Federal Court orders release of some secret material in Nazi war crimes study
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court has ordered the release of some long-concealed passages of a 1986 study prepared for a landmark federal commission of inquiry on war crimes.
In a new ruling, Federal Court Justice Simon Fothergill directed the government to disclose previously redacted portions of the study on the resettlement of alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada after the Second World War.
B’nai Brith Canada has fought for years to see more of the report by researcher Alti Rodal, conducted for Canada’s inquiry on war criminals led by Jules Deschenes in the 1980s.
Rodal’s study was released initially under the Access to Information Act in a heavily censored form in 1987. In recent years, fuller versions of the study have been disclosed.
In February 2024, Library and Archives Canada released some additional portions of the report in response to an access request from B’nai Brith.
Library and Archives continued to withhold other elements — including passages that discuss the role of American intelligence agencies in facilitating the settlement of Nazi collaborators in Canada.
In his ruling, Fothergill said the federal government had not met the “heavy onus” of showing that the release of additional information would harm Canada’s international relations.
The court decision is a victory for all Canadians, said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith’s director of research and advocacy.
“Canadians deserve to learn about our country’s history to enable us to learn from its mistakes and also to heal from the trauma of what was a dark period in Canadian history, specifically for Canada’s Jewish community,” Robertson said Thursday in an interview.
“I hope that the material provides further clarity on who was let into Canada and why.”
The government could challenge Fothergill’s ruling in the Federal Court of Appeal.
Robertson said that if the government appeals, “we will be fighting that in court.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.