Dear Members of the Cabinet Special Committee of Council:

It is my understanding that on Wednesday, June 19, 2002, you will be meeting to consider an Order-In-Council prepared by the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration to revoke the citizenship of Wasyl Odynsky. Presumably, it is this Committee which revoked the citizenship of Helmut Oberlander at a secret meeting on July 12, 2001.

I have been following the "Nazi war criminal" hysteria since the establishment of the Deschenes Commission in 1985 with increasing apprehension and horror. The criminal process implemented by the Mulroney government on August 17, 1987 was bad enough. At least, there was a pretense that the accused victims had allegedly perpetrated some criminal act.

However, the switch to the civil process of denaturalization and deportation instituted by Allan Rock in January 1995 is simply unconscionable. All pretense of war criminality is dropped. The victim is accused of an immigration infraction, against which he cannot possibly defend himself.

In the criminal process, the victim is accused of a crime against God. In the civil process, the victim is accused of a crime against Caesar - a crime against the bureaucracy.

In both the Oberlander and Odynsky cases, Judge Andrew MacKay subjectively ruled that they must have lied upon entering Canada, despite evidence to the contrary. You will note that there is no evidence of criminality either in Europe or in Canada. Canadian society has not been harmed one iota. In fact, Canada has benefited from the exemplary citizenship of these two people for the past 50 years.

To Ukrainians who immigrated to Canada, their Canadian citizenship is very precious. During Stalinist times, as unwilling citizens of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians were deported by the millions to the Siberian Gulags by just such bureaucratic decrees that you are being asked to consider. Are we setting up a similar system in Canada?

If an immigration infraction, whether real or imaginary, is the basis for the revocation of the citizenship of Canadians, perhaps the concept can be expanded to include more prominent people. For example, Peter Mansbridge, news anchor on CBC TV, or Kieth Landy, President of the Canadian Jewish Congress, come to mind. (Surely, the immigration authorities asked them if they were people of good character?) I am sure that an assiduous search would bring forward many other worthy candidates. And why stop there? Why should "enemies of the people" enjoy Canadian citizenship?

I hope that the above facetious example illustrates the horrible implications of the denaturalization and deportation process that you are being asked to rubber stamp by revoking the citizenship of Mr. Odynsky.

In conclusion, for the sake of Canadian democracy, I ask you not to revoke the citizenship of Wasyl Odynsky. Secondly, recommend to the Prime Minister and Cabinet that the denaturalization and deportation process be discontinued. Finally, since Lucienne Robillard and Allan Rock were the initiators of the flawed denaturalization and deportation process, they are in a conflict of interest situation and should recuse themselves from the decision.

Respectfully submitted

Will Zuzak; June 15, 2002
Edmonton, AB

P.S. Could the parliamentary assistants who filter Email messages for their respective MPs ensure that this message is received by the MPs in a timely fashion, and could they send an acknowledgement of such to me?