Irwin Cotler, a McGill University law professor recently named officer of the Order of Canada, was addressing a commemoration last night of a meeting at which the "final solution" for the extermination of Europe's Jews was worked out.

The Wannsee Conference, 50 years ago yesterday, saw 15 top German officials plan the liquidation of 11 million Jews, many in countries Germany hadn't yet conquered.

"Those who are prepared to deny the Jewish people their past are the same people who would deny the Jewish people their future," Cotler said.

That is why bringing war criminals to justice is a "moral imperative," because if there were no criminals, there were no crimes, he said.

"Each time we bring a war criminal to justice we strike a blow against the Holocaust denial movement," Cotler said in a passionate speech.

He was answered with a standing ovation by a crowd that packed an auditorium in the Adath Israel Congregation in North York.

Anti-Semitism, which is resurging, is a threat not only to Jews but to democracy, Cotler said. "Though it begins with Jews, it does not end with Jews."

In an interview, Cotler said 70 documents recently released by former Soviet KGB agents don't prove World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg is dead. Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who singlehandedly saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

The papers only refer to a period between 1945 and 1947, said Cotler, and do not counter evidence Wallenberg lived much longer and even may be alive today.

Cotler is a past chairperson of the Helsinki Watch Group, and is on the board of the Canadian Human Rights Foundatrion, the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.