As Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Denis Codere said: I have received enough mail, faxes and phone calls so that I feel I can probably speak Ukrainian.

We have accomplished the immediate goal of stopping the government from revoking Wasyl Odynsky's citizenship - for now. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Denis Codere decided that, contrary to the agenda, his proposed revocation of Mr. Odynsky's citizenship would not be on the table for discussion by the Special Committee of Council - this past Wednesday June 19. This change of plan by him was due to the profound response by so many of you - an offensive which forced the politicians to reconsider the issue. It has demonstrated that we can make a difference when so many of us work in tandem.

Minister Coderre's stated intention "to be fair" in a future evaluation of his recommendation regarding Mr. Odynsky's citizenship status, does not end the matter for Wasyl Odynsky. Although gratifed that he is still a Canadia citizen and therefore his citizenship still prevents him from being deported, Mr. Odynsky lives with the daily question of whether his citizenship will be usurped. After almost 5 years of having this Damocles sword hanging over him, it is incumbent upon the government to expeditiously declare that Mr. Odynsky should not be denaturalized nor deported - as justice would obligate.

Until that transpires, Mr. Odynsky and Canadian justice will be held hostage to the way the political winds blow:

1. Even if Minister Coderre personally comes to the just conclusion, there is still the concern that the Minister not table this indefinitely. This could evolve into the despicable scenario whereby we would find ourselves with a new minister and have to start our campaign for justice all over again - for the fourth time, with the fourth Minister (since the government imposed this ordeal on Mr. Odynsky').
2. There will also be significant pressure from more than one soruce on the politicians to make this case the first major win for the War Crimes Unit. In the need to justify this process as well as its expense to the taxpayer, the decision by the Special Committee of Council to revoke Mr. Odynsky 's citizenship, may be taken some time hence - when we have become less vigilant.

Toronto Sun | June 14, 2002
It is wrong to strip an old man of his citizenship without appeal
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/worthington.html

Last year, around this time, in several articles I scolded then-immigration minister Elinor Caplan for her determination to deport 78-year-old Ukrainian-born Wasyl Odynsky, who's lived in Canada since 1949, raised a family and is a productive citizen with an unsullied reputation.

The case against Odynsky - conscripted by the Nazis at age 19 on pain of death and/or reprisals to his family- is so tenuous, vindictive and unjust it should be dismissed out of hand. Yet last month Odynsky got official notice the federal cabinet is considering the recommendation he be stripped of Canadian citizenship and forcibly deported.

The Globe and Mail | Monday, June 10, 2002 | p. A3
The man Ottawa won't leave alone
By KIRK MAKIN
Justice Reporter

On the first anniversary of a judicial ruling finding no evidence to link him to Nazi war crimes, Wasyl Odynsky dared to think the government might actually have lost interest in him.

Big mistake. Just a few weeks later -- early last month -- Mr. Odynsky got the letter he had been dreading. The federal cabinet would consider a Citizenship and Immigration proposal to strip the 78-year-old man of his Canadian citizenship.

"After 50 years, how can they do such a thing to an old person?" Mr. Odynsky said in his first interview since being accused in 1997 of concealing a Nazi past.

"I am completely innocent," Mr. Odynsky said, sitting stiffly in his daughter's Etobicoke living room alongside his wife Maria. "I never expected my own government would say that I came here illegally. How can they do this to an innocent person?"