NEWS SCAN

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday rejected an appeal by the Attorney General of Canada asking the court to review a lower court decision instructing the country to reconsider revocation of a former-Nazi’s Canadian citizenship. Helmut Oberlander, a 92-year-old Ukrainian man who claims he was forced to translate for the Ek 10a, a Nazi death squad, has had his citizenship revoked three times over the past 21 years, appealing the decision each time. While his initial appeals were dismissed and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration recommended to the Governor in Council that his citizenship be revoked due to his making a false representation or knowingly concealing material circumstances related to his involvement with Ek 10a, a federal court, in Ezokola v. Canada , altered the requirements for complicity leading the Federal Court of Appeal [official website] to instruct the Governor of Council to reconsider Oberlander’s citizenship under the new understanding of complicity and duress.

The continued prosecution of Nazi party members has been an ongoing international concern. The US has designated that the Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations (OSI) will handle cases aimed at denaturalizing or deporting former Nazis who participated in wartime persecutions. Over the past several years the US has questioned the citizenship of multiple suspected Nazi members and has begun criminal proceedings against many of them. John Hansl of Des Moines Iowa, Peter Egner of Washington, Anton Geiser of Pennsylvania, John Demjanjuk of Ohio, and Johann Leprich have all had their citizenship placed under investigation and most are in the midst of criminal investigation. The 2011 conviction of Demjanjuk in Germany may have emboldened German prosecutors to pursue cases against all those who materially helped Nazi Germany function.

As carried in JURIST on 10.07.16