PARSE RATS At ANY LSE gt RELIG wi BTM EES SULLA IM I OS UN BIE Iho's t THE SECOND World War _was fought for many reasons, _ one of them having been a ~ world in which justice rules, - But to some, justice is “revenge. Revenge is on the table where the” _prosecution of alleged Nazi war ‘criminals is concerned. Thus, 50 years after it all ended, the Canadian . Jewish Congress (CJC), B'nai B'rith, and other Jewish groups are still - demanding trials and the expulsion * from Canada of those they deem to “be guilty. A.recent news report was to the effect that an 82-year-old in Toronto - by the name of Joseph Nemsila “blinded by. the lights of TV cameras ... wandered in confusion yesterday _ -after his immigration hearing was "postponed. v. “Eventually ....an immigration . vand Refugee Board information offi- cer..:., led Mr. Nemsila down the street and helped him to hail a cab.” * “J find this sort of thing disgusting. My critics. would say, of course, that’ what the old man is alleged to have done was a million times more dis- gusting. 3 But there's the rub, “Half a century - on, who is to say who did what? » =. < Remember the infamous case of “John Demjanjuk? His accusers said | ~ he was “Ivan the Terrible,” a brutal guard at, the Treblinka concentration - camp... | ul remember his. eyes his evil eyes,” said one witness. But an Israeli appeal court | declared unanimously that he was the wrong man. Before that, he faced death by hanging. In the U.S..a fed- eral court found that the organization set up to deal with war criminals — the Office of Special Investigation — had deliberately withheld evidence’ that showed Demjanjuk was not . Iwan, Frank Walus of Chicago was” another who was on the point of being sent for trial in what was then * Communist Poland, But at the last minute it was discovered he could ' not possibly have been the right man. ‘After so long an interval, memories are wildly faulty. : War crimes trials have led to no convictions in Canada. That’s why some suspects are now facing immi- , Defieux-Saxelby Insurance’ Services Inc. 105- 200 West Esplanade; : North ‘Vancouver: “ATTENTION: Volvo OWNERS Sandford Kendrick - ENTER EAS ERG STEN gration hearings that could lead to: their extradition. I's simpler for bureaucrats to find them guilty of not having told the truth about their past when they applied to come here. As a lawyer in the Justice Department has put it, with uncon- scious irony: “We gave it our best shot to put together prosecution cases that just weren't there. Now. we're, looking at other options.” Much to the dismay of B* Nai B'rith, Nemsila’s deportation order has just been dismissed on technical grounds, but that will probably be challenged in court. The war criminal hunt in Canada has been going on for nearly 10 years, It began in 1986 after 660 cases had been studied. Subsequently, 40 lawyers and RCMP were let loose on the job. "The expense has been huge and « the results tiny. Two people lost their citizenship and in the only case that got to court Imre Finta was found not guilty. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld that decision, whereupon a spokesman for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre said we needed a new _ Supreme Court. Natural j Justice doesn’t seem to count for much in these affairs, “Nazi hunters” claim that another suspect, 84-year-old Erichs Tobiass, has admitted he was involved in two sep- arate executions. “Claim” is the oper- | ative word. No details were provided. Reportedly, lawyers in the Tobiass case will call 54 witnesses from Canada, England, Israel, Germany, Latvia and the U.S. At what cost?’ Who knows ? Who cares? The idea _ is to satisfy the pressure groups, Our war crimes legistation was enacted 40 years after the event and covers people who were not Canadian citizens when the alleged offences took place..’’ Although they have finally charged an 87-yeur-old with having committed war crimes, the British recently abandoned their search for’ war criminals. _ The Sunday. Telegraph described that as a victory for common sense, « and said that Britain's War Crimes Bill was “a personal folly of Lady — Py Sb us ay cn oy ad : Thatcher in her last months of - office.” She was MP for a heavily Jewish constituency. We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, where the motto was ” “Forgiveness and Reconciliation.” Ottawa doesn't seem to have ‘heard about that. Nor has the CJC. BEFORE YOU ‘SHOP ANSE THE NE 4 4S peueee DRAPERIES BY S. “LAURSEN ‘CUSTOM ; Ae TRACKS: AND, “VALANGES, "Labour $8.50 pers - panel ualined,. . $9. 50 lined. ” CUSTOM BEDSPREADS &BLINDS At low,‘low prices. °. For’ FREE Estimates /call 987-2966 rae sk about Seniors’ Discounts) .. _ Serving the North Shore for 24 years | | RAPERIES | | We rented it back itil our : new home was f inished” formerly of Westview Engineering would like to invite all Volvo customers to SCAN AUTOMOTIVE — + for all your service > needs. Her 6 & Ruth Spencer like their deck and view ove! Hooking: :