Ottawa Declassifies More on U.S. Role in Bringing Nazi Collaborators to Canada
Ottawa has declassified more passages of historian Alti Rodal's report prepared for the 1985-86 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, headed by former Quebec judge Jules Deschênes.
The release was reported Oct. 9, 2026. The report was commissioned for an inquiry into allegations that Canada had become a safe haven for Nazi war criminals. Most of it was already public, with further declassified details released in 2024. The Globe and Mail
The latest release follows a Federal Court order. Justice Simon Fothergill directed Ottawa to publish redacted sections, passages once blacked out for secrecy, dealing with the American program that resettled Nazi war criminals and collaborators in Canada.
Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller decided not to appeal the ruling. The order stands. The case followed legal action by B'nai Brith, a Jewish organization.
The new text deals with the Research and Resettlement Branch of the United States Army in Europe, known as USAREUR. The Rodal report found that Nazi collaborators who had assisted the United States, including by providing information, were helped to enter Canada by that branch.
The report identified USAREUR at the time as a cover organization for the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. agencies, in effect a front that hid intelligence work. USAREUR acknowledged that some of its informants had criminal records, including cases involving moral turpitude, the legal category in which Nazi collaborators were listed.
One newly released passage deals with scale and timing. It states the RCMP reported to Ottawa in 1954 that about 40 people had been put forward for admission to Canada in 1953 by USAREUR.
Another passage deals with how admission may have happened. It states American intelligence staff could well have helped people with a war criminal background immigrate to Canada. A related section states U.S. staff were able to give such people false documents and to tell Canadian visa officers during routine checks that there was nothing adverse in their files.
The file also shows pushback inside the Canadian system. A newly released section says the RCMP rejected some applicants put forward by the covert U.S. program, resisting the admission of dozens of suspected war criminals.
The broader context here is about process as much as history. A Federal Court judge ordered disclosure, the responsible minister chose not to appeal, and a 40-year-old commissioned history has returned to the public record with fewer blackouts. The substance is now for historians to assess, while Ottawa remains answerable for the secrecy rules that held the file for four decades.
