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Justice Canada Unit Leads Effort to Pursue War Criminals

By Peter McKinnon

OTTAWA – Last fall, Désiré Munyaneza was given the harshest penalty under Canadian law – life in prison.

The Rwandan man was convicted of seven counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in 1994 during Rwanda’s civil war.

It was first successful prosecution under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which came into force in 2000.

And while the conviction and subsequent life sentence are under appeal, the investigation and prosecution represent a milestone in the international effort to pursue war criminals and hold them accountable for their actions.

The case also demonstrates the effectiveness of the collaborative model Canada uses to identify, investigate and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The model involves close cooperation among four partners: the Department of Justice Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Although each agency performs discrete functions (the RCMP investigates criminal cases, the CBSA applies immigration remedies and CIC screens overseas), they meet regularly to review particular files and share information.

“This collaboration is essential to success,” says Terry Beitner, Director of the Department of Justice’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Unit.

“Investigating a particular allegation typically generates information that is valuable to other cases. And the different mandates of the partners enables us to bring a broad perspective to the challenges associated with pursuing war criminals.”

Department of Justice’s War Crimes Unit

Beitner appreciates the advantages of Canada’s current approach to war crimes.

He first joined the Unit in 1990, shortly after it was created, then left to work in private practice. He rejoined the unit in 1997 and rose to Director in 2000.

“As someone passionate about the law, I can’t imagine a more stimulating or rewarding job,” he says. “Along with the intellectual challenge of solving legal complexities, there’s also the emotional challenge of dealing with the often searing, gut-wrenching testimony of survivors. I feel privileged to work on these cases.”

“As someone passionate about the law, I can’t imagine a more stimulating or rewarding job.”
– Terry Beitner, Director, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Unit

Terry Beitner
Photo: Pat Walton for the Department of Justice

Beitner leads a multidisciplinary team of approximately 30 people that includes lawyers with expertise in criminal, immigration and international law, analysts and historians specializing in specific foreign conflicts, and administrative and support staff.

The Unit provides legal advice to the other federal partners and supports the work of investigators and prosecutors in the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

World War II atrocities inspire first prosecutions of war criminals

The concept of holding individuals to account for atrocities committed in wartime is relatively new.

In the wake of the Second World War, the Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Tribunal marked the first time that multiple countries collaborated in a process to punish individual war criminals.

In the decades that followed, however, this international collaboration largely dissipated, and relatively little was done to identify and pursue perpetrators of atrocities. An unknown number immigrated to countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States.

In response to concerns about the presence of war criminals in this country, the federal government appointed the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in the 1980s.

The commission’s report inspired a new, more proactive approach: the Department of Justice and RCMP established dedicated units to investigate alleged war criminals in Canada.

Although four investigations led to charges under the Criminal Code, none of the ensuing trials yielded convictions.

“Prosecuting someone in Canada for crimes committed in another country is a complex undertaking,” says Beitner. “Evidence must be gathered in other countries and meet Canada’s exacting standards in criminal cases. And pursuing these cases typically requires the cooperation of other countries, something that demands continuous effort to establish and maintain positive international relations.”

The failure to secure convictions, along with concerns that war criminals might be among the growing number of refugees fleeing to Canada from conflicts abroad, led authorities to pursue other remedies, such as revocation of citizenship.

Rather than trying to mount an effective criminal case against an alleged war criminal, officials attempted to prove that the person had entered Canada or obtained citizenship through fraud or misrepresentation.

This approach proved successful and became an important component of Canada’s larger strategy. Thus, since the beginning of the program, the Department of Justice examined more than 1,800 files. Investigations were completed in 145 files and from those deportation or citizenship revocation proceedings were begun in approximately two dozen cases.

Illustration: Kaméléons & Cie

Canada leads international effort against war criminals

During this period, the international community also beefed up its efforts to identify and prosecute war criminals.

The United Nations established special international courts to consider allegations of war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. These efforts culminated in the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Rome Statute, which created the ICC, came into force when the 60th country ratified it in 2002.

Canada became the first country to incorporate the provisions of the ICC Statute into domestic law with the proclamation of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Canadian case law also influences international efforts. A 2003 guideline on the status of refugees issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for instance, refers directly to the concept of complicity described in the 1992 Federal Court of Canada decision in Ramirez v. Canada.

The War Crimes Program’s integrated, broad approach continues to yield results.

Today, Canada’s War Crimes Program relies on a variety of remedies to pursue, investigate and punish alleged war criminals. Some are pre-emptive, such as the denial of visa applications and access to Canada’s refugee-determination system.

Other remedies include criminal prosecution under Canadian law, extradition to a foreign government and surrender to an international tribunal.

The cases are complex, expensive and time-consuming.

The trial of Munyaneza, for example, heard testimony from 66 witnesses, took place in four countries over three years and cost approximately $4 million.

But this integrated, broad approach continues to yield results.

While only a handful of Second World War cases remain active, the Program maintains upwards of 2,000 active cases related to subsequent conflicts such as the war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

During 2006-2007, Canada prevented 361 persons allegedly involved in war crimes from entering the country and refused 290 resident visa applications.

In November, for the second time, war crimes charges were laid against a 37-year-old Rwandan refugee who has been living in Windsor, Ontario.

And in the recent Speech from the Throne, the Government pledged to “introduce legislation to speed up the revocation of citizenship of those who have concealed their war crimes.”

“As the partners amass more information and expertise, it gets easier to identify and pursue war criminals,” says Beitner.

“We’re now able to compare new allegations with existing records about what occurred at a particular place and time. Once enough countries join in this effort, war criminals will simply have no place left to hide.”

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