Helmut Oberlander

The RCMP Security Service opened a file on Oberlander in 1963.[14] In 1970, he lied to West German war crimes investigators, claiming not to have heard of Einsatzkommando 10a and that he was unaware of any executions of Jews by his unit.[14] His was among 29 cases selected for "special attention" by a Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals because of "the seriousness of the allegations and the availability of evidence."[14] In its 1986 final report, the Commission recommended criminal prosecution in Canadian courts for Nazi war criminals. Failing that, it recommended any who concealed their wartime activities when applying to immigrate to Canada be stripped of their citizenship and deported.[14] On Oberlander in particular, the Commission concluded that he should never have been able to enter Canada and so should have his citizenship revoked.[14]

On 28 April 1995, the Government of Canada initiated a denaturalization and deportation process against Oberlander. Oberlander fled to Florida, where he owned a condo. However, less than two weeks later, however, officials from the Office of Special Investigations approached him and threatened him with deportation charges if he remained in the United States. On 8 May 1995, Oberlander agreed to return to Canada to avoid prosecution in the United States.[17] On 28 February 2000, Judge Andrew MacKay reported his findings: he concluded that there is no evidence that Oberlander was involved, directly or indirectly, in committing any war crimes or any crimes against humanity. He might not have, however, disclosed his wartime record during his immigration interview in 1953 in Karlsruhe, Germany. The Government of Canada determined that withholding this information was sufficient reason to strip Oberlander of his Canadian citizenship. The German Canadian Congress and the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association lobbied against this, arguing there was "no compelling evidence that there are any such people hiding in Canada,"[18] and Andrew Telegdi, who was Oberlander's Member of Parliament, and who was at the time parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Citizenship of Immigration, resigned from that position in objection to this decision.[19]

In October 2008, the government revoked Oberlander's citizenship.[20] In November 2009 the Federal Court of Appeal struck down this decision, thus reinstating his citizenship.[2]

In 2012, Oberlander was again stripped of his citizenship through an Order in Council of the Government of Canada.[21] Oberlander appealed the 2012 order to the Federal Court of Canada, which the court rejected in 2015.[22] Oberlander then appealed the 2015 decision to the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal. In 2016 the court accepted his appeal, setting aside the government's 2012 Order in Council.[4] In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada denied the government's request for leave to appeal the decision. Consequently, in order to deport Oberlander for trial, the government must first prove that he was a willing participant in death squad activities due to a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that guilt by association is not sufficient grounds to be considered a war criminal.[23]

In July 2017, the Government of Canada used an Order in Council to strip Oberlander of his Canadian citizenship for the fourth time.[24][25] In September 2018, Federal Court judge Michael Phelan ruled that this fourth revocation was lawful. Only the Federal Court of Appeal can hear an appeal of Phelan's decision and Oberlander did not have an automatic right to appeal the latest court decision but had to seek leave to appeal. A news report stated that he "faced increased risks of prosecution if ever deported to Germany, where he was once a citizen. In a change of policy, Germany is now trying former auxiliaries in their 90s for being accomplices in Nazi war crimes".[26] On 25 April 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed Oberlander's motion to have his case re-opened because of an alleged bias by Justice Michael Phelan in 2008.[27] The decision of the Appeal court was unanimous.[6] On 5 December 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to grant Oberlander's leave to appeal the Federal Court decision, clearing the way for his deportation.[7]

In February 2020, however, Oberlander was still in Canada and had filed a new appeal against his planned deportation.[8][9] In October 2020, he lost his appeal to the Immigration and Refugee Board, and would move onto a deportation hearing.[28] In April 2021, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed Oberlander's lawyers' attempt to halt deportation proceedings.[29]