The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is actively sifting through a “fairly large volume” of information related to war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine since 2014. Corporal Kate Walaszczyk, an experienced homicide investigator, is leading the RCMP’s probe, collecting and preserving evidence of possible crimes that could be used in future prosecutions. The RCMP launched its investigation over a year ago and has asked anyone with a Canadian connection who has information about potential war crimes to contact the force through a special web portal.
Canada is cooperating with its partners abroad, including the International Criminal Court (ICC), to ensure that those who commit heinous acts such as rape and mass killings are held accountable. The focus of the investigation is on the collection and preservation of evidence of possible crimes for use in prosecutions that could take place much later. The Mounties have also publicized the effort through posters and brochures aimed at people arriving in Canada in the initial waves fleeing Ukraine last year, and they have met others face-to-face in community meetings.
The RCMP is seeking information about acts of violence in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022, and in Crimea or the Donbas region since 2014 to assist the probe, conducted under the auspices of the federal War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity program. The investigators review and analyze the shared information, sometimes following up with individuals to gather more details. However, gaining the confidence of people from Eastern Europe, where authorities were not always trusted in the Communist era, is one of the challenges faced by the team.
The ubiquity of camera-equipped phones in the digital era means sifting through a lot of information and trying to ensure it is legitimate, said Walaszczyk. On the other hand, it can also make documenting an incident much easier. She compares examining disparate pieces of information to assembling a puzzle, much like she would as a homicide investigator, but on a bigger scale. “You don’t know if it’s important till you actually see the final picture.”
One element of the work is building chronologies that detail who was present in a given region of Ukraine at a particular time, information that can help investigators zero in on possible suspects. Walaszczyk is also seeking information from a wide range of people, including businesspeople, students, and even fighters in the war, who have observations or digital evidence such as photos or video.
Darryl Robinson, a law professor at Queen’s University who helped develop Canada’s war crimes legislation, praised the RCMP’s investigation effort. He noted that while it is one thing to interview witnesses and document their experiences, the harder part is proving who actually committed the crimes or who ordered them. Video and photographic evidence of such crimes is uncommon because perpetrators don’t collect evidence of their own misdeeds, but modern-day war crimes investigations have shown that soldiers often take videos and pictures of the crimes they are committing, he added.
Canadian prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity are quite rare, Robinson noted. Therefore, the more likely benefit from the RCMP initiative will be the assistance given to other bodies like the ICC or domestic Ukrainian prosecutors. Walaszczyk also points out that there are “other avenues” than criminal prosecution for war crimes to deal with perpetrators in Canada, including prosecution for immigration fraud, citizenship revocation, exclusion from refugee status, and extradition and surrender to an international tribunal.