The Tale of Omar and Helmut — A Call to Action!
Several decades ago, there was boy named Omar, Omar Khadr to be exact. Omar Khadr was one of the offspring of the Khadr family, Canada’s first family of terrorism — the much married, niqab wearing and mouthy sister Zaynab has featured frequently in this newsletter. Father Ahmed, an Egyptian, was a jihadist and major fundraiser for Osama bin Ladin. He hated Canada as a corrupt society, except as a source of welfare and medicare. At one point, having Canadian citizenship safely in his back pocket, he moved the family to a more congenial religious tyranny in Afghanistan, but not for long. He and several sons, including the then 15-year old Omar went actively jihading — a nice term for committing terrorism — and, in 2002, got into a firefight with some American soldiers. Papa Ahmed was killed. Young Omar tossed some grenades, killing one U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer and a blinding a second U.S. soldier in one eye. Omar was captured and shipped off to Guantanamo. Years passed and he eventually pled guilty to the charges of killing and wounding. The Harper government reluctantly interceded. Omar was cut some slack as a young offender with a vile father. He received eight years and returned to Canada to serve the rest of his sentence. He got early release and, with the ingratitude that is a family tradition, promptly sued the Canadian government. The Islamo-friendly Trudeau regime offered him a secret $10.5-million payment, secret so that the widow of the wounded U.S. soldier could not pre-emptively sue for damages. So, at 32, Omar whose family has been nothing but a drain on this land, swaggers around a free man and multi-millionaire and a great favourite of the fawning CBC.
Now, back in 1941, as World War II raged around him, there was a 17-year old boy named Helmut, Helmut Oberlander. Helmut Oberlander lived in the Ukraine when German forces invaded. He was Volksdeutche, that is, part of a German minority who had settled there in the 18th century. Young Helmut spoke Russian, Ukrainian and German and, thus, was useful to the German army as a translator. He was seconded to a SD Einheit (Security Unit) of the German Army. After the war, he went to Germany and trained as a bricklayer and construction engineer. In 1954, he emigrated to Canada and worked for the next few years in the construction trade. In 1958, he formed his own construction company Oberlander Construction and was instrumental in the building explosion in the Kitchener-Waterloo region over the next four decades. Mr. Oberlander was an exemplary and contributing citizen, paying handsome taxes and employing many people.
His legal torment began in 1994, when, in response to persistent Jewish lobbying to refight World War II, the government of the day sought to strip Mr. Oberlander of his citizenship on the basis that he must have lied to obtain entry to Canada as membership in units like the SD Einheit made him ineligible since they were implicated in killing some civilians. However, it was not as simple. It quickly became clear that Mr. Oberlander had committed no war crimes. He was a youthful translator. Potential immigrants were supposed to be asked about their wartime service. So, it is assumed that Mr. Oberlander lied. However, numerous people who immigrated at the time recall that, shortly after the war, RCMP interrogators no longer asked about wartime service but only about membership in the communist party. Could Mr. Oberlander be held responsible for not volunteering information he was not asked for? There is no longer any paper record. The notes from the interviews of the time have long since been destroyed. Indeed, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on Mr. Oberlander’s part. In contrast, there are the 61 years of Mr. Oberlander’s entrepreneurship and contribution to Canada — in other words, evidence of a solid, exemplary, contributing citizen!
Why the singleminded obsession with the deportation of this 96 year old man? It’s hard not to draw a parallel with the treatment of ex-terrorist Omar Khadr. Like Mr. Oberlander his wartime actions started when he was what we would now call a “young offender”. But Mr. Oberlander committed no crime; while Mr. Khadr killed an American soldier and partially blinded another. Yet, Canada has bent over backwards for Mr. Khadr, citing his youthful status at the time, and rewarding him with what was to be a secret $10.5-million settlement. Mr. Khadr had contributed nothing to Canada. In contrast, Mr. Oberlander who never committed a crime has made an outstanding contribution to Canada as a model immigrant.
After a 24 year legal battle, German immigrant and highly successful businessman Helmut Oberlander faces deportation from Canada. He has been stripped of his Canadian citizenship and faces removal. His case, with numerous appeals, has wended its way through the courts for almost a quarter of a century, at obscene costs to the Canadian taxpayer, to say nothing of the costs to Mr. Oberlander. While Omar has been the beneficiary of the Islamophilia of the Trudeau government, Helmut has been the victim of the relentless and powerful Jewish lobby that has targetted him for decades in their mania to refight WW II. With disproportionate influence in the media, business and politics, the Jewish lobby, though representing less than one per cent of the population, is powerful while the far more numerous German community is passive, seeking only to work hard and fit in. German bashing, and Helmut certainly is a victim of that, pays political dividends and wins the applause of much of the poodle press.
A crucial moment in the Oberlander ordeal occurred in July, 2001 when then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Elinor Caplan,makes her recommendation to the Governor in Council to revoke Mr. Oberlander’s Canadian Citizenship, which was done. Mrs. Caplan was an outspoken Zionist and had been awarded the Yad Vashem Woman of the year award. In 1999, she had announced that she her role was not to be “a gatekeeper” as six rusty boatloads of Chinese illegals landed in British Columbia. She invoked the memory of the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jews from Germany in the spring of 1939, which both Canada and the U.S., mired in the huge unemployment of the Great Depression, refused to allow to land. Caplan clearly let her group loyalties cloud her judgement as she was only too glad to try to get rid of one old kraut. Mr. Oberlander appealed to the courts and the battle continued.
A recent article in the Israeli National News (March 6, 2019) reveals the relentless fanaticism of this group’s obsession to deport a productive, contributing citizen whose only crime is having fought on the wrong side in a war nearly three quarters of a century ago! “Last November, after [Helmut Oberlander] lost his fourth appeal against the government’s decision to strip him of his Canadian citizenship, B’nai Brith Canada launched a petition urging Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale to imme
ACTION NEEDED!
You might have heard that Helmut Oberlander was not allowed to appeal the decision to take away his
citizenship for the fourth time. Previously, when he appealed, he always won. Now the Canadian
Government changed the rules, and he was turned away from the Appeals Court. (he would have been
allowed to go to the Appeals Court if the Government wouldn’t have blocked it)
This means that the Canadian Government can basically start proceedings to deport him. The whole
thing is a miscarriage of justice, if there is any. This is not a war crimes issue, because Mr. Oberlander
was cleared of that many years ago. it is a basic human rights issue.
In order to stop the Government from deporting him we must act by writing letters to the different
ministers. Can you please help Mr. Oberlander by doing that as soon as possible, because time is
running out. A template of a letter is attached to this email. Please change it slightly so not all letters
look the same. You can find the whole history of the case at
https://www.dkkont.org/files/HistoryOberlander181010.pdf.
The best would be if you send your letters by email and follow up with a hard copy by mail.
Below are the addresses of the different ministers the letter should go to.
Email:
Mailing addresses:
| Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, c/o Office of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister`s Office; 80 Wellington St., Ottawa, ON., K1A 0A2 Honourable Minister Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON., K1A 0A6
|
Honourable Bardish Chagger,
House Leader,
Room 107, Confederation Building,
Ottawa, On.,
K1A 0A6
Raj Saini, MP,
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario,
K1A 0A6