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Globe and Mail | 28May2015 | Steven Chase
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/alleged-nazi-war-criminal-sought-by-russia-dies-in-quebec/article24667197/

Alleged Nazi war criminal sought by Russia dies in Quebec

[W.Z. The long troubled life of Vladimir Katriuk (1921.10.01 -- 2015.05.22) has come to an end. I met Mr. Katriuk and his wife Maria on only one occasion -- on 14Oct1999, while on a trip to Montreal to finalize the sale of my house in Ste. Julie. The late Peter Humeniuk drove me to his acreage in Ormstown. They were shocked and devastated by the January 29, 1999, decision of Judge Marc Nadon that Mr. Katriuk be denaturalized. After hearing their story and reading Judge Nadon's Verdict, so was I. This led me to analyze the case and write a critique of Judge Marc Nadon's verdict as referenced in the three links listed below, which the reader is encouraged to click on and read. Before we left, Mr. Katriuk gave me an extensive tour of his bee-keeping enterprise and presented me with a jar of honey, which I kept on display for many years.

Allow me to summarize the Katriuk case:
- In November/December 1941 Mr. Katriuk was with a group of Ukrainian Nationalists who unfurled a Ukrainian flag in Kyiv. They were arrested by the Germans, the leaders shot, and he was given the option of being sent to Germany as a forced laborer or joining the Schutzmannschaften police units. He joined the police unit and ended up guarding a flour mill in Kyiv against Communist saboteurs for about one year and guarding a Polish village in Belarus against partisans for another year.
- In 1944, his unit was transferred to France to fight against the Western Allies. His unit deserted and joined the French partisans. They fought with the French army against the Germans for several weeks until a Soviet repatriation commission arrived and demanded that these people be returned to the Soviet Union. When they refused, they were interned by the French and given the choice of either returning to the Soviet Union or joining the French Foreign Legion (FFL).
- Mr Katriuk joined the FFL and once again fought against the Germans, was wounded, spent 2 months in an American military hospital, and fought once again with the Western Allies until the end of the war. The French military presented him with a medal and supporting documents for his service and bravery.
- He was prepared to go to Indochina with the FFL, but because of his virulent anti-communist views got into a fight with his Spanish Communist commanding officer, who promised him that he would not return alive from Vietnam. He deserted and went back to the French partisans, who prepared false documents for him under the name of Nicolas Schpirka. With these documents he obtained his ID papers from the French authorities, found work, got married to Maria Kawun in 1948, and opened a delicatessen shop in Paris.
- They emigrated to Montreal in 1951, but, when the time came to obtain their Canadian citizenship, they wanted to revert to their correct name, Vladimir and Maria Katriuk. They were instructed by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to apply for a name change, which was completed on 13May1958. They applied for and received Canadian citizenship on 10Nov1958 from Judge Robataille, who was fully aware of the name change.
- Presumably, Mr. Katriuk's name arose during the Deschenes Commission hearings in 1985-86. (Presumably, the documents in Ottawa archives relating to the circumstances leading to charges against Mr. Katriuk have been made secret for a period of 25 years.) Mr. and Mrs. Katriuk were shocked when they received a letter dated 15Aug1996 from the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (Lucienne Robillard) announcing intention to revoke Mr. Katriuk's citizenship. On August 27, 1996, Mr. Katriuk referred the case to the Federal Court of Canada (Judge Marc Nadon).
- In his verdict dated 29Jan1999, Judge Nadon concludes that there is no evidence of war criminality, but that "on the balance of probabilities" Mr. Katriuk willfully concealed pertinent information from the immigration authorities and ruled that Mr. Katiuk's citizenship could be revoked.
- In a short letter dated 18May2007, Raylene Baker, Senior Director of Citizenship and Immigration Canada informed Vladimir Katriuk "that on May 17, 2007 the Governor in Council decided not to revoke your citizenship".

To conclude, in the eyes of God the life of Vladimir Katriuk exhibited far more sincerity and integrity than that of his detractors and persecutors, including Judge Marc Nadon. Slava Ukraini! Heroyam slava! ]

Alleged Nazi war criminal Vladimir Katriuk, a beekeeper of Ukrainian ancestry who lived in Quebec for more than 60 years, has died just as Moscow was preparing a criminal case against him in an effort to embarrass Canada.

Mr. Katriuk, 93, died last week [on 22May2015], his lawyer said. He most recently lived south of Montreal near the U.S. border where he raised bees.

“Mr. Katriuk has passed away, after years of unwarranted harassment, media not excepted,” Orest Rudzik told The Globe and Mail. Mr. Rudzik served as legal counsel to Mr. Katriuk over the years.

“I’m glad he’s at peace. He’d been ailing for a long time.”

Relations between Vladimir Putin’s Russian government and Canada are frosty today over Ottawa’s strong and vocal opposition to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine. Canada has suspended all but low-level diplomatic relations with Russia and Moscow’s leadership has told Prime Minister Stephen Harper to butt out of Ukraine, the ancestral homeland of more than one million Canadians. [It was Steven Harper at the 15/16Nov2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, who told Mr. Putin that he needed to get out of Ukraine.]

Mr. Katriuk was set to become a pawn in Canada-Russia relations. On May 8, 2015, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, a law-enforcement body that reports only to Mr. Putin, called on Canada to deliver Mr. Katriuk to Moscow so he can be tried for alleged war crimes. [The Mr. Putin in Moscow wants to investigate a WWII alleged war crime perpetrated by a Ukrainian in Belarus? What about investigating war crimes perpetrated by Russian citizens in the Donbas area of Ukraine in 2014/2015?]

The Harper government responded by ignoring the request and saying it will never recognize Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its interference in Ukraine.

Jewish groups have long urged the deportation of Mr. Katriuk, a former member of a Ukrainian battalion of the Waffen SS, the elite Nazi troops, and they increased their demands for action in recent years after new scholarly research that appears to tie Mr. Katriuk to a 1943 massacre of villagers in Belarus, a former Soviet republic.

In 1999, the Federal Court ruled that Mr. Katriuk obtained Canadian citizenship under false pretenses by not telling authorities about his collaboration with the Nazis but could find no evidence he committed atrocities. In 2007, the Harper cabinet decided not to revoke his citizenship. [The long history of the Vladimir Katriuk case, including a critique of Judge Nadon's verdict , has been archived in the Katriuk directory in MoZeus.]

Mr. Katriuk has said he was forced to join the SS battalion and did not participate in operations with the Germans. He said that while in Belarus, he guarded villagers, livestock and resources from other partisan forces.

[W.Z. When Mr. Katriuk's unit was transferred to France to fight against the Western Allies in 1944, the unit deserted and joined the French partisans. They fought with the French army against the Germans for several weeks until a Soviet repatriation commission arrived and demanded that these people be returned to the Soviet Union. When they refused, they were interned by the French and given the choice of either returning to the Soviet Union or joining the French Foreign Legion (FFL). Mr Katriuk joined the FFL and once again fought against the Germans, was wounded, spent 2 months in an American military hospital, and fought once again with the Western Allies until the end of the war. The French military presented him with a medal and supporting documents for his service and bravery.]

Mr. Rudzik said his former client was the victim of unfair persecution.

Moscow’s new demand had threatened to reignite frictions between Canada’s Jewish and Ukrainian communities over Mr. Katriuk.

Earlier Thursday [28May2015], the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which did not know of Mr. Katriuk’s death, urged Ottawa to take action on the Nazi collaborator.

[W.Z. On 01Jul2011, CIJA assumed its current name following an 18-month restructuring process in which the functions of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canada-Israel Committee, Quebec-Israel Committee, National Jewish Campus Life and the University Outreach Committee were consolidated. (Wikipedia)]

“There have been recent reports that the Russian Federation has requested that Canada extradite Vladimir Katriuk, a Quebec resident originally from Ukraine, to be tried for war crimes he allegedly committed while serving in the Waffen SS during the Second World War,” Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said.

“While we are supportive of Canada’s position on the integrity of Ukraine and the need to oppose challenges to Ukraine’s sovereignty, this must be separated out from the imperative to ensure justice is served with respect to Nazi atrocities perpetrated against Jews and others during WWII. We call on the Government of Canada to review this case and take the necessary steps to ensure that, if guilty, Katriuk be held accountable for war crimes committed in collaboration with the Nazi regime.” [The more things change, the more they stay the same.]

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, a lobby group with significant influence in the Prime Minister’s Office, has urged Ottawa to ignore Russia’s demands.

In a statement provided to The Globe and Mail earlier this month, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) called for Mr. Katriuk to be left alone.

“The Federal Court of Canada in 1999 found no evidence that Mr. Katriuk participated in war crimes or atrocities against the civilian population” during the Second World War,” UCC executive director Taras Zalusky said in a statement.

“Canada’s cabinet refused to strip Mr. Katriuk of Canadian citizenship for those same reasons,” he said.

Mr. Zalusky called Moscow’s investigation “an obvious attempt to distract attention away from Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, invasion of and war against Ukraine, and sow discord among ethnic communities in Canada.”

In 2012, the Harper government pledged to re-examine the Katriuk case but nothing came of it.