US Returns Alleged Nazi Criminal To Canada
US Returns Alleged Nazi Criminal To Canada
THE United States returned Helmut Oberlander, an alleged Nazi war criminal to Canada, where officials are trying to revoke his citizenship for execution of civilians during World War II, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The department's Office of Special Investigations, which hunts Nazis in this country, said Mr. Oberlander was a decorated member of one of the most notorious Nazi murder squads.
Captured Nazi documents show he served in a mobile unit of Nazi SS that murdered tens of thousands of Jewish and other civilians in southern Ukraine and the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union.
Provinces don't want gun control
SEVERAL Canadian provinces want to opt out of proposed tougher federal gun-control laws, provincial justice ministers said Tuesday.
''What is being applied is a whole new layer of gun control, and our people have drawn a line,'' Saskatchewan's Justice Minister Bob Mitchell told a news conference in Ottawa.
The Liberal government has proposed measures to ban military assault weapons and stiffen sentences for firearm related offenses. The most contentious proposal requires firearms to be registered with the government.
Ottawa says the tougher laws will reduce crime, but gun owners across the country have complained bitterly about the proposed law, saying it will fail to stop real criminals and will curb the lifestyles of law-abiding weapons owners.
Gun owners in Western Canada have been the most vocal. ''We have taken the position in Alberta that we would rather see it phased in elsewhere,'' Alberta Justice Minister Brian Evans said at a news conference.
Justice ministers from Saskatchewan and the northern territory of Yukon said they wanted the federal government to exempt them from the legislation as well.
