CANADA COURIER: Fighting crimes against Ukrainians (07/28/96)

CANADA COURIER

by Christopher Guly

Fighting crimes against Ukrainians

John Gregorovich never planned to become a lawyer. His passion for economics, which translated into a bachelor of arts degree in the subject from McMaster University in 1953, made him consider a less-turbulent career in academe.

But, as one of five children born to Ukrainian Canadian parents in Vegreville, Alberta - the town famous for its huge pysanka - Mr. Gregorovich had to be practical. He chose law and attended Osgoode Hall Law School. "The fees back then were quite low," he explains almost regretfully. "I didn't have a calling to law and went to law school with the idea that if I flunked the first year, it would be a sign that I shouldn't be a lawyer."

Mr. Gregorovich graduated in 1958, but remained unsatisfied. "I wasn't happy with the way the law worked in Canada," he recalls. "Since I was curious about other legal systems, I decided to study comparative law."

In 1960, Mr. Gregorovich graduated with a master's degree in law, specializing in comparative law, from New York University in New York City.

Still not quite satisfied, Mr. Gregorovich, who was called to the Ontario Bar in 1958, sought admission to practice in the West Indian island of Grenada - where he, not uncharacteristically, was also called to the Bar of the Leeward and Windward Islands.

After spending the first five years of his legal career in general practice, Mr. Gregorovich found a nice compromise. In 1963, the Industrial Development Bank hired him as a legal officer and, within two years, appointed him regional solicitor for its central region. Suddenly, economics met law.

Actually, that fit has remained with Mr. Gregorovich throughout his other employment with Bell Canada and the Ford Motor Credit Co. of Canada, Ltd. Though officially retired, at the age of 69 and recovering from complications following gall bladder surgery, he still comes in mornings to handle legal work for the Association of Canadian Financial Corporations.

Passion, at least with his day job, however, remains absent.

However, something happened to Mr. Gregorovich 11 years ago that gave him an energy boost.

That year, Justice Jules Deschenes of the Quebec Superior Court was appointed to head a commission investigating suspected war criminals in Canada. Though the identity of suspects was never revealed, the hint that some of the alleged war criminals were of Ukrainian descent was enough to rankle the Ukrainian Canadian community.

Suddenly, Mr. Gregorovich found his passion. He helped organize the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) Civil Liberties Commission (CLC), which hired fellow Ukrainian Canadian and now-Supreme Court of Canada Justice John Sopinka as its counsel during the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals.

Working closely with other ethnic groups, Mr. Gregorovich's group helped persuade the federal government to amend the Criminal Code in 1987, which gave Ottawa the power to put suspected war criminals on trial in Canada. Another Ukrainian Canadian, Ray Hnatyshyn, who went on to become Canada's governor general, was justice minister at the time.

But the victory Mr. Gregorovich and company felt was short-lived. In 1994, the Supreme Court of Canada imposed a higher standard of proof and upheld the 1990 Ontario acquittal of suspected war criminal, Imre Finte. Last year, former Immigration Minister Sergio Marchi and Justice Minister Allan Rock announced they had begun the process of denaturalizing and deporting four alleged World War II criminals living in Canada. Though he accuses Ottawa of following the U.S. in dealing with suspected war criminals - such as the since-exonerated John Demjanjuk - Mr. Gregorovich blames the Ukrainian Canadian establishment for inaction.

"Most people in the community feel that being a member of something is an end in itself. It gives some meaning to their lives, but they don't end up accomplishing a task. I am what you would call a task-oriented person."

His task in 1992 was to secure the UCC presidency. He lost to Winnipeg lawyer Oleh Romaniw, who announced three weeks after his election that Mr. Gregorovich's CLC would be disbanded. The timing couldn't have been worse. The commission was in the process of negotiating a settlement with Brian Mulroney's government over the internment of close to 6,000 Ukrainian Canadians during World War I. (Mr. Mulroney left office without resolving it.)

Put off, Mr. Gregorovich threatened to sue the UCC for disbanding his group. The suit went nowhere. However, Mr. Gregorovich ended up reassembling his commission, with its prolific spokesperson, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, under a new name, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA), in 1993.

For the last three years, the UCCLA, under Mr. Gregorovich's chairmanship, has doggedly pursued the federal government to formally recognize the wrongful internment of Ukrainian Canadians at 26 camps across Canada.

Since only two women survivors remain alive, the UCCLA is seeking no individual financial compensation from Ottawa. Instead, Mr. Gregorovich wants Canadians to know about this sad chapter in Canadian history by having memorial plaques set up at the camp sites. So far, the Department of Canadian Heritage has paid for one - a three-panel marker in Banff National Park.

"The fact that Canadian citizens were treated like prisoners of war is a story that has to be told," Mr. Gregorovich emphasizes.

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