Jewish Studies

This is why Jewry is loved so much

Subject: Possible Hoax?

[This was sent to me as being allegedly legitimate. I find it hard to believe that even Canada could be this bad...but then, honest to God, you just never know with these people. - HAC]

<start AP article>

TEEN DEPORTED FOR SUSPECTED NAZI WAR CRIMES

March 3, 2001

TORONTO, Ont. (AP) In a landmark decision that has earned praise from Jewish community leaders and raised eyebrows among some conservative legal scholars, Judge Herschel Gold yesterday ordered the grandson of asuspected Nazi war criminal deported to the Ukraine.

Robert, 15, will be escorted by RCMP officers to Pearson International Airport early next week.

The government has alleged that Rauliuk's grandfather, Evhen Rauliuk, served as a cook in Schuma 118 Police Battalion in Byelorussiaand that from 1942 to 1944 he meals for the unit while it conducted actions against Soviet partisans and civilians.

Rauliuk, dubbed the "Butcher of Byelorusse," died from a heart failurelast November at the age of 98, induced, some members of the Ukranian community allege, by an often vocal around-the-clock vigil conducted by a local Jewish youth league outside the Placid Valley Retirement Home where he had resided since 1981.

His premature demise compelled a change of tactics on the part of the Crown, which at the urging of several Jewish organizations filed new charges against his grandson under the Multicultural Justice Act, an omnibus legal reform law facilitating equitable outcomes in legal cases involving designated ethnic and cultural groups.

Robert Rauliuk is the first person charged under the new act. Legal observers believe his conviction may lay the groundwork for chargesagainst the descendants of other deceased alleged war criminals.

In recent years the declining number of East Europeans available for deportation has negatively affected Canada's war-crimes investigations, insiders report. It is hoped that the unprecedented intergenerational features of the Rauliuk case will re-invigorate the pursuit of justice.

The court heard evidence that Evhen Rauliuk failed to reveal his participation in crimes against humanity when applying for Canadian citizenship in 1951 and therefore obtained citizenship by false representation and knowing concealment of circumstances. Judge Gold ruled that because Evhen Rauliuk's citizenship was invalid and his son Ivan, now deceased, was born outside of Canada, Robert Rauliuk was in violation of the Illegal Domicile Act of 1876 and could be stripped of his citizenship and deported to his genealogical place of origin.

Noted Talmudic scholar and civil-rights activist Rabbi Gunther Plaut testified for the Crown on the role of inter-generational punishment inthe Western tradition of jurisprudence.

In a statement released this morning, David Matas, senior legal counselfor B'nai Brith Canada, applauded Judge Gold's controversial decision, under section 379b of the Multicultural Justice Act, to bar defence attorneys from the courtroom in order to expedite the trial.

"Since the start of the court proceedings, the case against the two Rauliuks has been bogged down in minor legal technicalities, shamelessly brought up by the defence, which prevented the government's allegations from ever being judged on their merit," Matas said. "It was a bold decision, but the right one under the circumstances."

Bernie Farber, Community Relations director for the Canadian Jewish Congress, expressed a quiet pride at the verdict, which he attributed to the many years his organization has spent lobbying a succession of Justice Ministers for the passage of the Multicultural Justice Act.

"We feel that justice has been served," Farber said at an impromptuvictory celebration held in front of Toronto's Ukranian Cultural Centre. "Evhen Rauliuk was getting pretty feeble and may not have survived the trip tothe airport, but Robert is young and vigorous, he has his life in front ofhim, and his family will miss him. It's a much more satisfying conclusion, ethically speaking."

Farber also called for restraint in the Ukranian community, many of whom were fearful that deportations for alleged war crimes may now be prolonged indefinitely.

"Anti-Semitism is not a term I use lightly," Farber added. "But in this case it's fully justified. must come to terms with their virulent anti-Semitism."

Robert Rauliuk, contacted at the Downsview Youth Detention Facility, expressed surprise at the verdict.

<end AP article>