Denaturalization and Deportation

STOP

 the corruption and politicization of Canada's justice system

Here are the Facts

 Why Canadians should be very concerned about the removal of due process and the infliction of unfairness that denaturalization & deportation represent

What is Denaturalization and Deportation as a policy ("d & d")?

A Federal Government policy that purports to attempt "to bring to justice" alleged war criminals from the World War II era, using a civil process which alleges the accused obtained their Canadian citizenship by false representation, fraud or knowingly concealing material circumstances.


How does d & d remove due process and why is it fundamentally unfair?

1. The process is not a criminal trial!

Despite claims to the contrary, d & d does not involve a finding of guilt or innocence on charges of war criminality. In fact, most Federal Court judges have specifically ruled there was no evidence whatsoever of war crimes or atrocities of any kind on the part of the accused!

2. Nature of proceedings removes fairness because ...

  • nearly 60 years have elapsed since alleged events
  • all prosecution witnesses have died
  • all documents have been destroyed by the government
  • prosecutors have dropped all pretence of war criminality!

    3. What the government substitutes for fairness ...

  • RCMP "evidence" gathering that violates rules of criminal procedure
  • "witnesses" who have no personal knowledge of events
  • KGB-supplied "evidence"
  • "expert historians" who inflame the Court and media against the accused
  • reversed onus on accused, forcing him to prove his innocence

    4. No substance to government's case ...

    which is based on a hypothetical interview 50 years ago, during which a hypothetical question was asked of the accused, who gave a hypothetical answer that is today judged as probably untrue!

    5. Case is not decided beyond a reasonable doubt ...

    but is decided on a balance of probabilities (i.e. Judge need only be 50.1% satisfied on any point)

    6. Other basic flaws include ...

  • inconsistent Court interpretations of issue of "materiality" results in each accused being subjected to a "judicial lottery"
  • defence of involuntariness is unjustly removed by Judges accepting the notion -- foreign to Canadian law -- that accused's failure to stand up to a tyrant disentitles him from holding Canadian citizenship
  • there is no appeal of the Federal Court decision
  • accused is not entitled to Charter protection

    7. Government's complicity ...

  • in violating their express promise that "the key criterion in all these proceedings is the existence of individual criminality. If that cannot be proven, no proceedings will be commenced." (Jan. 1995)
  • final determination as to status and removal from Canada is with select and secret members of Cabinet, not in public and not with the Courts
  • Government ignores penalty for d & d -- loss of citizenship and forced removal from Canada -- is far out of proportion to the alleged "offence"
  • non-Canadian visitors and bogus refugee claimants are entitled to due process and Charter rights, but d & d victims are not!
  • Government spends 1 and 1/4 million dollars per case, knowing accused cannot possibly compete


    What do legal experts say about key aspects of d & d?

    "It should require more than a mere balance of probabilities to deprive any persons of the rights and remedies that would otherwise be theirs ... It is one thing to deport those who have actually committed or assisted in the commission of [war crimes]. But their is no justification for deporting permanent residents simply because they happen to be involved in the same organization as the offenders." - Canadian Civil Liberties Assoc. Brief, April 14/99

    "For permanent residents, [revocation of citizenship] ... should not be based on the probability that an offence has been committed ... Crimes against humanity and war crimes are now offences under Canadian law, and persons in Canada can be prosecuted for offenses committed outside Canada. [Criminal] conviction is the appropriate threshold for loss of permanent resident status." - Canadian Bar Assoc., Citizenship & Immigration Section Issue paper No. 3

    "Is it fair for the government to have alleged war crimes against [an accused] and then, having failed to prove its case, to obtain the same result (d & d) through a much less serious allegation? ... Is this not tantamount to guilt by association?" - Ian Hunter, professor emeritus, Faculty of Law, University of W. Ont.

    "It is only when the criminal responsibility of the individual has been established by a criminal standard of justice that such draconian measures [as denaturalization and deportation] begin to acquire a semblance of justice." - the late Justice John Sopinka, Supreme Court of Canada, prior to his elevation to that Court, May 5, 1986.

    "One is either a member of an organization or one is not. The fact that one may be forced to do a bidding of an organization does not make them a member ... [Judge MacKay's] reasoning would mean that the janitor at the police station is not a member of the police force in a formal sense, but he is still a member because he provides a service to the police. In my respectful view, this conclusion is simply unreasonable." - retired Justice Roger Salhany, critiquing a recent d & d Court decision, May 17, 2000.

    ".. if I had to express a priority [between criminal process and d & d] today ... I would have thought that it would be a more severe punishment to send someone to jail [criminal trial route]" - Justice Jules Deschenes, Nov. 12, 1998.

    About 150 copies of the above foldout brochure were distributed to members of the National Liberal Summer Caucus, Aug. 21 - 22, 2001 at the Mayfield Inn, Edmonton, Alberta.