canada 2003-4

 

A total of 584 antisemitic incidents was reported to B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights in 2003, representing an overall increase of 27.2 percent over the previous year. From 2001 to 2003 the number of reported incidents doubled. Anti-Jewish rhetoric increasingly emanates from the far left; moreover, there is evidence of a convergence between historically left-wing and right-wing opponents. Israel and the Jewish people were denounced at numerous rallies for causes that had nothing to do with them. Jewish students at Canadian universities have become increasingly isolated and subjected to intimidation and even violence. According to B’nai Brith Canada, there appears to be a causal relationship between coverage of ‘Jewish’ issues in the mass media and the sense that somehow ‘permission’ has been given for open expression of antagonism toward Jews.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

There are an estimated 360,000–370,000 Jews in Canada out of a total population of 31 million. Toronto has a Jewish population of 179,100, Montreal, 92,970, Vancouver, 22,585, Winnipeg, 14,760, Ottawa, 13,450, Calgary, 7,950, and Edmonton, 4,925.

For the first time in the country’s history, Islam has replaced Judaism as the largest non-Christian religion in Canada. In addition, those who identified themselves as Jewish in the 2001 census (close to 330,000) represent a relatively aging population, with a median age of 45.1; those identifying themselves as Muslim had a median age of 28.1.

While in the past B’nai Brith Canada and the Canadian Jewish Congress were the two major national advocacy organizations, reorganization during 2003 by the United Israel Appeal Federations Canada (UIAFC) led to the establishment of a new umbrella entity known as the Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA). This body oversees the activities of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canada-Israel Committee and National Jewish Campus Life. B’nai Brith Canada remains independent of the Federations community structure, maintaining a parallel structure with its League for Human Rights, a newly formed Canada Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its Campus Action Initiative.

The community publishes some 20 newspapers and journals, including The Jewish Tribune and the Canadian Jewish News. Approximately 12,000 day school children are served by the Jewish educational system, as well as thousands more in supplementary after-school programs attached to synagogues.

 

EXTREMIST GROUPS

Extreme Right

Right-wing groups remain active in Canada, albeit at nothing like their strength in former years. Racist flyer distribution was reported to B’nai Brith Canada’s Anti-Hate Hotline across the country, including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Groups such as Heritage Front are reported to have been forming new chapters, while other groups such as the Association for White North Americans are making their presence known on the Internet, as well as on the streets.

In 2003, there were four reports of music hatefests, three in Toronto and the other in Laval. The Toronto Hate Crime Police Unit reports that organized hate groups maintained a presence in the city throughout the year.

Some of the renewed activities of far right groups appear to be centered around the return to Canada of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, who was expelled from the United States in February, 2003 and made a claim for refugee status (see also below). Meetings and rallies have been held by Zündel's supporters. Concerted attempts to raise funds for his legal expenses have also been reported. Groups such as the Association for White North Americans have included expressions of support for Zündel on the flyers they circulate.

Nazi symbolism was the predominant motif in reported incidents of vandalism/graffiti in 2003. Of the 180 reported cases of vandalism, 58, or almost one-third, involved the display of swastikas. In addition, many of the hate propaganda messages were based on language common to far right groups. For instance, a Jewish community center received an anonymous e-mail message in 2003 which stated, “Brethern [sic] of the Third Reich. Nonaryan filth grows. Gather your guns.” In two other unrelated incidents, the messages read, “Jewish kikes harming Zundel, filthy Talmudists,” and “We the Aryan nations. Help rid Canada of the evil influence of the Jews.”

 

Extreme Left

The perceptible change in antisemitic patterns continued in 2003, with anti-Jewish rhetoric increasingly emanating from the far left. This trend points to a progressively radicalized anti-globalist movement joining forces with Marxist, anti-American, and anarchist elements to vilify the Jews as the root of the world’s problems.

There were many occurrences of extreme left-wing elements employing antisemitic stereotyping in their criticism of Israel. For example, the left-wing Indymedia site posted a tract entitled “The Hidden Tyranny,” a variation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

In addition, there were indications of a convergence between historically left-wing and right-wing opponents (see below). A series of nationwide rallies led by the left wing in Canada during 2003, no matter under which banner, inevitably singled out Israel and the Jewish people. For example, on 15 January 2003, at a pay equity protest in Toronto several demonstrators expressed viciously anti-Israel viewpoints. On 15 February 2003, participants at an anti-Iraq war rally in Victoria displayed placards protesting a “Jewish world-wide conspiracy,” despite the fact that the Jewish community was as divided as the general public on whether or not to go to war. On 7 March 2003 a joint anti-Iraq war and anti-poverty rally in Toronto took an antisemitic turn when one person requested that all Jews participating in the protest “go home.”

At the many anti-globalization rallies that took place in cities and towns across Canada, Palestinian flags were often in view alongside Marxist flags, as well as Israeli flags superimposed with swastikas. At these same rallies, protesters carried coffins, which displayed photographs of US President George W. Bush, and/or Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and/or British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Skinheads, keffiyah-wearing individuals, and feminists came together to rally the crowds with anti-Iraq war and anti-Zionist rhetoric. Thus, seemingly disparate agendas fused into one seamless anti-Israel and anti-Jewish message.

As noted in 2002, there was a tendency among right-wing groups to view such gatherings as promising recruiting grounds for their causes. Also pointing to increasing ties between the far left and extreme right was a lecture by right-wing conspiracy theorist David Icke, which was advertised in left-wing magazines such as Shared Vision and Common Ground.

More recently, in August of 2003, the extreme right wing Canadian Heritage Alliance News advertised the plight of “Trent University's Problem Professor - Fighting for Freedom! Fighting for Canada!” in a banner headline. The professor in question is Michael Neumann, a philosophy professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, who had been posting his essays on the left-wing website Counterpunch.org. While the articles varied in subject matter, they almost always portrayed Israel as “a growing evil.” His writings include such statements as “If it is not racist, and reasonable, to say that the Germans were complicit in crimes against humanity, then it is not racist, and reasonable, to say the same of the Jews” (see also below). The Heritage Front website portrays Neumann sympathetically, as one who is “Fighting for Canada” and “Fighting for freedom.”

 

Extremist Islamic Groups

The presence of extremist Islamic groups has long been reported by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Almost all the world's terrorist groups have some presence in Canada and there are approximately 50 organizational and 350 individual targets being monitored by the CSIS counter-terrorism program. Religious extremist groups have been deemed the greatest threat to Canadian security, specifically various Sunni Islamic groups.

During 2003, several more Palestinian terrorist groups were added to the list of organizations banned in Canada, in addition to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizballah. In April 2003, the al-Asqa Martyrs Brigade was outlawed, while in November the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command were added to the lists of illegal entities.

However, although these groups are banned under the country’s anti-terrorism legislation, it has been reported that operatives from these organizations are nevertheless present and active in Canada. CSIS reports that in recent years, terrorists from various international terror groups may have come to Canada posing as refugees.

The activities engaged in by operatives of these extremist groups include, according to CSIS, fund-raising, lobbying through front organizations, providing support for terrorist operations in Canada or abroad, procuring weapons and materiel, coercing and manipulating immigrant communities, facilitating transit to and from the United States and other countries, and other illegal activities such as abuse of Canada’s immigration, passport, welfare, and charity regulations.

In December 2003, Israeli authorities charged Jamal Akal, a Canadian citizen born in the Gaza Strip, with receiving weapons and explosives training from Hamas for use in terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in Canada and New York City.

 

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITY

In total, 584 antisemitic incidents were reported to B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights (hereafter, the League) in 2003, which represents an overall increase of 27.2 percent over the previous year. In 2002 the 459 incidents reported represented a 60 percent increase over the year 2001. The total number of incidents per year has been steadily increasing over the last decade. From 2001 to 2003, the number of reported incidents doubled. Almost one-third of these cases were reported to police for criminal investigation. Seven resulted in charges, with one leading to a prison sentence, while several cases are still ongoing before the courts.

Police experts and sociologists estimate that only about 10 percent of hate-motivated incidents are ever reported, whether to human rights groups such as the League, law enforcement bodies or other agencies. There is a particular reluctance on the part of members of the Orthodox Jewish community to report incidents, in part because they distrust the secular authorities, although they are often the most victimized because of their attire.

Incidents of serious physical violence against individuals continue to be significant, although the total number of such cases was down from 2002 (15 compared to 29 in 2002). For example, a visibly identifiable Jew, leaving a Toronto synagogue alone late at night was beaten with a hammer by an unknown assailant and suffered serious head injuries. In other examples, bullying at a Toronto area public school led to physical assault, while in Montreal, an elderly Jewish woman was beaten up in a park by two female teenagers of apparent Arab origin.

Threats of physical violence in the harassment category, as opposed to generalized hate propaganda, increased steeply. In 2003, 389 (66.6 percent of the 584 incidents reported to the League) were in the category of harassment. Of these, 110 (35.4 percent) involved threats of physical attack. One hundred and eighty (30.8%) fell into the category of vandalism. This compares to 282 cases of harassment (61.4 percent) and 148 cases of vandalism (32.2 percent) in 2002.

There were 23 incidents, including threats, targeting synagogues in addition to 22 other incidents involving Jewish communal buildings, 46 against Jewish students on campus, 23 in the workplace, 32 relating to Internet sites, 33 involving hate by e-mail, 111 included threats, and 34 were specifically directed against children (22 of which took place at school facilities). Thirty-six incidents involved perpetrators of apparent Middle East origin. There were 180 cases of vandalism compared to 148 in 2002.

Out of the 2003 total of 584 incidents, 84, or 14.4 percent, occurred in January (partly, it seems, as a result of the Ahenakew and Baaklini affairs – see below), and 87, or 14.9, percent in March representing the peak in monthly incidents for the year. The 226 incidents in the first three months of 2003 (38.7 percent of the total for the year) account for more than four times the number of incidents in the same months of 2002. Almost half (49.5 percent) of the incidents in 2003 took place in the first four months. Furthermore, vandalism in March alone accounted for 17.8 percent of the total incidents in this category for the year (32 cases out of the total of 180 for the year).

This four-month period covered not only the build-up in the atmosphere of dissent and confrontation, but also the outbreak of war in Iraq and its immediate aftermath. It has been noted in the past that tensions and upheavals in Canadian society, even if not linked in any rational way to the Jewish community or Israel, have frequently led to increased antisemitic activity.

 

Propaganda

The upsurge in incidents in the first four months of the year may also be related to two instances of hate propaganda in Canada, which made headlines in December 2002, and were widely discussed in the media in early 2003. The first case involved the remarks of David Ahenakew, former chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), who told a Saskatoon Star Phoenix reporter that Adolf Hitler “fried six million Jews” to ensure they did not take over Europe. Hate charges under section 319(2) of the Criminal Code were laid against Ahenakew with the consent of the Saskatchewan attorney general (see below). However, applications made to the governor general to remove Ahenakew from the Order of Canada, have been unsuccessful so far. Meanwhile, an increase in antisemitic incidents was tracked following the Ahenakew affair.

The second case, which reflected foreign influences, involved comments made in December 2002 by Raymond Baaklini, the Lebanese ambassador to Canada, who alleged Jewish control of the media. Baaklini’s weak apology was accepted by the Federal Government and no further sanctions were imposed. In August 2003, Baaklini, again repeated these slurs during an interview with the weekly Canadian Arabic language newspaper al-Mustaqbal, alleging control of the country’s media by certain “pro-Israel elements” of Canadian society. At the time, B’nai Brith formally requested that the Federal Government expel the Lebanese ambassador for promoting racist attitudes against members of Canada’s Jewish community. According to B’nai Brith, there appears to be a causal relationship between coverage of ‘Jewish’ issues in the mass media and the sense that somehow ‘permission’ has been given for open expression of antagonism toward Jews.

Other cases of propaganda included the dissemination of the Kosher Food Tax canard (which alleges that non-Jews are being taxed to provide for the kosher food needs of the Jewish community) through pamphlets found in community settings, and the publication of antisemitic tracts in foreign language ethnic publications issued in Canada, for example, in Hungarian and Polish. Also, Russian language versions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were being sold in bookshops in major cities. Since some of these versions are unknown to Canada Revenue and Customs, the agency charged with stopping the importation of hate material into Canada, the material is only investigated if a complaint is laid.

In December 2003, The Miracle, a weekly Arab community newspaper distributed in Lower Mainland mosques in Vancouver, published an article replete with antisemitic statements such as, “It isn't Arabs lying about and guilt-tripping us with 'the Holocaust' – it is Jews”; “It wasn't Arabs who caused the Great Depression – it was Jews”; “It wasn't Arabs who started WWI – it was Jews”; “It wasn't Arabs who started WWII – it was Jews.” The British Columbia Police hate crime team is cooperating with the solicitor-general's ministry in investigating this incident.

 

College Campuses

Since the outbreak of renewed violence between Palestinians and Israelis in the fall of 2000, hostilities relating to the conflict have spilled over onto Canadian campuses. Jewish students have become increasingly isolated and have been repeatedly subjected to intimidation, and even violence, by fellow students for stating pro-Israel viewpoints. Visibly Orthodox students reportedly cover their yarmulkes with baseball caps, so as not to draw attention. Others keep their opinions to themselves in class discussion for fear of compromising their academic standing in cases where their professor or teaching assistant is openly anti-Israel. This has led to the creation of a poisoned environment on campus.

There has been widespread desecration of Jewish symbols, coupled with antisemitic graffiti. For example, University of Western Ontario premises were vandalized with graffiti showing a swastika superimposed on a Star of David, with the words: “I hate all Jews.” In March 2003, the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) student group at York University included on its display table a yellow Star of David inscribed with slogans referring to ethnic cleansing. In October 2003, vandals repeatedly tore down York University’s campus sukkah.

Hate-promoting material has been distributed on campuses across the country, as well as on university-hosted websites. For example, anti-Jewish remarks were posted on the website of Victoria University’s social work department and only removed following intervention by the administration. The McGill Solidarity against War and Racism group posted an article on its website by David Duke, which contained antisemitic statements. Also in Montreal, antisemitic flyers thought to be the work of white supremacists were distributed on several occasions at Concordia University, the scene of violent anti-Jewish incidents in the past (see, for example, ASW 2002/3).

At the University of Toronto-Mississauga, flyers were posted on the school’s bulletin board depicting an Israeli soldier standing on a bleeding corpse, with money pouring from the soldier’s pockets. The text read: “The Holocaust has proven to be an indispensable ideological weapon; through its deployment one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, has cast itself as a ‘victim’ state, and the most successful ethnic cleansing group in the [world].”

University faculty members published antisemitic canards as well. For example, Michael Neumann, professor of philosophy at Trent University, wrote in the 4 January 2003 edition of Counterpunch magazine: “We should almost never take antisemitism seriously...” He also went on to say that Jews around the world who do not explicitly condemn Israel are “complicit in its crimes.” In an e-mail correspondence which ensued in light of this incident, Neumann wrote that his sole concern was to “help the Palestinians” and he went on: “I am not interested in the truth, or justice, or understanding, or anything else, except so far as it serves that purpose… If an effective strategy means that some truths about the Jews don’t come to light, I don’t care. If an effective strategy means encouraging reasonable antisemitism, or reasonable hostility to Jews, I also don’t care. If it means encouraging vicious racist antisemitism, or the destruction of the State of Israel, I still don’t care.”

A professor teaching a course on critical thinking at the University of Toronto initiated a discussion on the much-circulated conspiracy theory that the 9/11 attacks were a ‘Jewish-perpetrated plot’. Many students agreed with this statement, and it appeared that the teacher had given this theory credence. At the same university, a professor told her students that the Jews use the Holocaust as a trumped-up excuse to avoid criticism.

There have also been physical assaults on Jewish students. In March 2003 at an anti-war rally at York University, Palestinian students carrying antisemitic placards heckled Jewish students, calling them “Nazi-Jews and fascists.” The incident culminated in two Jewish female students being physically assaulted.

During anti-Israel rallies held in 2003 at several Canadian campuses, the Arabic call of “Death to the Jews” (idbah al-yahud) was heard. This follows similar such incidents reported in 2002.

An Al-Awda conference calling for the destruction of Israel took place in late November on University of Toronto premises. The conference manifesto proclaimed that “a two state solution is not a viable or acceptable option for the Palestinian people.” It also advocated a platform which supported “the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli apartheid and colonialism by any means of their choosing.” Protests by supporters of the conference following its initial cancellation by the university authorities led to harassment and assaults against Jews in the vicinity.

 

Internet

There were ongoing reports of Internet sites and chat forums operated by right-wing groups. Complaints were filed by the League and other organizations with the Canadian Human Rights Commission relating to a number of these sites, but this has proved to be no deterrence. For example, BC White Pride (a British Columbia white nationalist organization) continues to operate a site which displays articles attacking Jews.

The Toronto Hate Crime Police Unit reports that “web-based hate is very popular” and that “a number of active sites are presently hosted in the Southern Ontario region, including the Greater Toronto Area.”

Antisemitic and racist rock music is a major recruiting tool and source of funding for hate groups. It is estimated that extremist companies sell millions of dollars of hate rock CDs over the Internet. Canadians can easily purchase these CDs in the same way. Many hate group members are drawn to white supremacist ideologies by listening to hate rock on the Internet, on CDs and at concerts featuring groups such as Angry Aryans, Blue Eyed Devils and H8Machine, as well as the Canadian group Numbskulls.

Web message boards run by neo-Nazi or white supremacist groups, such as stormfront.org and its Canadian link, were widely used, providing a key source of communication and recruitment.

Meanwhile the zundelsite.org, the website found by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2002 to contain antisemitic material, continues to operate from servers in the United States under Zündel’s wife, Ingrid Rimland.

 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

Holocaust Denial

In December 2003, the Alberta Arab News, a community newspaper distributed free of charge to local retail outlets, commenced publication of a series of articles by Greg Felton on anti-Jewish themes. The first piece contained Holocaust denial claims. The articles were reprinted in publications in Vancouver and elsewhere, and disseminated widely via the Internet. A complaint under the province’s anti-hate laws based on this and subsequent articles was rejected. The problem is that Holocaust denial is not a crime in Canada, which does not have ‘false news’ provisions except, to some extent, in Saskatchewan under the provincial Human Rights Code.

Holocaust denial was evident in both the propaganda of the far right and of the far left; as noted above, much far right activity in Canada focused on the presence, in detention, of Ernst Zündel (see ASW 2002/3 and above).

 

Holocaust Commemoration and Education

In 2003, commemorative programs took place in a variety of community and educational settings. Commemoration of Raoul Wallenberg Day took place on 17 January as an initiative of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, and this date is now enshrined in Canada’s list of commemorative days.

Supportive statements were made by several federal and provincial parliamentarians on Yom Ha-Shoah. In addition, in fall 2003, the Canadian government, with all-party support, announced a national Holocaust Memorial Day building on what individual provinces had legislated in the past.

 

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

A number of statements against antisemitism were made during 2003, including a formal resolution by the Toronto City Council. Following a spate of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the Greater Toronto Area in March and April 2004, and again following the firebombing of the United Talmud Torah School in Montreal on the eve of Passover, a number of politicians at all levels of government made strong statements condemning antisemitism.

Senator Jerry Grafstein initiated, at the Senate level, an investigation of antisemitism based on a resolution of the 2002 Berlin meeting of the Organization for Security and Economic Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The motion was adopted in early 2004. However, an initial hearing of the investigation proved disappointing when some Senators tried to exclude evidence implicating a mainstream Arab/Muslim organization in contributing to the creation of an anti-Jewish atmosphere in Canada.

Nine of the twenty members of the Canadian Council of Churches came together to issue a strong denunciation of antisemitism on 9 December 2003. However, some Church leaders also publicly attach themselves to stridently anti-Israel positions, and see no contradiction between these two stances.

 

Legal and Legislative Activity

In general, cases of harassment in Canada rarely result in any criminal investigation, either because no perpetrator can be identified or because the incidents fall outside the restrictive definition of a hate crime under the Criminal Code. These cases are the least likely to be reported, partly because no remedy is expected. Yet, this is the category that has increased the most over previous years. With the ever-increasing use of computer technology, which provides cover for the perpetrator, the number of unsolved hate-motivated harassment cases is likely to grow.

Problems with the classification of antisemitic hate crimes continued in 2003. For example, the brutal hammer assault on a visibly Orthodox Jew (see above) was not classified as a hate crime by the police although the circumstances of the assault, including the absence of any robbery attempt, were indicative of this type of crime.

In regard to Zündel’s refugee claim, the federal government issued a security certificate relying on reports by the CSIS. Refugee proceedings were stayed pending a review of the certificate by Judge Pierre Blais of the Federal Court of Canada. The judge denied Zündel bail pending the review, indicating that Zündel posed “a threat to national security or to the safety of any person.” He noted that “Mr. Zundel wields much more power within the right-wing, extremist and violent movement known as the white supremacist movement... than he lets on.”

Whereas a number of protections are built into Canadian legislation and human rights codes, there are still problems with the current system in terms of the protections afforded to victims of hate related crimes, the first of which concerns data collection and under-reporting by victims. Some effort has been made to improve police data collection and reporting. After consultation with several non-governmental agencies, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics has developed a pilot study to assess the feasibility of ongoing standardized data collection.

Moreover, similar incidents may be treated in markedly different ways by different law enforcement agencies. For instance, whereas a police force in western Ontario refused to classify as hate-related graffiti (‘Jew’) found on a sign outside the house of the only Jew in the neighborhood, a similar case in central Ontario was classified as a hate crime.

There were a number of criminal prosecutions dealing with hate-motivated crimes in 2003. The Brad Love affair illustrates the point made above, namely that different jurisdictions may approach the same case in differing ways. Love took newspaper clippings, added handwritten messages, often antisemitic in content, and mailed them on a regular basis. Such letters came to the offices of the League on five occasions and were brought to the attention of the local police, which did not consider them sufficiently serious to warrant action. Similar letters were sent to individuals in a neighboring region, including the police chief, who initiated an investigation which resulted in Love’s apprehension. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, followed by three years probation, for willfully promoting hatred and mailing obscene material.

Hate crime charges were also laid in the case of David Ahenakew, the Saskatchewan aboriginal leader, who made antisemitic statements in December 2002. As of mid-2004 no trial date had been announced.

The difficulties in prosecuting individuals for hate-related activities is highlighted in the case of Alex Kulbashian, a former spokesperson for the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team (CECT), in relation to an alleged assault on a black man. At trial, he was convicted and sentenced under the Criminal Code’s enhanced sentencing provisions for hate-motivated crimes. However, in 2003, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned his conviction due to evidentiary issues.

On conclusion of the preliminary inquiry in 2003 into the murder of David Rosenzweig (see ASW 2002/3), the judge committed the accused, Christopher McBride, to stand trial on a charge of first-degree murder. Although the judge stated that, in his view, “there is no evidence the accused planned and deliberated on killing a member of an identifiable group,” he did acknowledge that there were elements of hate involved and noted in his decision that the Crown attorneys could bring up the hate crime issues again during trial.

In 2003, the debate continued over whether to allow al-Jazira to broadcast in Canada. The Canadian Radio Television Commission (CRTC) is currently reviewing submissions it has received on this issue. At present there is little scrutiny of foreign television for hate content, and there is no legal requirement that these stations monitor and keep tapes in order that such scrutiny can take place.

            Racist organizations are not presently prohibited in Canada. This failure puts Canada in plain violation of Article 4(b) of the relevant UN Convention. The Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of Suresh vs. Minister of Citizenship & Immigration (2002), held that the provision in the Immigration Act, which allows for deportation based on membership in a terrorist organization, is constitutional. The implication of the judgment is that a prohibition against racist groups would also be constitutional.

           

Nazi War Criminals

The Sixth Annual Report Canada’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Program 2002–2003, produced by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Department of Justice and the Solicitor General of Canada, states that “as of December 2003, 70 World War II files were still under active investigation and 124 initial allegations were being examined while 1,494 files were inactive or closed.” However, there are in fact only nine Nazi-era war crime cases currently active in Canada, either before the courts or awaiting ministerial action, bringing the number of Nazi-era removal proceedings to 22 in total.

Two of the nine active cases are new World War II proceedings to revoke citizenship based on fraudulent disclosure, announced by the War Crimes branch early in 2004 – the first new cases in years. The new proceedings involve Joseph Furman (formerly Furmanchuk) and Jura Skomatchuk, both former guards at the Travniki  concentration camp in Poland. The Justice Department has commenced denaturalization proceedings in Federal Court against both men to revoke their citizenship and deport them..

In the earlier cases of Vladimir Katriuk, Jacob Fast, Wasyl Odynsky, Michael Baumgartner and Michael Seifert, the decision to revoke citizenship was still pending following much earlier court decisions finding that they had each falsely stated their circumstances to immigration officials.