The dark past of US intelligence: They transported Nazi suspects to Canada

The Canadian government has made public most of the 1986 report examining how Nazi war criminals entered the country after World War II, parts of which had been kept secret for decades.

According to The Canadian Press, new details have emerged in previously censored sections that US intelligence services helped place people with questionable backgrounds in Canada during the Cold War.

The 618-page report, prepared by researcher Alti Rodal, was prepared for the Deschênes Commission, which was established to investigate Nazi war criminals in Canada.

In September, the Federal Court of Canada found the application of the Jewish rights organization B'nai Brith Canada justified and ordered the confidentiality of the report to be largely lifted.

After the government did not appeal the decision, Library and Archives Canada shared the new version of the report with the organization in early October.

According to the disclosed documents, US intelligence services carried out a secret program to resettle former agents who worked with them during the Cold War and people who escaped from different countries to other countries.

The program was carried out through the US military's Research and Resettlement Unit in Europe.

The report stated that the structure in question provided cover for the activities of the CIA and other American intelligence services.

According to The Canadian Press, people sent to Canada under the program included people with criminal backgrounds or suspected ties to Nazi collaboration.

In the declassified sections, it was reported that a US official gave Canadian authorities a list of approximately 35 to 40 people who were resettled in the country through the program.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) concluded in its investigations about these people that almost all of them should not be allowed to enter the country for security reasons.

The report stated that American intelligence officers were in a position to provide fake documents to the people in question and were able to assure Canadian visa officials that there were no negative findings in terms of security.

However, no evidence was provided to prove that everyone on the list was a Nazi war criminal. The documents shed light on how people, especially those with questionable backgrounds, were able to bypass security checks.

The Rodal report was part of the work of the Deschênes Commission, which was created to investigate Nazi war criminals who settled in Canada in the 1980s.

However, sections of the report dealing with relations between intelligence agencies, deficiencies in security investigations and post-war immigration policies were hidden from the public for many years.

B'nai Brith Canada has been waging a legal struggle for the disclosure of state archives related to the Nazi period since the 1980s.

Following the decision of the Federal Court of Canada in September, the government removed almost all of the confidentiality in the document.

B'nai Brith Canada Chief Executive Simon Wolle described the disclosure of the documents as a historic development.

Wolle stated that they are pleased that the information will be made accessible to historians, Holocaust survivors, their families and the public.

Pointing out the importance of revealing what happened in the past and identifying those responsible, Wolle emphasized that Canadian society should learn from history.

Although the report has been largely declassified, all documents regarding Nazi war criminals in Canada have not yet been made public.

B'nai Brith Canada also requests the release of the second part of the 1986 final report of the Deschênes Commission.

It is considered that this section, which has been kept secret until now, contains information about the names of Nazi war criminals suspected of settling in Canada and the investigations carried out against them.

The organization stated that it will continue its legal initiatives towards the disclosure of all documents.