WATERLOO - Federal citizenship minister Ahmed Hussen says he won't give up trying to strip Helmut Oberlander of his citizenship for serving in a Nazi death squad.

"For me, it's a question of the integrity of the (immigration) system and denying safe haven to those who have committed crimes against humanity and genocide," he said Thursday while visiting the region.

If he succeeds where three previous governments have failed, will he then seek to deport Oberlander?

"There's a lot of ifs there. We're not there yet," Hussen said. "We'll wait to see what next steps unfold in the court process. I'll leave it at that."

The Liberal government revoked Oberlander's citizenship last year for the fourth time. Oberlander is appealing to the courts to get his citizenship back.

That's after courts ruled three previous governments got the law wrong in a controversial prosecution that has lasted 23 years, gone to court 15 times and cost taxpayers more than $2 million.

The former Waterloo developer served as an interpreter for a mobile squad that murdered at least 23,000 people, mostly Jews, in the former Soviet Union during the Second World War.

A Federal Court judge ruled last month that the government acted lawfully in revoking citizenship. Oberlander intends to appeal.

"The court has made the ruling that we believe is the right ruling," Hussen said. "We're studying the decision of the court but we're pleased with the result of the court case."

Oberlander is 94 and in failing health, and his conduct in Canada has been exemplary. No evidence has been presented in court that Oberlander personally committed atrocities.

The government argues that Oberlander contributed indirectly to the war crimes committed by his unit, allowing for prosecution under government policy. A court found that Oberlander lied about his wartime past to become a Canadian.

"People take citizenship very seriously, and our citizenship is very valuable," Hussen said.

"We will do whatever it takes to make sure that those who have committed genocide or crimes against humanity, or those have been objectively suspected to have committed genocide or crimes against humanity, that they don't get to enjoy the rights of citizenship, especially when that citizenship has been obtained through fraud or misrepresentation."

Hussen disagrees with critics who argue that by prosecuting Oberlander, the government is betraying its oft-repeated assertion that "a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian."

He rejects assertions by German-Canadian groups and others that the government is persecuting Oberlander unfairly.

"A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian means that there is no two-tier citizenship, that citizenship is valued, that people should be treated equally," Hussen said.

"But the point of citizenship is that we value the integrity of our citizenship system, and anyone who seeks to defraud that, we not only have the tools to detect that, but we also have the tools to combat immigration fraud and anything that attacks the integrity of our citizenship system."

A new law passed by the Liberal government means future citizenship revocations will be decided by the Federal Court and not by the government, unless the citizenship minister is asked to decide.

"The reasoning behind it, at least for those who advocated for it and we listened to them, is they said they wanted more procedural fairness," Hussen said.

"They felt that losing citizenship has such a huge impact on individuals that in the reforming of the Citizenship Act, we should provide more procedural fairness ... And we said OK."

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