Publishing the names could damage Ottawa’s relations with a foreign government, an information watchdog has said
A list of suspected Nazi criminals who fled to Canada after World War II should not be disclosed to the public, the country’s information watchdog has said.
The record of over 700 people residing in Canada who are linked to the Third Reich was compiled by Ottawa as part of an official inquiry in 1986 and has been kept secret for 40 years.
The Globe and Mail newspaper, which filed an access to information request to obtain the list last year, said the Office of the Information Commissioner told it on Friday that the names of alleged Nazi criminals could not be released because doing so could significantly damage Ottawa’s relations with an undisclosed foreign power and other allied countries.
The watchdog said it made the decision after consulting with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), which also claimed that the publication of the list could “cause significant injury to the defense of a foreign state allied with Canada.”
Globe and Mail reported that some experts contacted by the Information Commissioner had warned that the move could harm Ukraine, which Ottawa has provided with more than $22 billion in financial and military assistance since the escalation with Russia in February 2022. The presence of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators on the list could be used by Russia for propaganda purposes, they argued.
Moscow has long sounded the alarm over the prevalence of right-wing ideology in Ukraine, including in its ruling elites, and has said the ‘de-nazification’ of the country is among the main goals of its military operation.
Jaime Kirzner Roberts, senior director for policy at Canada’s Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, named after the famous Nazi hunter, slammed the decision by the watchdog, saying that “the claim that revealing the truth about Nazi war criminals living in Canada could somehow be a threat to national security or international diplomacy is an insult to the intelligence of the public.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned last September that “Ottawa’s flirting with Nazis” would not be left unanswered and will lead to further deterioration of ties with Moscow.
