pursuing the John Demjanjuk case. Ukrainian groups are also critical of Canada's new policy of stripping suspects of their citizenship and deporting them, rather than prosecuting them under criminal law, because it is easier to meet the standards of proof required.
Another controversy erupted in April 1997 when William Hobson, head of the war crimes unit between 1987 and 1990, questioned Fradkin's objectivity in his January 1997 review of the government's pursuit of war criminals since 1987 (see above) on account of his Jewish extraction. Hobson also criticized the justice department for rejecting his advice during the 1980s and early 1990s to use deportations rather than criminal trials.
Clerics from the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United Church of Canada, Christian Reform, Lutheran and Evangelical churches met in May 1997 with Justice Minister Allan Rock and urged him to accelerate proceedings against alleged war criminals as a 'moral imperative'. Rock promised a 'strong and firm resolve' to move things forward more quickly. It currently takes some two years to complete denaturalization proceedings and a further two years for the deportation process.
Obstacles preventing denaturalization proceedings against alleged war criminals Helmut Oberlander, Erichs Tobiass and Johann Dueck - raised in 1996 when a meeting between the chief justice and a government lawyer gave rise to concern over government interference - were overcome. In September 1997 the Supreme Court of Canada held that 'the crimes involved rank among the most heinous in history and the civilized world's resolve to apply the appropriate sanctions should not be interfered with lightly. Therefore, despite the serious affront to judicial independence, the cases should go forward.' The court also criticized the presiding federal court associate chief justice James Jerome (see above) for his 'inordinate and arguably inexcusable' delays. The cases were cleared to be heard but Tobiass* died before the end of 1997.
The case of Konrad Kalejs is less complex because he is not a Canadian citizen. He is accused of war crimes in connection with the Latvian Arajs Kommando (AK) unit which operated in Russia in 1942. In August 1997, over a year after hearings began, immigration adjudicator Anthony Iozzo discounted substantial evidence concerning Kalejs's participation in murder with the AK, focusing instead on his role as guard commander at the Salaspils concentration camp. On that basis he was deemed to be an accomplice to war crimes and deported to Australia where he holds citizenship (see Australia).
The case of Josef Nemsila, a permanent resident whom the government was attempting to deport, ended with his death in April 1997. Nemsila was alleged to have murdered hundreds of Jews as commander of a unit of the Hlinka Guard in Slovakia. Antanas Kenstavicius, allegedly a Lithuanian police official who participated in atrocities against Jews, was beginning his deportation hearing in January 1997 when he too died.
In August 1997 Ladislav Csizsik-Csatary opted not to contest the denaturalization process. His citizenship was revoked, paving the way for a deportation hearing. He was only the second alleged war criminal to lose citizenship. He left Canada within two months and is barred from re-entry. Csizsik-Csatary was accused of having served as an officer of the Royal Hungarian Police at Kassa, rounding up Jews for deportation to Auschwitz, and of turning over to the Germans Jews who had been captured while in hiding. Although in 1948 he was convicted in absentia of war crimes in Hungary, he was admitted to Canada in 1949 and granted citizenship in 1955.
In December 1997 the government initiated proceedings against Vladimir Katriuk, who was accused of having carried out atrocities in Ukraine and Byelorussia from 1942 to 1944 as a member of Schutzmannschaft battalion 118. Katriuk admitted to having served in the battalion but said that his participation involved only sentry duty at a wheat mill despite extensive evidence of the unit's involvement in mass murder. At his denaturalization hearing in May 1998, Katriuk testified that, when he was interviewed by Canadian immigration officials at the time of his application to come to Canada, he was never asked about his war-time activities. Unfortunately the relevant documents were destroyed years ago by federal officials during a general housecleaning of accumulated files.The case is not yet resolved.
Wasily Bogutin's denaturalization case opened in May 1997. He was alleged to have collaborated with the Nazis in Ukraine while working for the Selidovka district police, and to have participated in the murder of a Jewish family and a former militiaman in 1941; he was also accused of ordering the arrests of young girls for deportation to forced labour camps. Bogutin's lawyer, claiming that the accused's father was Jewish, argued that Bogutin worked for the Ukrainian police with the intention of remaining inconspicious to the German authorities. The trial concluded in December 1997, and in July 1998 Bogutin was stripped of his citizenship for having lied about his past when he applied for immigration to Canada. Deportation proceedings usually take several months.
Peteris Vitols, who allegedly served in the Latvian police and the Waffen SS, was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and associating 'with organizations actively engaged in atrocities against the civilian population'. Vitols admitted membership of the various groups but denied having committed war crimes himself. A hearing is scheduled for April 1998.
Eduards Podins, a former concentration camp guard from Latvia, faced the loss of his citizenship in a case filed in the federal court in May 1997. Podins was a member of the Latvian auxiliary police from 1941 to 1943, and a guard with management responsibilities at Valmiera replacement camp where, according to the government, political prisoners were persecuted through confinement, torture and execution. The government contended that in 1990 he admitted to the US immigration and naturalization service that he had worked in a concentration camp. Podin's hearing is due to continue throughout 1998.
In July 1997 the government announced proceedings against Mamertas Rolland Maciukas, who allegedly belonged to Lithuanian police and Schutzmannschaft battalions. He was accused of having collaborated with the Germans in Lithuania and Byelorussia in 1941 as part of an auxiliary police unit that murdered some 50,000 Jews in Byelorussia. Maciukas did not contest the denaturalization proceedings and will be stripped of his citizenship as soon as the government takes the necessary steps. In April 1998 he agreed to relinquish his Canadian residence and leave Canada voluntarily. The government also accused Serge Kisluk of collaboration in Ukraine and participation in war crimes and atrocities. His case will be heard in 1998.
In December 1997 the government named two more alleged war criminals targetted for deportation. Michael Baumgartner is accused of serving as a guard at Sachsenhausen and Stutthof concentration camps in 1942 and 1943 and of being a member of the Waffen SS. He is charged in the federal court with having failed to disclose this upon entry into Canada. Wasyl Odynsky was accused of being a guard at labour and concentration camps in his native Poland. Both men face denaturalization and deportation proceedings in 1998.
Growing concern over the dissemination of hate on the Internet led BBC to host a symposium in Toronto in September 1997 on the subject. Its 'International symposium on hate on the Internet' featured a public forum of experts who presented information on the extent of hate material and how to counter it. The symposium brought together Jewish community leaders, scholars from around the world, government and law-enforcement officials, and legal and civil liberties experts.
BBC's League for Human Rights continues to promote awareness of antisemitism and racism. In July 1997 it launched a major campaign promoting its anti-hate telephone hotline with advertisements in subways and on station billboards.
Police are becoming more sensitive in dealing with crimes motivated by hate or bias against minorities. Following the 1996 amendment to the criminal code, which directs judges to give harsher sentences for racist and hate crimes, police in Calgary established a hate/bias crimes unit. In close consultation with members of targetted communities, the unit monitors crimes in which any part of the motivation is hate or bias. From June to December 1997 twenty-seven incidents relating to race had been identified; most of these were threats and verbal abuses.
National campaigns to counter racism include the launch by the Canadian Human Rights Commission of a series of educational initiatives to tackle hate on the Internet. The federal department of Canadian heritage and the ministries of justice and the solicitor-general convened a national roundtable, bringing together experts in Ottawa, to discuss hate crimes in all their forms, and practical strategies to counter them. The fight against racism is enhanced by the long-awaited launch of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee
© JPR 1998
