For the first time in a decade, Canada’s War Crimes Program shares what it has been up to |
Apartment buildings damaged by a Russian military strike in the front-line town of Dobropillia in Donetsk region, Ukraine, earlier this month.Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters
Mark Kersten is an assistant professor in criminal justice at the University of the Fraser Valley and a senior consultant at the Wayamo Foundation.
Atrocities in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine raise a question: do Canadians have a role in addressing the suffering of others?
While these wars can appear to affect only distant strangers, their horrors increase the chances that victims – and perpetrators – will seek to enter Canada. It’s unsurprising, then, that Canadian authorities are busier than ever in identifying suspected perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Yet Canada continues to deport perpetrators without any guarantee they’ll be subsequently held accountable.
Ottawa needs to put its money where its mouth is and use its courts to prosecute alleged war criminals.
The last report of Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program was released a decade ago. Back then, authorities suspected that some 200 perpetrators of international crimes resided in Canada. Ottawa’s goal was to deport or prevent the entry of suspects without any guarantee that they’d be prosecuted for their alleged crimes. Believing that trials were too expensive, the government was explicit: Prosecuting perpetrators in Canadian courts under the Crimes Against Humanity and........