This is likely to be grist for the mill of Russian propaganda: Canada’s parliamentary speaker pays tribute to a Ukrainian SS man during Zelensky’s visit – and promptly has to apologize.
After violent protests, Canada’s Parliament Speaker Anthony Rota has apologized for honoring a Ukrainian SS veteran during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Ottawa.
“I would particularly like to express my deepest regret to the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world,” Rota said, according to Canadian media reports over the weekend. He takes full responsibility for his actions.
What happened?
As head of state of Ukraine, Zelensky visited Canada on Friday and spoke to parliament in Ottawa. A little later, the organization Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) expressed outrage that Rota had honored the 98-year-old Ukrainian immigrant Jaroslaw Hunka as a “Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran” who fought for Ukraine’s independence against Russia.
Rota did not mention that Hunka served in a Waffen-SS unit during the Second World War. Hunka was present in the chamber and received thunderous applause, according to the statement. According to Radio Canada, he lives in Rota’s constituency.
According to the FSCW, Hunka served in the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the Waffen-SS-Division Galizien. The SS, which was classified as a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials after the end of the war, had national associations in many occupied countries that were involved in war crimes. Canadian broadcaster CBC News reported that he tried in vain to reach Hunka.
Did Russia play into its hands?
Russian propaganda repeatedly tries to portray the war enemy Ukraine as “neo-Nazi.” She also refers to the Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), who temporarily collaborated with the Germans, was sentenced to death in absentia in the Soviet Union and murdered by a KGB agent in Munich.
The FSWC claims to be one of Canada’s leading human rights organizations. It is named after the Austrian Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005). Galicia is a historical landscape in western Ukraine and southern Poland, not to be confused with Galicia in northwestern Spain.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
