Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association

 Edmonton Office, 4811 115 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5W 0W3
Tel: (780) 479-3114/Fax: (780) 479-3114

2002-06-14

To: Honorable Cabinet Members of Special Committee of Council
Via:    fax to 22 members

The Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association wishes to register its most emphatic opposition to the possibility of your Committee removing the Canadian citizenship of Mr. Wasyl Odynsky.

There is or was:

  • No evidence of criminal culpability on Odynsky's part
  • No basis for removing his constitutional right to a criminal trial
  • No grounds for denying Odynsky his due process
  • No right to deprive him of his rights during investigation
  • No wisdom in equating involuntary service with criminality
  • No decency in imputing that he failed to evade capture
  • No rational justification for recommending denaturalization
  • No sense in prolonging the injustice visited upon him

    What the Committee members must understand is that, if you choose to accept your colleague's recommendation just as mindlessly as your government has chosen to pander to the isolated and misguided lobbyists who herded you into this scandal, you will not be serving justice, but will instead have delivered a mortal blow to justice, from which it will not recover.

    Free Odynsky; dismember the denaturalization and deportation process.

    Taras Podilsky
    Branch President