Successes

The War Crimes Program has made significant headway in ensuring that war criminals are denied impunity and held accountable for their actions. Through visa and entry screening processes, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) work together to ensure that perpetrators never get past our borders. When suspected perpetrators are identified as living in Canada, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) collaborate closely with the CBSA and CIC to ensure that the correct course of action is taken.

Cases

The Program has many ongoing cases respecting alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. To find statistics and a summary of War Crimes Program cases by year, please visit the Annual Reports section of this website. 

Criminal Prosecutions

Désiré Munyaneza

Canada’s War Crimes Program has completed its first successful prosecution under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. On May 22, 2009, Rwandan national Désiré Munyaneza was found guilty of all seven counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide with which he was charged. On October 29, 2009, he was sentenced by the Quebec Superior Court to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Désiré Munyaneza appealed the decision of the Superior Court in September 2010.

Désiré Munyaneza was born in 1966, the son of a wealthy Hutu shopkeeper in Butare. He was running the town's main general store when the genocide in Rwanda began in April 1994. In 1997, Mr. Munyaneza fled to Canada.

Three years later, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) rejected his claim. The IRB found reasons to believe he had participated in crimes against humanity. According to Article 1F(a) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a person is excluded from asylum if there are serious reasons to believe that he or she has committed a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity. 

Jacques Mungwarere

On November 6, 2009, Rwandan Jacques Mungwarere, age 38, was arrested and charged with one count of genocide under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. The indictment was amended on May 26, 2010, and includes at the present two counts of genocide and two counts of crimes against humanity in the area of Kibuye, Rwanda.

The investigation against Jacques Mungwarere began in February 2003 when a concerned citizen provided information to the RCMP. Throughout the course of the investigation, RCMP investigators conducted exhaustive interviews with numerous witnesses in Rwanda, Canada and the United States.

In February 2011 the Superior Court of Ontario in Ottawa held hearings into preliminary legal issues in the case, including whether the indictment should be dismissed. The trial is set to begin on 1 April 2012.

Revocation of Citizenship

Branko Rogan

Notice of the Minister's intent to make a report to the Governor-in-Council recommending the revocation of Mr. Rogan's citizenship was signed on May 25, 2007 by then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the honourable Diane Finley, and served on Mr. Rogan in August, 2007. The Notice alleged that Mr. Rogan had been admitted to Canada for permanent residence and had obtained Canadian citizenship by false representation or fraud or by knowingly concealing material circumstances in that he failed to divulge to Canadian immigration officials (i) his work in Bileca, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) in 1992, (ii) his position and duties as a reserve police officer and / or police officer and / or military member in Bosnia-Herzegovina during 1992, (iii) his activities during his service as a guard at detention facilities in Bileca and (iv) his participation in the mistreatment, assault and / or torture of detainees in detention facilities in Bileca.

Mr. Rogan exercised his option under section 18 of the Citizenship Act and requested the referral of his case to the Federal Court. The Minister initiated the proceedings by filing a Statement of Claim on October 3, 2007.

The trial commenced April 11, 2011, with hearings taking place on 13 days over a four week period. Mr. Rogan was not represented by counsel at the hearing, but did take the stand, providing evidence in chief and under cross-examination for a full day. At the end of the trial, Justice Mactavish reserved her decision.

The decision was rendered on August 18, 2011 (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Rogan, 2011 FC 1007). Justice Mactavish found that, when Mr. Rogan applied in 1994 to come to Canada, he had been untruthful with Canadian immigration and citizenship officials by concealing or providing misleading or false information related to his work history, his various places of residence, his work as a reserve police officer and guard at detention facilities in Bileca and his personal and knowing complicity in the commission of the crimes against humanity of persecution and "other inhumane acts".

In particular, Justice Mactavish concluded that Mr. Rogan had served as a reserve police officer and guard at two detention facilities in Bileca, BiH during the summer of 1992. Mr. Rogan was well aware that the detainees were being held simply because they were Muslim, the conditions within the detention facilities were inhumane and some of the detainees were being beaten and tortured, in conditions and under circumstances that amounted to crimes against humanity. Further, Justice Mactavish determined that Mr. Rogan, at a minimum, personally and knowingly facilitated, and was complicit in the beating of one of the detainees, Mr. Kljunak, and that, on a number of occasions, Mr. Rogan personally beat another detainee, Mr. Asim Catovic and intentionally inflicted serious psychological pain on Mr Catovic's son. She concluded that Mr. Rogan participated, both directly and indirectly, in the abuse of the Muslim prisoners in the facilities.