Dear Mr. Levytsky,

I was very pleased with the editorial in the Ukrainian News issue of November 15-29, 2006.

I had noticed the Matas article myself in the National Post, which I skim occasionally to see what the peculiar spin and perspective on politics and the world situation offers through the eyes of the Asper clan.

I am hoping, once I have wound down my practice sufficiently to give me breathing space, to try to produce a study on the series of Denaturalization and Deportation hearings, in which I and Nestor Woychyshyn as my co-counsel had a major role, since we had three clients out of a total of some 12 that were hounded by the government.

Perhaps only Eric Hafemann was as closely involved, again having a number of clients who were hounded in the same way.

What I hope to do is to persuade some respectable mainstream institution like the Osgoode Society to help fund a study as to the effects of government being manipulated by a very active, energetic, affluent and politically clever community in Canada, to engage in a witch hunt on its behalf.

When one considers how many taxpayers dollars and the problems and distress of the accused this has led to, Matas and his like are but small jackals on the periphery. However, it is just as necessary to respond even to someone like Matas. I recall going to a conference where, when I asked him whether he was not bothered by retroactivity and purported legislation that was reaching back to define crimes that were not crimes at the time (this was in connection with the pursuit of the Hungarian gendarme, Finta, who was later discharged and exonerated by the SEC), his reply was succinct and dismissive. To him, my question raised the red herring, and retroactivity, and indeed the larger demands of justice, should not stand in the way when it was a question of what his community and his like were wishing for.

My best to your efforts and I will probably be in touch at some future point when I begin to come closer to the actuality of putting my notes together and beginning to produce a chronology of an account and analysis of these proceedings.

Regards
Orest Rudzik, Toronto

[W.Z. Orest Rudzik unsuccessfully defended Wasily Bogutin, Vladimir Katriuk and Serge Kisluk in the early d&d trials circa 1997. We laud Mr. Rudzik's suggestion to initiate "a study as to the effects of government being manipulated by a very active, energetic, affluent and politically clever community in Canada, to engage in a witch hunt on its behalf".

In our opinion, the Ukrainian Canadian community has a responsibility to demand from the federal government an apology and financial restitution to the victims of the d&d policy. The suggested study is a necessary prerequisite for the attainment of this goal.]