Canada will be ready to study any evidence suggesting that the country's residents may have committed military crimes during World War II, Department of Justice spokesperson Allison Storey told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2020) Canada will be ready to study any evidence suggesting that the country's residents may have committed military crimes during World War II, Department of Justice spokesperson Allison Storey told Sputnik.
On Monday, a report with the Names of 96 veterans of the Latvian Legion - a formation of the Nazi Party's Waffen SS - who are now living in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and the United Kingdom was presented at a roundtable at the Rossiya Segodnya International news Agency. The report was compiled by Russia's Historical Memory Foundation and the Foundation for Support of Jewish Culture, Traditions, education and Science.
"Any information regarding allegations that people who committed atrocities abroad are currently residing in Canada can be submitted to the Department of Justice. The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program would conduct the appropriate inquiries depending on the circumstances surrounding the allegations," Storey said.
Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told Sputnik on Tuesday that the Committee will study the biographical data of the Latvian Legion veterans and will check whether they were involved in crimes against Soviet civilians during World War II.
Storey said that it is Canada's policy "to deny safe haven to individuals who may have been either directly involved in or cooperated with others in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide."
During the Great Patriotic War - as World War II's Eastern Front is called in Russia - the Latvian Legion units committed numerous crimes against humanity in the Soviet Union, including the killing of civilians in the villages of Zhestyanaya Gorka and Chernoye. Last May, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case of genocide committed there in the 1941-1943 period.
