December 28, 1998     Faxed to: (613) 995-2962

Hon. Herb Dhaliwal, P.C.
Minister of National Revenue
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Minister:

Our organization was founded in 1927 and is part of a national body, which is incorporated under the federal Business Corporations Act, Part II.

A number of our members have reported receiving in their mail, on an unsolicited basis, a black envelope on the face of which appear these words: "OUTBREAKS OF A VIRULENT NEW STRAIN OF ANTISEMITISM AROUND THE WORLD CONFRONT YOU WITH A CHOICE." This envelope is sent via bulk post under number 635200. The sender of this correspondence is:

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre
8 King Street East, Suite 710
Toronto, ON
M5C 1B5

This organization states that its charitable registration number is 0567586-21-27.

In their two-page solicitation for donations is found the following passage:

"...we learned that nearly 2,000 former members of the infamous Waffen S.S. (some of whom were members of Hitler's police battalion who slaughtered Jewish men, women and children in roundups and pogroms during World War II) were living comfortably in Canada, we immediately swung into action."

Mr. Minister, the foregoing statement is 100% false, to the extent that it should be investigated by the federal Justice Minister as clearly "hate literature" within the meaning of the Criminal Code. In fact, you should be made aware that the Hon. Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice, recently announced publicly that the so-called Galician Waffen S.S. Division members living in Canada were (once again) cleared of war crimes accusations. This should not have come as a surprise to anyone, since that Ukrainian armed force was already cleared three times in the past (by the Allied field force; by the Canadian government in 1950-52; and by the Deschenes Commission in Dec., 1986).

Given that the said military formation committed no such crimes as claimed by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, you are duty bound to immediately withdraw their charitable number, since I doubt charity includes within its ambit the spreading of vicious lies about fellow Canadians. Please inform this office once you have revoked the Wiesenthal Centre's charitable status.

You should also be aware that Minister McLellan promised a delegation of members of our community (I was present then on November 13, 1997, or 13 months ago!) that she would forward our concerns about the Wiesenthal Centre to the Minister of National Revenue. Please confirm that this was done; if it was, please explain why your department has done nothing about it. If it was not so forwarded, ask Ms McLellan to explain why she has prevaricated on this crucial civil liberties issue.

Your immediate conclusive response is expected.

Yours truly,

Eugene Harasymiw, LL.B.
President

cc:
Michael Zaleschuk, National President of USRL of Canada (306) 729-2173
Ukrainian Canadian Congress - National Headquarters
Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Peter Goldring, M.P., Edmonton East
Hon. Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice (403) 495-2598
Preston Manning, Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition (613) 947-0310