"Wanted" posters aren’t seen much these days outside of Western films. But Canadian government officials are crowing over their recent success in repackaging this age-old law-enforcement tactic for the Internet age. On July 21st the country’s Border Services Agency (CBSA) put on its website the names and photos of 30 people it said were war criminals hiding in Canada, and asked for tips on their whereabouts. By July 29th, five of them had been arrested. They will soon be deported to their countries of origin. People "active or complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity can no longer hide in the shadows," proclaimed Vie Toews, the minister of public safety, after the fourth suspect was captured. He says he hopes to expand the cyber-posters to cover other categories of fugitives (逃犯) as well.
Observers outside the government have been a bit more cautious in evaluating the programme. First, the authorities have not disclosed whether the arrests depended on tips from people who saw the website, or whether the police were already on the suspects’ trail. Moreover, the list probably does not include any Ratko Mladics. It is thought to consist mostly of people who once belonged to security forces in countries where war crimes have been committed, such as Congo and Ghana, or have relatives that did. These individuals are guilty of immigration violations for failing to leave the country when their residency applications were rejected. But the government has not revealed any evidence directly tying them to specific violent actions.
Canada is little pretence of presuming the suspects’ innocence of these vague allegations. Although Mr. Toews insists that "we are not a finding of guilt or innocence", the CBSA website says that "it has been determined that the suspects violated human or international rights under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act or under international law." One man on the list, a Salvadoran army veteran named Francisco Manuel Hernández, moved to the United States in 1993 after Canada rejected his refugee application. He is now an American citizen and a pastor in New York. He is threatening to sue if CBSA does not remove his name and photo from its website.
Most importantly, if the government is right that vicious war criminals are on the loose in Canadian territory, it is shifting off its obligation to bring them to justice. Suspected war criminals from foreign conflicts can be tried under Canadian law. And if the government decides not to undertake that costly and lengthy process, it could still try to arrange extraditions (引渡), which would guarantee that the suspects would face trial elsewhere. Instead, Canada simply plans to put them on the first flight out and wash its hands of them. "It’s appalling the way they are handling it," says Jayne Stoyles, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice, a campaign group.
Canada’s immigration system can certainly be taken advantage of by visitors with unsavoury pasts. The country accepts around 250,000 "New Canadians" a year through a drawn-out process that makes it easy for applicants to disappear. In 2008 the government’s auditor-general reported that immigration officials had lost track of 41,000 rejected candidates. Ms. Stoyles estimates that as many as 2,000 alleged war criminals may be living in Canada. But the fight-wing government’s disinterest in determining these suspects’ guilt or innocence suggests that it is more concerned with courting anti-immigrant and law-and-order conservatives at home than with the fight for justice abroad.
Canada is little pretence of presuming the suspects’ innocence of these vague allegations.According to the passage, how does the Canadian government deal with the suspected war criminals