In an emotional and sometimes angry protest that was hailed as a firstin Montreal's Jewish community, 1,000 people rallied yesterday to demandswifter action against Nazi war criminals who have found refuge in Canada.

Organizers said the event signaled a new, more aggressive and less diplomaticapproach to the issue by Jewish leaders, whose community has been angeredby recent indications that more former Nazis than previously believed areliving in Canada.

"In recent months, the Canadian Jewish Congress has decided to changeits policy from one of quiet diplomacy to one of political action,"Myra Giberovitch, co-chairman of the Congress's National Holocaust RemembranceCommittee, acknowledged to the crowd at Place du Canada.

She credited this change in tack in large part to "the revelationsof Steven Rambam," a controversial New York private investigatorwho has interviewed dozens of alleged Nazi war criminals living in Canadaand tricked many into confessing to war crimes during World War II.

Ten years have passed since a federal law was passed to allow for prosecutionof war criminals here and a Royal Commission recommended action against20 suspects and investigation of 218 others. Since then, Ottawa has actedsuccessfully against only one suspect: it stripped Jacob Luitjens of hisCanadian citizenship in the early 1990s and deported him to face prosecutionin the Netherlands.

At yesterday's rally, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, speaker after speakercontrasted the ease with which some Nazis entered Canada with the roadblocksOttawa often threw in the way of Holocaust survivors who were seeking tobuild new lives here.

"Canada, a country which so efficiently and so brutally closed itsdoors to our brothers and sisters at wartime ... that same country miraculouslyopened its doors to the perpetrators of history's worst brutality,"Rabbi Reuben Poupko, a member of the Jewish Congress's war-crimes committee,told the crowd in a fiery speech.

Some speakers spoke pointedly of contemporary genocides in places likeRwanda and Bosnia, taking pains to emphasize that Nazi war criminals arenot just a "Jewish issue," but one that should be of concern Canadiansof all faiths. Laxity in dealing with Nazi war criminals here, only sendsothers elsewhere the message they can get away with mass murder, too justas Nazis took comfort in the ease with which Turks had committed genocideagainst Armenians earlier in the century, they said.

"In dealing appropriately with Nazi war criminals, Canada will showitself unwilling to harbour war criminals" from other nations, saidReisa Teitlebaum, chairman of the Jewish Congress's Quebec region.

As if to underline the universality of the theme, the Jewish leadersbrought an Anglican minister, David Oliver, to the podium, and noted thatJews had joined leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and EvangelicalLutheran churches as well as of the World Sikh Organization of Canada ina meeting in Toronto with Federal Justice Minister Allan Rock yesterdayto demand swifter action on the issue.

Rock told the multifaith delegation that more people suspected of beingNazi war criminals will find themselves before the courts. The best waywe can honour the memory of those who died, the best way we can providecomfort to those who survived ... is to take action," Rock said afteran unprecedented meeting with a dozen religious leaders. "I am surewe have not done enough."

Congress president Goldie Hershon hailed that meeting as a first "sincethe end of World War II," saying it proved the issue "is not justa matter of Jewish interest but a matter of interest to all Canadians."

Rambam, however, struck a different note. The U.S. investigator, whodrew heavy applause after being presented with an award of merit, assertedthe issue is a particularly Jewish one.

"This is an issue of Jewish honour, and what is a Jewish life worth,and how cheap is Jewish blood," declared Rambam, who claims to havetracked down 161 war criminals in Canada in 21/2 years of research.

Holocaust survivor Klauber Imre, 73, who lost his mother and three quartersof his family to the death camps, was among the crowd of Jewish warveterans,students and others at the rally.

"Never again," he said quietly as the crowd dispersed. "Neveragain. This is going to be on my tombstone. Because in my family there weremany killed small children, too."

Since 1995, Ottawa has named 12 people in denaturalization and deportationproceedings for misrepresenting their past as alleged Nazi collaborators.Two of the accused have died, leaving 10 cases outstanding.

"Canada, a country which so efficiently and so brutally closed itsdoors to our brothers and sisters at wartime ... that same country miraculouslyopened its doors to the perpetrators of history's worst brutality,"Rabbi Reuben Poupko, a member of the Jewish Congress's war-crimes committee,told the crowd in a fiery speech.

Some speakers spoke pointedly of contemporary genocides in places likeRwanda and Bosnia, taking pains to emphasize that Nazi war criminals arenot just a "Jewish issue," but one that should be of concern Canadiansof all faiths. Laxity in dealing with Nazi war criminals here, only sendsothers elsewhere the message they can get away with mass murder, too justas Nazis took comfort in the ease with which Turks had committed genocideagainst Armenians earlier in the century, they said.

"In dealing appropriately with Nazi war criminals, Canada will showitself unwilling to harbour war criminals" from other nations, saidReisa Teitlebaum, chairman of the Jewish Congress's Quebec region.

As if to underline the universality of the theme, the Jewish leadersbrought an Anglican minister, David Oliver, to the podium, and noted thatJews had joined leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and EvangelicalLutheran churches as well as of the World Sikh Organization of Canada ina meeting in Toronto with Federal Justice Minister Allan Rock yesterdayto demand swifter action on the issue.

Rock told the multifaith delegation that more people suspected of beingNazi war criminals will find themselves before the courts. The best waywe can honour the memory of those who died, the best way we can providecomfort to those who survived ... is to take action," Rock said afteran unprecedented meeting with a dozen religious leaders. "I am surewe have not done enough."

Congress president Goldie Hershon hailed that meeting as a first "sincethe end of World War II," saying it proved the issue "is not justa matter of Jewish interest but a matter of interest to all Canadians."

Rambam, however, struck a different note. The U.S. investigator, whodrew heavy applause after being presented with an award of merit, assertedthe issue is a particularly Jewish one.

"This is an issue of Jewish honour, and what is a Jewish life worth,and how cheap is Jewish blood," declared Rambam, who claims to havetracked down 161 war criminals in Canada in 21/2 years of research.

Holocaust survivor Klauber Imre, 73, who lost his mother and three quartersof his family to the death camps, was among the crowd of Jewish warveterans,students and others at the rally.

"Never again," he said quietly as the crowd dispersed. "Neveragain. This is going to be on my tombstone. Because in my family there weremany killed small children, too."

Since 1995, Ottawa has named 12 people in denaturalization and deportationproceedings for misrepresenting their past as alleged Nazi collaborators.Two of the accused have died, leaving 10 cases outstanding.